The Osha Loop Trail beckons even the weary of feet

I didn’t mean to hike six miles.

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.

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.