Just realized that I went on and on so much about the Route and the forest service that I forgot to say where I walked today. I practiced jogging intervals on the White Rock Rim Trail from the official trailhead near Overlook to where it intersects Pajarito Canyon. I continued all the way to Sherwood Ave. on the rim trail but gave up on the jogging practice because of the wind, the rocky trail tread and the uphill. Was listening to book on CD, Head Trip, that I recorded to audio cassette. I meant to follow the easy way back but wound up back on the rocky part of the rim trail for part of the way. The whole round trip is ~5 miles.

Voted today. Stopped by forest service office (astounding to see it actually open and the desk manned!!) and asked when the Las Conchas forest closure will be lifted. Its been since last June 26 and I'm eager for the forest to reopen. Couple of weeks was the answer and the forest supervisor is working on the lifting of the closure order. I, of course, will believe it when I see it but if it happens soon, I'll be very jubilant!!

Very windy this afternoon. Was going to walk on the Route to see its condition after the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs (JMTR) 50k race used it on Saturday. The forest there is not actually open but the race directors had a one day special use permit. When the forest recovers more, they will go back to the race courses they used in the past but for the meantime, were forced by the Las Conchas wildfire to use different trails. Decided not to risk walking on the Route with all the winds. There is one tree that looks like the leaning tower of Pisa and ready to fall if I breathe too hard on it. I had hoped the forest service would remove it as a hazard tree to ensure the safety of the runners but that never happened. They put red flagging around the hazard trees and left them to fall where they may.

The forest service considers the Route an illegal, user created trail and really doesn't want to maintain it but they should because there is a real use for it. It's a safer way to walk up to Pajarito Mountain than using Camp May Road and runners and bikers have started to use it more frequently now. I met two runners on the Route and they said they were happy to have discovered this alternative to Camp May Road. Maybe with time, the trail will become so "real" that the forest service will be forced to maintain it. I suffer no illusions regarding how good a trail it is. It has far too many sharp turns to be safely used by bicyclists. I followed two bikers down one day and I could see the places where they skidded to a stop. The trail needs more maintenance than I can give it.

Last week while walking on the Route, just below Guardrail Hill, saw a portly gentleman sitting on a rock enjoying a snack. I'd earlier seen him walking by on Camp May Road. I'm not completely sure who he is (maybe the man who lived in a cave in Los Alamos Canyon several years back?) but he carries a stout walking stick and wears sandals. As I passed by, he commented on there being a trail in the woods and I told him that it would be part of the JMTR 50k race. I was doing a final sweep for trash on the Route to make sure it was presentable for the racers. Can't do anything about all the glass chips, though because it's too hard to pick up every last piece. I pick up the big pieces when I see them glinting.

When I speak of the Route, I'm only talking about the section from the Ocean to FR2998. The larger trail, called the Camp May Road Trail, of which the Route is a small, less than 2 mile section, goes all the way up to the Townsight Lift at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area.  The Route can be accessed from Camp May Road via the Coblentz Climb (which I assume is also an illegal, user created trail but really neat!), a short, steep connector trail that goes up to the Ocean where you can then pick up the Route on your left, just follow the cairns.  Other access points are the Ocean or FR2998.  I access it from the intersection of the West Road bypass and Camp May Road by following some old roads and crossing Camp May Road to go up to the Ocean.  

Walked out and back on Pueblo Canyon Rim Trail from Los Alamos Airport to top of Camp Hamilton Trail.  Skies looked dark to the south, with virga falling.  Got spit on by a few raindrops but made it back home dry and alive.  So much trash on trail below the Pajarito Cliffs site and the Eastgate Industrial Park.  I'd like to pick some up one day but it seems a big task for one person.

Spouse is fully retired from lab now but will teach a college course this Fall which shall keep him busy.  He's allowed to go back to the lab as an unpaid guest scientist starting next week which will also occupy him.

Today, we ate lunch at the senior center and right now, he's at the movie theatre.  On Mondays, ticket prices are reduced all day for seniors.

Been doing lots of hiking, as usual, but not much journaling.

Winds Calmed

Went out to walk around 4:30 pm. First mile, winds of Hades and some kind of occasional, white precip - maybe graupel. Second and third miles, terrifically odd because the sun came out and blue skies were overhead. I say "terrifically odd" because the day was mostly overcast and the mountains hid in pall of dust. Fourth mile, winds and overcast came back. Shall be interesting to see how much it snows overnight. Only an inch is predicted.

I'm now emailing these posts. I've gone back to using a subject because Mail becomes very suspicious if I don't and double checks if I'm sure I want to send a message without a subject. What would I do without this computer to supplement my brain?

Winds of Hades Upon Us - Snow to Follow

I've put off walking because the winds are blowing around so much dust. Soon, though, I'll walk and listen to the broadcast of This American Life and then NPR. We had several spring-like days last week but, alas, that is past. I wonder if I'd mind the cold as much if this house didn't leak warm air like a sieve. On last Wednesday's hike, a woman told me that she and her husband never have to turn on their furnace and sometimes even open windows to cool off in the winter. They live in a condo with a south-facing exposure and also get heat from the units above and below them. Sounds good to me! As I get older (or maybe as my thyroid gets older), I'm less tolerant of the cold.

OK, enough of that Pollyanna stuff of yesterday.  I'm already in need of another attitude revision.  I slept horribly last night. It wasn't so much the time change as it was the damnable leg cramps. At first, I fell half asleep for a while but then woke up too cold and when I dared to put another cover on, I got a cramp in my left calf.  Had to leap out of bed several times to stretch my calves and, of course, each time I got up, I peed thinking that perhaps that would hold me until morning.  When I last looked at the clock, it was 3 am.  I finally turned off the alarm and slept until 10 am but feel like a kicked around dog turd.

Good news - as you get older (I qualify), you do more of your peeing at night. The meds that would provide a solution are anticholinergics and would probably give me dementia.  The sleep doc recommended that I take dopamine agonists like Mirapex and Requip for the leg cramps but, once again, no thank you.  I think the allopathic cures would be worse than the afflictions.  Now I'm looking into something like Hyland's Leg Cramps.

Picture me, this morning, walking to the library, blue backpack burgeoning with books, grumbling inwardly that just a few days ago it seemed like Spring was here; but now, it's overcast and cooler than I, Supreme Majesty of the world, think it should be.

Along comes a neighbor, walking four, fawn-colored dogs at once. "Hello," I say to her and she replies "Lovely day for a walk!" We both continue on our way but now my eyes are open and I say to myself "It is, it is, it truly is!"

Everything is still the same - an occasional lost snowflake careens by, the mountains are still overhung with heavy clouds, my right foot still hurts, the book bag is still too heavy but my attitude is newly revised and I'm now thankful for the coolness and the beauty of the cloud-draped mountains.

Getting my 100,000 mile check up this year.  So far, the sleep doctor has dismissed my low nocturnal oxygen, in the 80's per an overnight nocturnal oximetry, as not bad enough for a sleep study.  He suggested taking Mirapex or Requip for my nocturnal leg cramps - no thanks!  Right now, I'm experimenting with increasing my vitamin B complex and so far that's helping.

Recent chest x-ray showed my heart was mildly enlarged so that, plus the low nocturnal oxygen and feeling that my exercise endurance has decreased, got me an echocardiogram of my heart and a treadmill stress test.  I haven't got the results but I assume that I'm not dying, (yet), because the cardiologist didn't need to see me again.

One good thing I learned from the stress test is that I'm not exercising hard enough.  What I mean is that there's a difference between daily 4 mile strolls (although I am faster than that!) and aerobic conditioning via hill repeats and intervals.  I lasted 12 minutes on the treadmill and was breathing very hard and I need to breathe that hard a couple of times a week to increase my aerobic conditioning.

Today I walked the first two miles of Camp May Road and did hill repeats x 2 on 2 of the steepest hills.  (Not sure of the correct terminology but first I walked up the hill, then walked down and then walked up again.) I feel like I accomplished something and plan to do something like that maybe twice a week.  Now that the trails are more snow-free (at least until after tonight's snow!), I will also try jogging intervals (jogging on asphalt and cement hurts my knees and my feet) but I won't make them as strenuous as the hill repeats.  They'll be mainly to practice jogging and hopefully work my way up to longer periods of jogging.  

It was very windy along Camp May Road.  I saw two ravens hanging out together in a tree, staying out of the wind.  When I tried to take their picture, they flew off from each side of the tree.

Took walk today with husband behind Larry Walkup Center.  I wanted to go to lower Water Canyon Trail outside Pajarito Acres because word is that the trails there are mostly dried out.  Instead, we got a late start, after stopping at the library which doesn't open until noon Sundays so I opted for spouse's suggestion to walk the open space trails behind the Walkup Center.

We started downhill on the Acid Canyon Trail and quickly realized that although there are some dry areas, there is also a lot of mud and snow patches.  The snow is probably very icy in early morning as the top layer melts and refreezes overnight.  We went as far as the high Pueblo Canyon bridge and turned around.  I completed the rest of my miles with back and forth to the airport while listening to a tape of Prairie Home Companion.  There is still too much mud and snow to make hiking on the trails truly carefree.  It's surprising how long the snow has stayed.  It's all melted in our yard.  Spring will come, Spring will come - just hold on!

I wrote this on 1/27/2012 and never did anything more with it so here it is:  idea of reincarnation - you'd probably never know if it really happened but it's comforting to think it might; this on hearing that by 2050, we'll need to address global climate change and saying out loud "I'll be dead" and wishing it weren't true and then thinking that maybe I'll be reincarnated but won't know - life is wonderful even when it isn't and it's hard to think that this "me" will one day be dead and no longer be entertained, horrified, in wonder, terrified, in awe of this thing called life - maybe the knowledge that our life will end is the source of depression, sadness - I guess the cure is don't dwell on it