Daughter Dropped By Tonight

I forgot to mention that daughter called and asked if I'd watch grandson for a half hour while she exercised. I wasn't wanting to go out so I invited her to bring him over here. She brought over the Speed Racer DVD that he was watching and he was content to watch that and look at some kid's magazines I had found in the non-return box of Mesa Public Library's lobby. His face had been painted today at Y camp but it was mostly smeared off. He took home the Boy's Life which he really likes. I went throught the pile of books that I had found for him and determined that most of them are not easy readers so I'll dump them back in the library lobby tomorrow. The Clarks sandals that I gave her fit. They were hardly ever used and too tight on me. I'm happy that they fit her.

Norm's talk at Livermore went well yesterday. He comes home tomorrow, is home a week, and then goes back east to use up a free airplane ticket. He'll see a Yankees baseball game with his brother Andy. He may know more next week about the change of station.

Tschicoma Trip

Gonna try to speed type this one. Twelve hikers. FR144 road conditions from Española very good. Saw evidence of wood debris in places across road that indicated a fallen tree had been cut up and removed. No snow on the road. On walk to Tschicoma, encountered some remnant snow drifts in the woods but followed in other's footsteps and didn't sink in or slip. On final steep uphill on Tschicoma I was amazed that I wasn't huffing and puffing but felt very strong. I wonder if the iron pills are helping but I also doubled the amount of B12 and added one more folic acid tablet a week. Whatever the case, I was pleased. I had been in the last group in the woods because it's tricky getting around and over the snowbanks and fallen, twisted, tangled heaps of trees but once we broke out in the open, I decided to go for some elevated heart rate and my heart cooperated!! The Asics Gel Nimbus, while not the ideal shoe for off trail hiking as it's a road running shoe, worked perfectly since they're brand new and the tread isn't at all worn down. Funny thing is that those shoes killed my feet on the Bayo Canyon/Fireline walk (didn't use the Hapad Comf Orthotic insoles) and on an evening walk downtown (did use the insoles and did use them today too). My foot felt 100% normal today and even the heel spur didn't pain me.

We all went to the south side of Tschicoma to look at the views but no one wanted to eat there because it was windy although there was a spot that was out of the wind and warmer yet had views. They all ate in the trees on the hillside beneath the trails leading east from the top of Tschicoma. I took one look at the official lunch spot and decided that I'd be happier eating on the side that has the views of Polvadera and Pedernal. I wanted to be visible so I'd see when they started down. The wind didn't bother me but eating without views would have.

On the long drive home (we went back via FR99 to Youngsville), the guys I rode with got into discussing politics. They seemed mostly to be staunch Republicans. At one point they said they dreaded having the Democrats get into office and spending like crazy and running up deficits. I piped up that when Clinton left office, there was no deficit. They countered that he didn't have the expenses of a war. I think I made my point well. Later, Jim that his dog would make a better VP candidate than Hillary but I kept my mouth shut and didn't laugh at the comment. I mostly tried to stay out of it and when they mentioned disappointment about Heather Wilson's loss to Steve Pearce I didn't tell them how much I hoped Udall would win.

Last night I only got 6 hours of sleep again - 12:30-6:30am. Before the alarm rang, I was dreaming of living in a condo and I was so happy because I didn't have a yard, it was newer, and I had less house maintenance to do. But, I felt sad that we had to leave our neighbors whose girls our daughter played with as she grew up.

Also, I had this thought about last night's dendro meeting. I am so lucky that I have gotten to know more about the Valles Caldera from the people I've been around on the VCNP rim trail project. I can tell that the dendro people mostly haven't gotten to be around the caldera as much as I have. I feel very privileged and grateful.

Savor the Shade

Went this afternoon up FR181 from West Jemez Road to intersection at meadow. There's now a fuelwood cutting area in that section called Valles 2. I passed a "roped" off area (using plain wire at chest level marked with red flags) on the west side of the road before FR2997 that has "Caution, Do Not Enter" signs posted - just a small area but have no idea why it's posted.

Pink flowers of NM locust were abundant. Such a pretty shrub but hard to walk through without bleeding a lot.

I did savor the wind and small spots of shade over the trail.

On yesterday's explore, I ate a violet flower and part of a violet leaf. The plant tastes good but I don't want to tear up violet patches to snack on them as they look much prettier growing on the ground. I also ate a dandelion flower because I heard they're edible. Ed, VCNP hiking buddy, says his mother loves to eat dandelion greens. He was hoping to gather some but the high altitude dandelions are very stingy with their greens. I told him that Whole Foods sells them and they are delicious in smoothies. I would like to find some dandelion blossoms that are unsprayed and use them in smoothies as they must be full of lutein and zeaxanthin. They tasted fine but I think they'd be best ground up in smoothies. NM locust flowers are edible also but I doubt they have as much carotenoids as the brightly colored dandelion flowers so I left all the locust flowers on the shrubs.

I am concluding that this was a very good year for people who hate ticks. I haven't seen a one so far. Nasty critters!!

Thankfully the dendroglyph meeting tonight was over before 8:30pm. I was getting dizzy from all the forms Colleen was handing out!! She is very sincere and sweet but I will reserve my opinion if I'm suited for this volunteer project until I've actually done it several times. I suspect that Archie, another of the team members, is a smoker as he went outside briefly and then came back inside. He grew up in the San Antonio cabin so he could be interesting to talk to.

Hi Daughter,

I made my journal blog public if you'd like to get really bored:

Don't share it with anyone. I just wanted you to know the web address. For now, I'm much more consistent at keeping an online journal than I ever was at the composition book journals although you will find that there is a lot of those to read too (in a box in my bedroom closet)!

: )

Love,

Mom

I Need an Early to Rise Hiking Partner

OK, so it would help if I were early to rise too. I went to bed at 1:30am last night trying to catch up after being gone on the north rim all day and woke up naturally at 8am.

Anyhow...here's a few more hikes and explores I'd like to do one day. Other people want to travel the world but I'll be happy getting to know some local terrain.

Water Canyon Mesa loop and explores of all trails between Pajarito Acres and Water Canyon

Pajarito Mountain to explore top of destroyed Pajarito Canyon Trail

Knife-edge to Pajarito Mountain

Cerro Grande's meadows beneath it's eastern arm

I called a few roofers this morning. Los Alamos Roofing could have come out today but I didn't want to be tied down so I said that Thursday would be good. LP roofing, the one who reroofed the house 13 years ago, will call me about looking at the problem. They tried to fix the leak after it was reroofed but weren't successful. I called Tower.com and they emailed me a label to return the defective yoga DVD. I called Don's Windows and Doors and they'll call back about the cost for a service call to replace one of our double pane windows that has moisture inside and that's still under warranty. OK, so I drop off the DVD at the post office, after I package it up, drop in at the library, and drop off at daughter's workplace some Envirokidz peanut butter bars I bought for grandson, and then finally I get to do my daily 4 miles and test the Asics Gel Nimbus some more. The New Balance 908's are OK but even with the Hapad Comf Orthotic, my heel spur hurts afterwards.

I have to email daughter that this is now an open blog and she's free to read it and get bored to death!! : )

Even though I'm tired I'm happy to be alive. The dendroglyph project meeting should be interesting this evening but, if I'm lucky, I may get to play hooky from the first session next Tuesday as Dorothy may get me invited on a field trip to see the Leese cabin on the VCNP!!

North Rim Explore

Not sure how much I'll write tonight as it's late. Got up at 6:30am after only 6 hours of sleep. Was having horrible dreams of plumbing backups - had to pee. Felt like death warmed over but tea and cocoa powder revived me except was falling asleep on car ride home. Three of us went. One VCNP hiking partner drove around the northwest corner. We didn't get started back until around 4:30pm and I got back to the house around 7pm and didn't get on the computer until maybe 10pm. Still have to do stretches and put away dishes.

Tomorrow I will just do my 4 miles as expeditiously as possible because then Wednesday I want to go to the LL hike which will be on the north rim again - Tschicoma. And there is the dendroglyph meeting at 7pm tomorrow.

A few words about today's explore and the emphasis is on few as I can see I won't be going to bed before 1am at this rate.

Dorothy gave us a copy of the permission letter to the Valles Caldera National Preserve but it clearly states on it that there will be only two more trips on the north rim and that includes today's and next Monday's trips; yet, she wants us to find a road on the VCNP that goes from the Garita View over to the Hilton Gate - something like a straight shot superhighway if I understood her correctly. We're supposed to contact her ahead of time about any trips.

Promised few words about explore. What can I say - it was beautiful, much cooler than in the hot lowlands. We achieved Dorothy's objective of finding the row of cliffs she saw from the west rim and we ate lunch there, enjoying splendid views into Valle San Antonio. It was windy at our perch but a pleasant not an icy wind.

We saw some magenta colored Fairy Slippers - really pretty. I may have heard the Hermit Thrush's song. One of us spotted a tent located on the VCNP with big containers of water stored nearby.

We go next week to check out a milepost above the Rito de los Indios drainage. We waded through the upper reaches of the Rio Cebolla. I wasn't wearing Gore-Tex so my socks got a little damp and I discovered at lunch that to save a few ounces I had taken out my spare socks. I have put them back in. I bought a pair of Gore-Tex Merrells at REI but right now I have my hands full with trying to figure out which of the Roadrunner shoes work for my feet.

On the way home, everyone appreciated the snacks that I brought along. Next week I should bring drinks in a cooler as well as snacks.

Hungry Coyotes Roaming Downtown

I forgot to mention that I saw a coyote crossing north near the library from Central Avenue with something large and white in it's mouth. Whatever it was wasn't moving. The coyote was crossing from the library's east parking lot and through the Betty Ehart Senior Center's parking lot toward the senior condos.

Long Day and Ditto Tomorrow

Dropped spouse off at airport in Albuquerque for conference in Livermore. He'll be back late Thursday night and then we'll go together to the White Rock Senior Center hike in Cebolla Canyon.

An aside to put roof leak in perspective, Paul, a WRSC hiker, says that his roof has leaked around the skylight ever since he's had the house and that it seems to be getting worse. Someone else on the hike recommended Los Alamos Roofing - says they're expensive but good. They have a AAA rating and no complaints with Better Business Bureau.

Went to REI to pick up 2 shoes and bought 2 more. I'm going crazy with trying to find a pair of shoes that my feet like. Still evaluating the 4 from Roadrunner Sports - have 2 months to decide and forever to decide with REI but hopefully it won't take that long!!

Stopped at Santa Fe Place to return 2 pairs New Balance's that I bought online - too tight. It took quite a while for them to figure out how to make the return. Then on to Walmart to buy a new living room clock - spouse accidentally sat on the old one!! : ) Also bought toilet paper and laundry detergent. Wanted to buy wide mouth quart mason jars to store my powders for smoothies - wheat grass, spinach, rosehips, etc. - but they were out of stock.

Last stop was Vitamin Cottage. Organic Granny Smith apples way overpriced but I didn't realize price until checked out because price sign (produce manager) was missing. I needed them for my smoothies and they were out of red delicious.

Walked on Mesa Trail and downtown, listening to taped Prairie Home Companion Show - they were in Las Cruces for the show this week. Finally remembered to look up at Big Dipper's handle and follow its arc to Arcturus per Stargazer's advice!! Need to do stretches and get ready for bed.

Dateline Tsankawi: In Search of the Lost Temple

We watched grandson this morning while ex-son-in-law, and his fianceé went to a friend's wedding. We took him to Tsankawi and he had fun searching for the lost temple a la Indiana Jones style. We did the whole loop - only 1.63 miles as clocked by my GPS. It was hot - he kept taking off his hat because, as he said, his hair felt like it had gel in it. It was really funny to see him on the mesa top ruin, overturning a few of the jumble of shaped building blocks in search of a lizard he had seen hide within. He enjoyed checking out the caves on the shelf trail beneath the ruin. It turns out that he's an excellent reader - he was able to read all the signs at Tsankawi to us. Boy Scouts were doing a service project repainting a lot of the signs but he could easily and fluidly read the signs that were up, sounding out perfectly the unfamiliar words like "research".

This afternoon I finished my four miles by parking on West Jemez Road near the water tanks and taking the Perimeter Trail over to Water Canyon and up canyon to Sawmill Meadow and back. Just as I got ready to go up out of Water Canyon onto the Perimeter Trail, a woman and her two dogs came down the trail. Both dogs were off leash although she was holding leashes and may have been trying to corral them but they got away and came charging and barking at me. I kept my hands raised at chest level because I've had dogs nip my dangling hands. She caught up to them and said "They won't hurt you, " and, though doubting her veracity, I said "OK" and continued on my way.

Alamo Boundary Trail

I hiked with the White Rock Senior Center group today. I met them at the Alamo Boundary trailhead on Dome Road. There were 12 people - unusually large for this group. There was a couple I had never seen on the hike before who brought a guest visiting them from Palmdale, CA. She seemed to really like the area. I talked with her toward the end of the hike and really enjoyed the conversation. She had heard of the book by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight. She told me that Jill's website has clips of when Jill was on Oprah. I want to look at those one day. I'm really enjoying the book. Her stroke made her completely right brained for a while. She's healed now but doesn't want to lose the positive aspects of right brainness and wants to teach people both stroke awareness and awareness of the personality of our right and left brains. She has a really easy to understand section on brain anatomy with reference to her stroke.

I didn't get the California woman's name but I mentioned to her in our conversation, in the context of Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way that she had mentioned, that I had been listening to an Eagles song on the car drive and began crying because I realized that I had always wanted to be a singer and move people's emotions and then I thought that perhaps I didn't want to pursue singing now but I could write poetry that would move people. (Of course, my procrastination talents being so highly developed, don't expect a book of poetry any time soon! : ) Then she told me that when she was 62, she decided she would be a singer/songwriter and made some music. She was a ballerina at one time in New York City. What an interesting person!!

We walked 3.56 miles per my GPS, going a little onto the Coyote Call Trail. We enjoyed the caldera views but couldn't see any elk or cows. One hiker said the cows are in there already.

Susi, a hiker from the LL group who I hadn't seen for a long time, came on the hike. She's all healed up from her knee replacements and broken toe.

After the group left, I walked in a little on the logging road toward Misty Meadow for a total of 5.26 miles. At the parking lot, looking up at Scooter Peak and Rabbit Ridge, I didn't want to leave all that lovely peace!

After the hike, I went to the Jemez House Thrift Shop and bought a Glenn Miller Christmas cassette, a Bing Crosby White Christmas cassette, a Nat King Cole cassette, and a paperback by Dr. James Duke, The Green Pharmacy. First I went to MPL and picked up some magazines for daughter from the non-return box. After the thrift shop, I went to Smith's and bought strawberries, shredded cabbage, baby carrots, spring mix with herbs, and 6 packages of the $4.99 a pound wild sockeye salmon. I'm poaching one of the packages tonight. I liked that I could buy them frozen and just pop them in the freezer for later use.