Las Conchas Canyon

Hiked up Las Conchas Canyon, parking at MM37 on NM4, with a friend.  The barbed wire crossing was easier than I remembered, especially with someone to help hold down the top strand!

The stream was running in the canyon with lots of miniature "waterfalls" tumbling down canyon.  We saw cows grazing.  There were mushy places where my  feet got wet - my shoes don't have a Gore-Tex lining but that was OK.

This was my 4th time in Las Conchas Canyon but I really have no better idea of how to negotiate the upper part of the canyon that connects with the Calzada Trail.  It's not a well traveled canyon except maybe by cows in the summer and cross country skiers in the winter.  The lower part mostly has a definite trail but the upper canyon splits at several places giving too many choices of where to go although some are clogged by deadfall. 

We followed the "trail" as best we could and eventually ended up at a well-stamped-down real trail that shortly led us over to the Calzada Trail.   I made some brush cairns - perhaps I'll take another crack at Las Conchas Canyon one day, starting from the Calzada Trail.

We went back to Corral Canyon on the Calzada Trail and walked .7 mile back to my car.  Along the way, my friend pointed out a bear crossing the road.  It was fairly distant but seemed to look toward us before somehow getting over the barbed wire fence and running across the meadow to the sheltering forest - neat sighting!!

Epic Monsoonal Rains

Went with the dendroglyph project people into Short Canyon on the VCNP.  The area smells really sulphur-y and you can see the glint of tiny fumaroles bubbling in the dry creek bed.  It's a nice crew - there were 7 of us.  We only walked about 2 miles.  Four of us got back to the car by 1 pm. Our driver needed to get back home early because her dog was recovering from a chemo treatment.  Another driver and two of the crew stayed behind to finish recording two more dendroglyphs.  Wonder how they fared in the storm on the drive home?

I didn't find any dendroglyphs in my scouting but it's a pretty area.  When they get done with Short Canyon, then they'll begin documenting dendroglyphs in Valle Seco.  I may show up for trips here and there but if I go out on the big trees project, I won't have time for this too and all the groups I hike with.

Afterward, since my car was already parked at the bottom of Camp May Road, I did the Route up past Paintball Road but just to where the white RV trailer is parked (every summer) to get 2 more miles, thereby achieving my daily 4.  Was really good to see the Route again.

I got back to my car just in the nick of time as the storm broke.  The rain got really heavy driving back on Trinity.  I could see lightning flashed in my rear view mirror.  I could barely see the white lines on the road, it was raining so hard.  I splashed up lots of water from the side of the road - I couldn't help but drive through it.

Lots of thunder overnight.  Roof repair is holding.

Spouse goes half-time the week of September 20.  The husband of the dendroglyph project leader is 67 and still works full-time.

Done Exploring Side Roads on Pajarito

My consensus is that I understand them well enough now - they basically run east-west, crossing the ski runs, sometimes traversing uphill, sometimes dead-ending but usually always intersecting one of the main jeep roads on the east or west sides of the mountain.  For now, I'll just enjoy my walks on Pajarito and all the variation that the side roads afford me.

Why Does It Look Like Rain But Doesn't Rain

Well, there WAS a little rain on Pajarito Mountain but only toward the end when I was going back to the Lodge anyway.  It was a cool, cloudy, almost fall-like day so that part was fine with me.  Lightning was not a factor and I always like that.

Morose thoughts while studying flowers on Pajarito Mountain:  The flowers know what I refuse to accept - life ends.  Already I can read the signs - seedheads forming on mariposa lilies in Cañada Bonita meadow, aster petals shredding and losing their color on Pajarito Mountain, death camas beginning to go to seed even while their white, candlestick-like blooms thickly populate the ski runs.  But flowers will enjoy a renaissance next Spring while my body goes slowly, steadily to the ultimate end - loss of sentience. 

Along these same lines, at the picnic deck near the Aspen Lift, I wondered to myself, in Zen koan-like fashion, if it's better to be lonely alone or to be lonely in crowd.  Then it struck me that when I'm feeling lonely and sorry for myself, I'm not fully opening my eyes and ears to the sights and sounds around me.  Distracting oneself in the NOW may help to banish moroseness!

I'm reading a book, Heroic Climbs.  It has two photos 19th century women mountain climbers, one wearing a face mask with holes for eyes and mouth and another a helmet-like drape with a slit for eyes, open at the bottom to allow air to enter. So, even though wearing a sun protection mask is thought to be extremely odd today, it has precedent in the past!

Pajarito Ski Hill to Pipeline Overlook

Hiked with Tuesday hiking group - all women.  We were 12.  Wildflowers still putting on good display in Cañada Bonita meadow but mariposa lilies, while still plentiful, are going to seed.  I was convinced that a seed head was a butterfly on top of one mariposa bloom.

The group started at 8:30 am and was back to the vehicles by noon.  I drove myself up to the Pajarito Ski Area to meet them.  They get the job done (exercising outdoors) and are a nice bunch of woman.  They all seem able-bodied.  I have their schedule and plan to join them from time to time.

Had to get up at 6:30 am and I'm tired now.  If you hear a loud thud, that's just my (numb)skull hitting the computer keyboard as I nod off.

Last night went to Buffalo Thunder's Painted Parrot buffet.  The occasion was that a work buddy spouse has known for a long time (was his boss once!) is commuting from the west coast every week to work here.  We left at 6 pm and waited an hour in a long line and didn't get home until almost 9 pm.  I'm suggesting next time we just dine locally as that's too long to devote to going out to eat.

I have something planned outdoors for every day this week. Sooner or later, another house crisis will occur and I'll have to stay indoors waiting for a contractor so my philosophy is get outdoors now!

No rain yet today.

Forsook Pajarito Mountain Today

Got a late start - after 11 am - because just as I was getting ready to drive away, the roofers showed up.  They applied some silicone caulk to the furnace vent.  I asked how long the silicone lasts - 2-4 years.  OK.  Good to know since that's what's keeping rain from running down our woodstove chimney because the roofers banged it up so much that that the collar no longer fits tight around the base.  They also dropped off the promised package of spare shingles just in case I need them in the future.

Afterward, I drove up to American Springs Road/FR181 to meet my hiking buddy of the Big Trees fame.  She and a PEEC volunteer were murdering invasive bull thistles.  Turns out that invasive musk thistles are easily dispatched by beheading them because their flowers are only on the top half of the stalk.  But bull thistles have flowers all along the stalk which requires chopping down the whole thing.  Invasive Canada thistles are even worse, sending out nasty runners everywhere that sprout baby thistles.

Thankfully, due to the roofers coming late, I missed all the fun of wrestling thistles to the ground! As I walked in on FR181, they were driving out with 4 trash bags of thistles in the trunk.  I got to meet the PEEC volunteer and she seems very nice.

On my walk, I saw a bicyclist coming up out of Water Canyon and continuing east on FR181 to loop back to West Jemez.  When I asked, he said it looks like the Youth Conservation Corps crew has worked on the upper quarter of the trail but the rest of it is getting a little thick with overgrowth.

I hadn't been up to FR181 for a long time.  When I started walking, I was sure that I'd get caught in a lightning storm but it never happened.  I enjoyed seeing old haunts.  I stopped often to gaze upon the beauty of the wildflowers, the billowing clouds and the green mountains.

Small Roof Leak

Friday was spouse's day off.  We hiked with the "Back By 11" hiking group - a big two miles in Rendija Canyon.  I showed them the well or sinkhole or whatever it is.  Saw a LL hiker go by in her bra - not sports bra but underwear bra!  She's trying to make Vitamin D. Only in Los Alamos can a woman hike alone on a trail in her bra and not get accosted!

Spouse and I are on the hook to lead this group on Friday the 13th.  I'm planning nearby hikes to do in case I get the old line about "Will we be back by 11?"  Come on guys - be more dedicated than that!! 

We went to Santa Fe afterward.  The Sunflower Market stop included buying lots of melons, on sale for 88 cents a pound.  We're having a melon marathon all this weekend!

After last night's big monsoonal rain, I noticed some moisture near the furnace vent pipe.  Will have to call the roofer next week to ask him to check it out.

Today I hiked on the Pueblo Canyon Rim Trail, over to the mesa east of the Industrial Park (the one leading to the Hamilton Mesa Trail).  It's so neat that I finally have decent trails to hike without driving anywhere!  Spouse and I will hike somewhere tomorrow. 

Mountain mahogany's twisty, feathery seed heads are resplendent this time of year.  Found a huge, dead bug to show grandson.  He'll be at camp next week but I'm saving it in a jar of vinegar to show him next week.

After walking, I did time in the kitchen, making a huge eggplant stew and hummous.  Spouse even had some and liked it.

Addicted to Pajarito Mountain

Another day, another explore...such a hard life!  I got a late start - 11:40 am from the parking lot.  There was a mix of dark clouds, white clouds and blue sky.  Someone in the parking lot told me I was going to get wet.  It did rain but not very hard and there was no lightning and then it stopped.  I started up the Zero Road East from the Lodge and took a right at the side road near Boomer. 

I went up the side road to where it intersected the Zero Road East higher up and then walked that for a short distance to another side road, turning right and then followed that to an intersection where yesterday I turned right but today I went left instead.

Truthfully, I don't know how much of this road system I'm learning because I wander here and there, back and forth.  If I keep at it, I should eventually gain some familiarity.

I saw two deer bucks that bounded off diagonally down a ski slope when they heard me.  I've seen a number of bucks on Pajarito, including a human one who didn't see me and was almost ready to unzip his fly until I made noises to warn him off!!

I was enchanted by a tall thistle with fading yellow flowers, laden with orange and black fritillary butterflies.  There was even a bumblebee on it.

I saw two felsenmeers, one near Aspen Lift that I walked across - they actually lop off the young trees and use it as a ski run.  Wouldn't the warning signs about obstacles, natural and man-made, be more truthful if they told skiers that huge rocks lay under the snow?

This reminds me that I saw the other day a tree with a plaque on it saying the tree belongs to Joel Prichard, who died in December 2000, and it thanks all who tried to save him.  Sad.

I got up to Bruce's Blvd. West and saw all the connections it makes to the back of the mountain.  The snow-making puddle is as ugly as ever and still unfilled.

I started to follow the Logging Road down the west side of the mountain but since the weather was still holding, I got waylaid by yet another side road that eventually went back to the Logging Road.

I got back to the car at 2:23 pm. and did a little over 4 miles.  The sky was dark and cloudy and occasional thunder-rumbles could be heard - the second shift was coming!  Back home, though, it never rained.

Pajarito is a very rocky mountain.  That can be seen on all the road surfaces and the felsenmeers.  Really, rather than being like an isolated, towering peak, it's more like a long, east-west ridge with a couple of over 10,000' bumps on it. 

I'm beginning to recognize which ski lift is which - Lone Spruce and Mother are both blue and two seaters.  Aspen is black and a 4 seater. I need to check out Townsight but haven't made it over there lately.

Death Camas Revisited

It turns out that wild onion also has long, flat, narrow basal leaves that are similar to the death camas.  The wild onion's flower stem is round and stiff just like those of the death camas and not hollow like a green onion.  This helps me understand how someone could confuse the two if they pick the plant in the early spring before the flowers appear.

On Pajarito Mountain today, I picked the basal leaves and flower stem of a death camas and sniffed but could detect no onion odor. I "washed" my fingers off on wet vegetation of golden banner since I didn't know which part of the death camas is poisonous. 

Now I read in Wikipedia that all parts of the plant are poisonous.

Philosophical Musings

What does life mean?  Is it just finding ways to entertain myself?

How will spouse's retirement work out with the constant sound of the TV on?

Wish I had a magic wand to change everything.

Feel like I'm marking time sometimes.

Appreciate sleep and dreams so much now.

When tired, feel hopeless.

Husband wants to know everything I write.

Blogging is a way to get published.  Whether or not anyone reads it is beside the point!!  ;  D