Month: April 2021

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Another Earth Day poem about a river

There will always be

a Mylar balloon

in the frame

of the floodplain,

broken glass,

power lines,

a bulldozer.

We crop them out

for the ‘gram

but they hover

just over

our tilted shoulders.

The world reshapes

around and with us.

It always has.

Rabbits in spring

leap from a tangle

of branches and empties.

Egret sidles up to a dam,

side-eyes it.

Hard to tell

what’s appreciation

and what’s disdain.

A floodtide

that reshapes

who holds power

and how

would do so much more

than another day

to bag up

beer bottles

though we will never

run out of

things to carry away

Hike: Calabacillas Arroyo, Rio Grande

Length: 4 miles

Difficulty: easy

Trail traffic: very light

Creatures seen/heard: lizards, butterflies, cottontail, crows, hawks, ducks, geese, egrets, black-capped chickadee, finches, flycatchers

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Juan Tabo Canyon: Spring, but no spring

I visited Juan Tabo Canyon Monday in hopes of seeing its spring in action. Somehow, I thought the weekend dab of snow in the high elevations of the Sandias would be enough.

It wasn’t. But foliage and flowers burst forth all over the lower canyon. Birds hovered in and above the branch tunnels that shape where a stream would be.

That canyon will pull me back like a magnet until I see that stream run, or just forever if I don’t.

Cave in the lower canyon

Hike length: 5 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: very light

Creatures seen/heard: blue jays, juniper titmouse, chipmunk, butterflies, flycatchers, hummingbirds, beetle

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South Crest Trail: The end of the beginning

The last time I was here was the last time.

The last weekend before the first Covid-19 cases were diagnosed in New Mexico.

People swarmed the mountain. I passed them, they passed me. I sat on a log, ate my sandwich. No hand sanitizer, or thought of it.

Thirteen months later. The only thing here that shows the difference: a discarded surgical mask on the trail.

I stopped hiking. I hiked again. I quit my longtime job.

Almost no humans on the trail early this weekday morning. Juniper titmice all over the mountain engage in conversation that never ends.

Near the trailhead, I step off the trail to let an unmasked man pass.

“I’m fully vaccinated!” he exclaims.

That means *my* droplets can’t kill *you*, not…

Did you see no news or health bulletins for the past year?

I stay silent. Jays squawk for me.

Millions of feet will never walk their favorite paths again.

Soon, I’ll be fully vaccinated, and still fully masked in public.

Soon, I’ll have the privilege to begin to resume the daily activities that I choose.

I can’t undo any choices I made before the pandemic, or during this past year. Some of them haunt me.

New paths beckon now: me, and all the rest of us who reached this point.

We’ll need strong hearts and strong lungs where we’re going.

Hike length: 4.5 miles

Difficulty: moderate (a 1-mile stretch of switchbacks is difficult)

Trail traffic: very light

Creatures seen/heard: nuthatches, squirrel, Abert’s squirrel, chipmunk, crows, jays, juniper titmice, Say’s phoebes, butterflies, ladder-backed woodpecker, white-winged dove

Travertine cave
Mini-waterfall
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Only: Tecolote Trail

Only a few patches of snow on the trail at 8,500 feet.

Only 10 a.m. and it’s 65 degrees.

Only a hint of moisture on the breeze. Even that’s a mirage – a red flag warning begins soon.

Only a couple weeks into spring, and winter recedes into memory, faster than ever.

Hike: Tecolote Trail + Balsam Glade Nature Trail, 4-5-21

Hike length: 4 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: very light

Creatures seen/heard: chipmunks, vultures, crows, pinyon jays, Stellar’s jay, spotted towhees, dark-eyed junco, butterflies, squirrels

Remaining snow on north-facing slopes near Sandia Peak Ski Area, from Balsam Glade Nature Trail
Madera Canyon overlook, Balsam Glade Nature Trail
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Holy Thursday hike: Gnasty with a G

Had to stop and get a picture of the cross shadow made by this trail sign on Holy Thursday. It looks like “Gnasty Wag” here, but the trail sign says Gnasty with a G.

Cedro Peak, which I hiked Monday, at center of image

Hike: Blue Ribbon Trail + Gnasty + West Ridge Trail loop from Otero Canyon trailhead

Hike length: 6.5 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: very light

Creatures seen/heard: pinyon jays, red-headed woodpecker, butterflies, mountain bluebird, Abert’s squirrel, crows, Northern flickers