Scraggly Little Skunk

I got started going up the the Route around 2:30pm. Thunder was rumbling and there was overcast but nothing developed.

Dispatched a fallen snag near Paintball Road. At first, I turned it into a teeter totter - the top of the snag had broken off and fallen against the bottom - but I was easily able to rectify the situation although I left the heavier end pointed up although it seemed stable.

Near FR2998, I encountered a scraggly little skunk. It was so small, I barely noticed it in time as it stood on the dirt road with its tail upraised. I skirted widely past it as it all the while swiveled around to keep it's tail aimed at me. At a good distance, I stopped and looked back at that skinny jot of a skunk and mused on how, out in the open like it was, it had more to worry about from a predator than from me. It looked so underfed that I felt sorry for it.

When I got back to the Ocean, the sun came out and the whole landscape glistened in the long, golden rays of afternoon.

A Walk on the Wild Ridge

On Thursday's hike up Cerro Grande, I got the idea that I wanted to go up Rabbit Mountain so I did today.

I started around 10:40am and got back to the car around 2:50pm. According to my GPS, I walked a grand total of 5.45 miles. I saw no one else on the Rabbit Ridge Road or on top of Rabbit Ridge. The weather held fantastically - no thunderstorms or threat of them for the whole trek.

A few aspens are already showing the beginnings of the fall color change. Shrubs and forbs are already turning yellow and red. Autumn is the most beautiful time of year! There is such a feeling and anticipation of change in the air. It enlivens me and even somewhat saddens me. The sadness comes from knowing that nothing is permanent, including me. The enlivenment is from the joy of seeing another autumn and the beauty of the transformed landscape.

On top of Rabbit Ridge, I heard a breaking branch and saw two elk bolting downhill - hard for me to see through the trees whether cow or bull. Later, I heard a bull elk bugle - a shrill sound, almost mechanical-like. These wild occurences didn't scare me; in fact, I enjoyed them.

I did get scared, though, when I heard what sounded like soft footsteps and then a sound like the stomach makes when it has hunger pains. It could have been a bird because nothing jumped out at me. I was in an area near one of the felsenmeers that's hemmed in by bushes - this made me nervous!

I kept a steady pace, taking water and bathroom breaks and peeks at the GPS at the felsenmeers. The backside meadows on Rabbit Ridge are very golden and there are views to the south of St. Peter's Dome, Cerro Picacho, Cerro Boletas and Cochiti Lake.

On the way to Rabbit Mountain, I counted 4 felsenmeers and one bump that didn't appear to have a felsenmeer.

I didn't linger on top of Rabbit Mountain's extensive felsenmeer. I had decided not to retrace my steps along Rabbit Ridge and I was going to go down through the woods right beside and east of Rabbit Mountain but as I stopped at the top, poised to start down, I heard this awful roaring ruckus down below. It sounded like an angry bear! I really don't know what it was but it was not an elk bugling.

Instead, I walked a little further on the ridge down to the grassy saddle at the base of the high hill just east of Rabbit Mountain. The woods below looked open and I saw patches of sunlight. I didn't hear any distressing sounds so I started down.

I used my compass the guide me mostly north back to NM4 where my car was parked. I picked my way down to the west side of the next felsenmeer over from Rabbit Mountain and crossed it where it was narrower.

Eventually I hit a long-abandoned logging road and then was able to follow old logging roads, past series of stumps and meadows, to Rabbit Ridge Road. Deal was, though, that I thought it was another road that turns off from Rabbit Ridge Road so I turned right but when I started going uphill, I pulled out my GPS and saw my mistake. As I went downhill to the intersection with the Coyote Call Trail, I surprised a turkey in the road and as it ran away, head bobbing, I saw there were about 6 altogether. I wonder - where do turkeys go in the winter? They don't look strong enough to over-winter and I don't think they fly.

I didn't have my Coker lunch until I was on the Coyote Call Trail and almost back to the final meadow above Valle Grande. I didn't want to attract whatever was bellowing in those woods. ; D

Thinking back on the hike, I'm happy I did it and proud that I made it to the top of Rabbit Mountain but, even though I was appreciating the beauty of the ridge and the views as I walked along, I didn't linger because since I was alone, I felt the need to keep moving along.

I would have liked to have done this hike with someone but no one was available. But, I did, after all, get in two group hikes this week so I should be happy!

Stopped by daughter's this evening to see her adorable new kitty that she adopted from the animal shelter. Grandson was busy on the computer designing a Lego jet plane with a swiveling gun turret on top. There were an empty Swizzlers and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup wrappers next to the computer. He had a cola drink that he was swigging from. He now goes to the Activity Center one day a week and as a treat, gets some money to spend.

Daughter was baking a cake for get-together tomorrow with in-laws. The cake overflowed and she made jokes about how it was out to get her. Aidan enjoyed licking the icing off the mixer beaters! I remember doing that as a kid except there were 5 of us that had to share! We loved it when our Mom made cream puffs and we were allowed to gobble up the soft dough inside the puff pastry before she stuffed it with pudding.

Whole Body Exercise and a Note on the White Rock Rim Trail

I've figured out a new way to keep in shape: Go out in the woods and rip NM locusts out of the ground. I have sore muscles that indicate this is a good, whole body exercise. Something about the combination of bending over and pulling up as hard as you can is what does it!

Maybe I could go in the backyard and pickup cinder blocks? They are a little bulky though and I'd probably drop one on my toes. Another idea is to lay a piece of clothesline under some heavy weights and pull up. The weights would have to be really heavy or this might have unintended consequences like the weight flying up into my face. If all else fails, there are some good, whole body weightlifting moves that involve bending over and pulling up like Deadlifts.

Walked with spouse on White Rock Rim Trail today. Went to bench overlooking Pajarito Canyon and turned around but on the way back, took short side trip down to bench trail below the White Rock Rim Trail. Saw lots of coyote scat, including a bright red pile. Prickly pear is fruiting now which that explains the technicolor. Maybe the trail could be called Coyote Gordo because the wild canines using it are certainly well-fed!

I only followed the trail to where it goes past piles of huge basalt boulders and than the trail tread crosses directly on top of torturously rough basalt. I've followed it further in the past to where it looks like there could be a way down to the next bench level above the Rio Grande.

On the way back to where spouse waited, I noticed an area with willows and denser shrubbery that looked almost oasis-like compared to the sparse vegetation around. On top, I noted a corresponding area directly above the lusher area that also had willows and less arid-looking vegetation than the usual piñons and junipers. I couldn't really see any water but there has to be a spring that's making those willows thrive.

I've Been Working on the the Route

All the live long day! I've been working on the the Route just to pass the time away!

Yesterday and today, I put in hours pulling out NM locust by the roots and sawing off what I couldn't pull it out. Those plants are tough!

Picture me bending over, holding the trunk of the prickly locust with one hand and furiously hacking at it with my tiny saw, all the while worrying a mountain lion will pounce. Chances of that are probably pretty slim, especially since today's work was within sight of a paved road but it pays to be aware! ; D I much preferred the ones I could yank out of the ground but, boy, it was back-breaking work even then because some of them required heavy-duty pulling and always with both hands!

My wonderful work gloves from Walmart have holes in the left-hand fingers so I got lots of thorns that will work themselves out over the next week (that is, the microscopic ones I couldn't see well enough to dig out). In the meantime, my fingertips are sore! I threw out the Walmart gloves and have an unused pair that Los Alamos County gave away Earth Day 2008 for picking up trash.

Yesterday, I picked up a large Bed, Bath and Beyond bag full of trash from a beer party at a road near the Ocean. Today's trash was minor but the locusts were much more numerous. Anyway, this ought to hold it until next fall when I'll pillage the locusts again. There are still loads more but they aren't growing in the middle of the trail or overlapping the sides.

It was so strangely quiet up there today. It was cloudy which was great because it kept the temps down. Maybe clouds muffle the sound. I didn't get started until a little after 1pm and didn't get back to the car until a little after 5pm. No rain at all today even though it looked like it could rain a lot. I only walked two miles total because I only had half of the four mile roundtrip Route to clean up. I more than made up the mileage earlier in the week! Besides, it was pretty strenuous tangling with those locusts!

The Route Yesterday and Alamo Canyon Rim Today

Went up the Route in the woods south of Camp May Road yesterday. Several times it looked like there would be a terrific thunderstorm but I got off scot free each time. Could see it was raining to the south.

Saw that someone has attached orange and yellow flagging with clothespins and it follows part of the Route. The orange flagging says that it's for a search and rescue dog training aid and please don't disturb. It comes in from Shotgun Shell parking and Paintball and goes a little ways past where the white RV parks off of Paintball Road. Felt lonely at beginning but fine at end.

Today was spouse's Friday off. We went to Bandelier to walk to the rim of Alamo Canyon. GPS says it was 7 miles total. Went up Frijolito and down Long Trail. Beautiful day - sunny but not too hot with some breezes. Regaled spouse with tales of the heyday of the LL gang going over to Stone Lions, in and out of Alamo Canyon, and how our leader would "salt" the trail with candy to sweeten the climb out of Alamo Canyon. We'd all take a long rest stop before the 3 mile trek back to park headquarters.

Saw one other hiker as we crested the top of the Frijolito Trail. Saw a small bear hightailing it away from us near Corral Hill.

WI Hike: Townsite Lift to Rim Run

A lot of people showed up. Someone counted 26. I started out talking with a woman I hike with but then I decided to go for the elevated heart rate and went up Evershine Ridge at a steady pace, saying hi here and there.

I wasn't the fastest. Someone's ex-hubby visiting from California was faster but he eventually stopped to see which way the rest of the group was going. A hiker had earlier told me the plan was to go up so I continued but then stopped to talk with an older hiker who was behind me. She recently fell off her bike and the pedal jammed the back of her hamstring. She was doing OK on the way up (obviously, because she was the nearest one behind me and no one was ahead of us!) I walked with her up the bicycle trail to the back of the mountain where all the retention pond construction for the snow-making project is occurring.

We waited at the Jules Sunier memorial picnic deck and soon her husband and a hiker who had her hip replaced in January joined us. They were ready for lunch but I wasn't hungry yet so I followed a short, steep trail above the picnic deck to the Yeamans Memorial Bench on the south side of Pajarito Mountain.

To my delight and surprise, I found that someone has cut the top 3 strands of barbed wire on a corner section of the Valles Caldera National Preserve fence near the bench. I carefully moved the barbed wire strands aside and put a big rock on the two bottom strands, stepped over, took some photos and then went back down to encourage the group to come up for the views. They seemed bent on eating at the picnic tables so I went back up again and sat on a rock on the VCNP side and enjoyed the views.

I decided not to go back down to rejoin them but just continued on over to Rim Run. At the Mother Lift, I saw a group of 3 hikers who asked if the peak was ahead. I delightedly told them about the views and the cut VCNP fence.

I went down Rim Run and around Columbine Corner and down Milt's Meadow which led to a bike trail and eventually down to Gene's Choice which goes back to the ski lodge.

As I was beginning my lunch on the move, eating LaraBars as I walked, I was hailed by a group of 4 of the WI hikers and I joined them for the walk back to the Townsite Lift. One hiker's dog was very excited by my LaraBars but calmed down right away after making a play for one. He's a good dog!

Near Spruce Lift, we took a bicycle trail and a jeep road over to the Townsite Lift and were joined by other WI hikers coming down. The hiker with the injured hamstring said at lunch that she would go down I Don't Care ski run with her husband. I hope she did well. She was worried how her leg would behave on the downhill.

When I left, not everyone was down the mountain yet. People were waiting for them but I took off. I have to admit that it's more fun hiking with one or a couple of people than such a large group. They are all nice people but their abilities differ greatly. One woman is now using oxygen.

Autumn in August

What a beautiful Autumn day it is today, August 25 - cool, 74 degrees in the house and in the 60's outside. I decided this was perfect weather to go up the Quemazon Trail. Since that trail was toasted in 2000 by the Cerro Grande fire, it has become a cool weather hike.

On the way up the trail, mountain lions were on my mind. I had read a study about older drivers and how they are aware of their limitations of attention and compensate. They gave the example of older drivers not always registering what's in their peripheral vision. I've seen myself succumb to this on the trail - I've gone past hikers and dogs by the side of the trail and never even saw them. I decided I would carefully study the sides of the trail ahead of me and not get ambushed by a mountain lion.

I did get ambushed by inattention anyway. When the upper Quemazon Nature Trail ( a branch off the Quemazon Trail) met up again with the main trail, I followed it instead of the main trail. I started to realize that I was going back toward the view of the Omega Bridge over Los Alamos Canyon and, in addition, it looked like I was approaching the edge of the mesa. Eventually it got through to me that I needed to retrace my steps back to the main trail (which I had been so sure was another way down rather than up!).

I met a hiker with a dog coming down the trail. I asked how far she had gone. She said to where the aspens were tall - not all the way to Pipeline Road. She said she's heard there was a lion on the trail but hadn't seen it. Her dog, which she had found abandoned by the side of the road, was very affectionate. He goes up to baby strollers and kisses the babies - sweet!

Even before meeting the hiker, I noticed that the young, post-Cerro Grande aspens were becoming thicker by the side of the trail. I missed the lower part of the trail where I could see views and predators. I wondered if this is why humans started out on the African savannah - they could see clearly who would eat them and weren't so apt to get ambushed. Although, now at home, I'm thinking that tall grass can just as effectively hide an animal as tall aspens!

I went up to my 4 mile RT turnaround point (except I think it's really closer to 5) and admired the view of Pajarito Mountain Ski Area's slopes. I heard some thunder but it never developed into anything except a couple of rain drops on the way down.

I love going down the Quemazon Trail - you have to hop and skip and jump over the rocky trail and it's fun - almost like running! Also, I did very well going up it. It's a good trail to get some elevated heart rate on.

First - Yesterday: Walnut Canyon Road

Got my usual early start - NOT - and since it looked like rain, decided to explore the Los Alamos County trails behind the Aquatic Center. Went over to the big Pueblo Canyon pedestrian bridge but along the way, was scared by bicyclist with too much testosterone.

I was ambling on a slight uphill portion that runs along the site of the former Olive Street Sewage Treatment Plant, looking for a faint trail that goes through the open, grassy meadow where the sewage plant used to be.

Suddenly I heard behind me this deep, unearthly whoop and I whipped around to see who was playing Monster in the Woods with me and saw a herd of wild bicyclists, 5 total, coming down a slight hill. They were far enough back that the man in front, old enough to know better, did not need to whoop at me like I was an animal he wanted to scare off the trail. I stepped aside and when he passed told him thank you for warning me but told him he had scared me. No comment. I guess he knows he's an a-hole! The other 4 came by and seemed somewhat embarrassed because each one thanked me.

I continued across the Pueblo Canyon Bridge to the North Pueblo Bench Trail and followed that east to Walnut Canyon Road and to the edge of the golf course. There's still a lot of roads and trails that I want to explore in there - the East Fork Trail and the Walnut Rim Trail.

It rained lightly on the way back but no thunder. It was such a beautiful day with clouds hanging low over the mountains.

I admit that I thought way too much on the way back about that rude and obnoxious bicyclist.

Misty Moist Morning

We've had several mornings like this in the last two weeks. I like it.

The Dorothy hike was canceled. We would have had to wade through chest high grass and step over sopping wet deadfall.

This weekend, I discovered under my bed a box of genealogy material that I had forgotten - estate packets, wills, military discharges, civil war pension records. They were records that were too long to fit in the other box of genealogy records that I took to Ohio and June - just tucked away under the bed and completely unheeded for years!

I need to make a list of all that's in the box and especially check that I extracted info from a great great grandmother's civil war pension application. Then I will ship the box off to the Ohio Genealogical Society to be added to their collection. This morning I called the library director to advise him of such and talk about someone being low key - no enthusiasm or interest at all. I just hope my donation doesn't all end up in the incinerator but I guess I should have more faith! My hope is that some future researcher will benefit from it and that my relatives in Ohio won't curse my name for donating, in addition to other records, death certificates of their loved ones.

The only reason I discovered the box is that I finally finished a composition book journal (it took two years!) and was tucking it in the journals' storage box under the bed. That's why I haven't written much in Oatswild lately.

Walked yesterday with spouse on FR181/American Springs Road. He actually talked some on the hike. Storm clouds were in the area and it poured in North Community, daughter told us later, but no rain fell on us.

Took daughter and son in law to Origami to celebrate daughter's birthday. I asked if they could make brown rice sushi rolls but it would have cost $3 extra for each roll which is extravagant. I ordered a whole bowl of brown rice for $3 - plus, got cucumber salad, seaweed salad, 12 pieces sashimi, miso soup and house salad. Didn't realize it came with miso soup and house salad. Bought some seaweed salad home because it was an enormous amount. Also had two asparagus tempura and two broccoli florets tempura. Ate quite a lot but enjoyed it all.

Nephew may be on his way here. According to Facebook posts, he's out west - was in Denver this weekend - but so far, he's not deigned to advise us exactly when he's stopping by here. Ah, to be young, footloose and fancy free again!

San Diego Canyon Overlook-Banco Bonito Road

LL gang had planned to do this hike but there is not a whole lot of shade on the Banco Bonito Road so they opted instead to wade the East Fork River a mile in from the El Blanco (?) parking, near the road to El Cajete.

Instead of walking the Banco Bonito Road out, which is dry, dusty and shadeless, I walked beneath the topographic eastern rim of San Diego Canyon. There were great views down into the canyon, south toward Jemez Springs and northwest toward La Cueva, and of stunning cliffs lining both sides of the canyon. I could clearly see the parking area for Spence Hot Springs but couldn't actually see the springs although I saw people walking in the woods to the springs way down below me. At one overlook, I found an old canvas chair placed to get the best views!

I followed a path, only as wide as a game trail in places, as close to the edge as I could stomach. There were some places that I'd rather not go back to as it would have been a steep way down if I slipped but I survived (probably not as scary as I make it sound!).

I somehow skipped a large portion of the rim when I followed alongside a deep drainage leading away from it and didn't go back to the edge right away. To get back to it, I followed a steep dirt road uphill and then had to go downhill to get back on the very edge.

I couldn't see Battleship Rock but I'm sure I was walking in places that are above the Battleship Rock area and that aren't too cliffy to get down.

When I had had my fill of the rim, I left it and headed downhill, running into a grown over logging road that had been hideously heaped with dirt berms and large tree stumps to close it. This road intersected the Banco Bonito Road which I followed back and it was every bit as hot as the LL gang feared. The reflective umbrella helped. However, where I was walking - in the forest and above the cliffs, I had shade and good breezes. No rain! I ended up wandering 6 miles. I ate lunch while walking. Didn't eat until 12:30pm - no hungry LL hikers whining for lunch at 11am!!

(Truth in advertising: Upon looking at a topo map, technically speaking, I was looking down into the canyon of San Antonio Creek because it's not until Battleship Rock that San Antonio Creek joins the East Fork of the Jemez and becomes San Diego Canyon. The Santa Fe National Forest does call where I parked and started my hike San Diego Canyon Overlook. It's in the Jemez National Recreation Area. Regardless of what you call it, it was dramatic to be up on those heights looking down!)