No hiking poles necessary, no backpack.
No planes or cars or shuttles after a week of them.
Just feet in dirt piled into powder from weeks without rain.
Just sun and color, blue and gold. Horses and dog-walkers. Smoke curls from chimneys, though it’s 60 degrees and hot in the sun.
Chicken coops yield to full outdoor kitchens and hot tubs.
Four sandhill cranes, newly migrated for winter, munch grass at the end of a driveway.
Water gurgles in the acequias for a few last weeks before they go dry.
Light glints through the leaves, off the water.
The slant of it, low and warm, what you’ve waited for all year.
Home.
Hike length: 5.5 miles
Difficulty: easiest
Trail traffic: moderate
Wildlife spotted: roadrunners, sparrows, goat, horses, grasshoppers, butterfly, sandhill cranes, ducks
Woman Seeks Elevation 
I’m always most happy to read the entries with water in them, since water out there isn’t always at hand. Yo Daddie
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