August 2019 – Woman Seeks Elevation

August 24, 2019

Accidental hike on an empty ski slope, high summer, Sandias

We stand in the middle of the trail and sway.

The motion intrigues the three deer staring at us: two does and a buck with fuzzy four-point antlers.

One deer walks away, then another, but one doe doesn’t budge.

As we watch her, the other two come into focus again behind her. Funny how the longer you look, the more you see.

We stand there till my heels throb. Only her ears move.

It’s her home, she’s waited out far more than us, and she’s probably still standing there.

***

In general, I subscribe to the adage that a bad day hiking beats a good day doing most other things.

But this came close to being the first hike ever that I did not enjoy at all.

We’d come to explore a shaded trail on a hot day, but couldn’t find the promised trailhead from the Sandia Peak Ski Area parking lot. We figured the path winding up the ski slope would soon lead us there, so we took it.

I grew more and more irked as we zigzagged across the meadow. This would be a fun path to blast down on a mountain bike or shush on skis, but climbing it in blasting sun felt like going nowhere. I got so heated up that it took way too long to realize I hadn’t seen a single one of our trail’s blue blazes.

We kept climbing, thinking we’d intersect another trail and could get down using the trail we’d originally planned to hike. Eventually, though, we realized we still had so far to go to the trail that we were likely to run out of steam. We turned around.

After nearly five miles, my frustration finally began to dissipate. I couldn’t deny, on the way down, that hiking an empty ski slope in high summer brings many delights.

Waist-high grass and sunflowers wave in the wind. Green views plunge far into the valley. Pale aspen trunks shoot into the sky.

My husband suggested a shortcut down a mowed slope to avoid the last of the zigzags, but with the uphill exertion over, being out there felt good.

Two mountain bikers headed uphill paused on a zigzag above us, midday sun blazing down on their climb.

My husband heard one of them say, “I hate this.”

Hike length: 6 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: light

Wildlife spotted/heard: deer, vultures, flycatchers, chipmunk, butterflies, grasshoppers, nuthatch, eagle? (heard only) Abert’s squirrel (in the middle of the Sandia Crest Highway, unconcerned)

Things to know: The ski area is closed and the mountain bike trail we ended up hiking on was unmarked, unpatrolled and unmaintained. It’s in perfectly good condition, but there are some narrow spots where you might have to dive into waist-high grass if a mountain biker came by.

August 17, 2019

The Osha Loop Trail beckons even the weary of feet

I didn’t mean to hike six miles.

The tune: Robert Palmer’s “I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On.” The setting that kept luring us further: Osha Loop Trail on the east side of the Sandia Mountains.

We’d been out late dancing the night before (still got it, baby!), so we had sore feet and weren’t sure how far we’d get. At a trail junction three miles into our hike, we deemed it better to head back than to try to finish the whole seven-mile-plus jaunt. This meant climbing back up the steep ridge we’d just descended.

My Robert Palmer adaptation played in my head as we neared the top of the ridge. Then we startled a doe, and everything froze. She stared at us, walked a few steps, sniffed the air, repeated the sequence several times, then turned and trotted into the forest.

We’ve had several deer encounters hiking, but never on this side of the mountain. The trails, while not crowded, are popular. Osha Loop, though, is a wilderness trail, less used and less maintained. Wild rose and gambel oak squeeze the rocky path.

Even on 10K Trail, the popular trail that’s the primary access to Osha Loop, we passed relatively few people. The breeze at 10,000 feet cooled us as the temperature below in Albuquerque approached 100.

There are some epic shrooms in this spruce-fir forest

The quiet allowed us to see not just the doe, but two sharp-shinned hawks. Who knows what else we could have spotted if we’d done the whole trail.

When I attempt this trail again, I’ll do so on fresh feet.

Hike length: 6 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: light

Wildlife spotted: squirrels, chipmunk, butterflies, grasshoppers, nuthatches, brown creepers, sharp-shinned hawks, doe

Things to know: There are quite a few precariously positioned and hazardous dead trees on the first couple miles of 10K Trail North right now.

August 11, 2019

If you want to feel all of the feelings, go to Red Canyon

The sounds around me heal: wind rustling aspen leaves, birds chirping.

The sounds in my head tear everything apart.

What the hell is wrong with you today?

I trudge up the top of Red Canyon Trail in the Manzano Mountains. At least I hope to God it’s the top. Before today I’d only hiked down this trail, as part of a loop, and I now see why my guidebooks prescribe that.

I did a hike with the exact same elevation gain as Red Canyon Trail a month ago, but my legs are ready to give out. My internal monologue of judgment, though, has plenty left to give.

Leave No Trace it ain’t, but this bear art on an aspen lifted my spirits on that endless final trudge.

Many steep grades and grunts later, sky and a trail junction sign emerge.

My jelly legs deposit me on a shaded rock, where I meditate. I’ve never done that in nature, but I need to stop the runaway train of my brain.

My eyes only stay closed about three minutes, because I have, in fact, reached the Manzano Crest Trail, and I want to see the world around me.

My eyes open to another day than the one in which our hike began.

We shivered in a cold wind at the trailhead, breathed water-saturated air. An early-morning rain had bathed the mountain. Water droplets shimmered on spiderwebs and leaves and buds all the way up the dark canyon.

Here, in a Crest Trail meadow, grass glows in the sun, brilliant blue sky above.

Our original plan called for venturing slightly north to climb Gallo Peak. Climbing any peak is now a ludicrous thought.

All around us rise ridges that promise views of the valleys far below. We start up one, but the top’s not as close as it looks (it never is) and up is no longer a direction my legs will consistently travel in.

We settle into the meadow for lunch, looking into the distant Estancia Valley. When we came up here a year ago, the clouds were so thick we couldn’t see it

It’s not the first time this part of the Manzanos has touched off an emotional cascade in my brain, then brought me back to reality with its beauty.

I don’t know what it is about Red Canyon. I have hiked in many special canyons in New Mexico. This one stands out. It’s dark, walls rising high, a lush microclimate within. It’s steep, obviously. Its rock formations tower like ziggurats, dark gray stone shading to pink and purple on a wet day.

It’s something you should experience for yourself.

Prepare for some feelings.

Hike length: 6 miles

Difficulty: The official ranking is moderate. That’s fair, but you know where I stand.

Trail traffic: moderate today, typically light

Wildlife spotted/heard: hummingbird, nuthatch, butterflies galore, hawk, beetle, caterpillar, cicadas

August 5, 2019

Life and death at Gutierrez Canyon Open Space

Shadow plays down the ridge. We await its transformation.

The Gutierrez Canyon Open Space overlook bakes in the afternoon sun. My husband lies on the rock. I tell him he looks like he’s on a funeral pyre.

Shade. One could nap on the pyre now. I recline on rock, monsoon breeze cooling me, and consider it. Huge puzzle piece clouds slide over, lock into each other.

Guadalupe and Mosca Peaks stand bruise-blue on the horizon. The hue communicates the rain we can’t see.

Narrow trails twist through pinon and juniper spiked with moss and lichen. A handful of crows bleat furiously as we pass. My husband suspects a predator nearby, maybe a bobcat. When we pass back by, the crows crank a new symphony. Maybe it’s us they’re protesting.

Something’s been about, though. A rabbit, recently bloodied, lies dead on the trail, a warning.

We pass no one, see nothing but life and death.

Hike length: 5 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: none

Wildlife spotted/heard: beetles, butterflies, hummingbirds, crows, hawk, nuthatch, sparrows, striped and spotted lizards, dead rabbit