Bury Me in the Valle

Bury Me in the Valle, originally uploaded by craptastica.

Last weekend I spent a day doing trail work in the San Pedro Parks Wilderness of the Santa Fe National Forest. Saturday morning I woke up and after a long drive was pulling into the one street Town of Cuba where I was to meet the recreation guy, Dave. The sun was long from up and the stars still sprinkled the pre-dawn sky.

I got to Dave's and we picked up the Forest Service truck, loaded our gear and headed into the mountains as the sun slowly pulled itself into the New Mexico sky.

I had brought a full pack, and was intending to stay overnight. Dave had pretty much decided he was only going to spend the day, but said he'd pick me up the next day. It's getting cold up here in mountains at night, but it's a beautiful scene. The elk are bugling and the aspens have donned their golden coats.

The sun came up over the horizon just as we were moving east along a crest that took us to the southeastern corner of the San Pedro Parks Wilderness boundary. It was only a few minutes to the trailhead, and as we pulled into the parking area it was just light enough to see that our truck had a completely flat tire. Good omen.

We fixed the tire with a spare, put the flat in the truck bed, hoped it wouldn't be lifted, and then headed into the woods. The plan was to clear out an overgrown trail and then restore user-created trails that had become a spider web of dirt walkways in the a nearby meadow.

It was 3 miles in, so we didn't waste much time. We walked north through the mixed conifer forestlands. The trails were muddy and well trodden (hunting season), but the ground was made hard from the cold. The trail climbed up into the spruce/fir forests, which were interspersed with soccer-field like valles (meadows) that wore a carpet of yellow grasses blanketed in frost.

After a little more than an hour we made it to the work site in the Wilderness and began sawing, lopping, and scattering the slash from a large clump of blue spruce trees that had completely blocked the trail.

This trail was on the side of a valle that housed the Rio Anastasio. Thie Anastasio is barely a stream. Yet the new trails lower in the meadow had caused the formation of new arroyos that were slowly pulling the side of the valle into the streambed. We sawed down several trees that were blocking the real trail and used the slash to block the wandering dirt paths and control the erosion they had caused.

Halfway through the day it began raining, then hailing, and then raining again. We kept working, but I was all welt and decided not to camp overnight with the hunters and cold rain. We eventually finished up and headed back south through the valles and towering douglas firs. The trails had become brown glue and a heavy white cloud began to hover over the open meadows.

Tired, muddy, and wet we were quiet with content on our drive back to town . I had a good day with Dave and began thinking of my return sometime soon when there's better weather.

flat_tire

flat_tire, originally uploaded by craptastica.

wilderness_welcome

wilderness_welcome, originally uploaded by craptastica.

Solar

Solar, originally uploaded by craptastica.

Spirit Rock

Spirit Rock, originally uploaded by craptastica.

This weekend I went to Petroglyph National Monument. Its right there at the malignent growth that has attached itself to the eastern Albuquerue. There were four houses under construction across the street from the visitors center alone.

Yet this was a land that had been called home in the past by many different people and for many years. I went to an area called Rinconada Canyon (by the way if you haven't noticed by now, everything on my side of New Mexico is a canyon or a mesa). This was a mile-long canyon with its mouth pouring into the city of Albuquerque. Its dark volcanic rocks that poke out from a full carpet of yellow and green make it a striking contrast to the grey city beyond.

This canyon is where the spirits fly. They swoop up the canyon walls in the morning groaning as they scrape against the sharp igneous corners of the slope - Rinconada. They play all day on the mesa top hidden by the sun. Running across the barren desert caressing dry, scattered trees.

At night they snake down the mountain slope and steal away into crevices in the rocks. They watch the city lights sparkle. This is where the petroglyphs tell their story.

Hello there

Hello there, originally uploaded by craptastica.

Rinconada Canon

Rinconada Canon, originally uploaded by craptastica.

Rinconada Canyon facing southeast. The Manzano mountains are in the background.

El Canon del Muerte!

Cochiti Canyon, originally uploaded by craptastica.

A few weeks ago I went hiking. Made some lunch the night before and looked at the Santa Fe National Forest map a few times to decide where to go. I zeroed in on Cochiti Canyon - an area on the SE portion of the District that doesn't receive too much attention.

I got there pretty early while the shadows were still long, ditched my car near the beginning of a trail and shouldered my pack. Into the woods. Again.

I walked along the trail for only a little bit when I came to a small side road forking to my right off towards the rising sun. Since I never really have any agenda on my walkabouts I decided to explore the side road. I walked a few hundred yards and was standing in the parking lot of the antiquated and abandoned Canada de los Ojitos Ranger Station.

From what I hear, the Forest Service used to have ranger stations all over these forests. The roads were bad and unreliable, and local communities depended on their public land managers. But things have changed, budgets have shrank, and the world has become smaller.

The Canada de los Ojitos is a casuality of change in this case. The slowly eroding adobe structure doesn't look too bad for oh say, 40 to 50 years of abandonment. Hopefully others will feel this way as well, because I found out the Forest Service wants to sell this place.

But I wasn't in the market, so I continued on my way; naively, taking my time as I wandered into El Canon del Muerte!

The Canon del Muerte is an unmarked, unnamed canyon not too far from a reclaimed pumice mine. I was wandering off-trail, rather aimlessly, when I decided I was goinng to walk all the way up this canyon to the top of the mesa.

I began my walk by taking lunch and a break. Then it was down to business. I began walking up the boulder-filled tree-choked canyon and within minutes was bush-whacking through every canyon-penetrating step I took. This canyon had no trail. It showed no footprints, No fire pits. No human sign nor animal sign at all. It then dawned on me that this canyon was El Canon del Muerte.

I continued my upward journey wiggling through strewn boulders and screen like vegetation like a salmon against a flowing river. After several hours I got within site of the rim, which was the very top pf the canyon. Problem was there were only vertical blocks of welded Bandelier tuft in front of me - no way I could see to get to the top!

So I walked along the edge and sonn began noticing faded etchings in the stone. There were petroglyphs! Roadrunners, men holding snakes, lizards, and men and women together holding hands. Time passes, but life really doesn't change too much.

Eventually I found my way to the top, walked on the mesa for about 1/2 a mile and then came to a road. A road! Yep I had hiked my ass through weed-choke canyon for 4 freakin' hours to happen upon a much more convenient form of transportation.

I soon got over this as I reminded myself that my destination is the journey itself. I walked upon this road for another few miles until I hit the Dome Wilderness boundary and then realized I had to go back down through the canyon because the road I was on wouldn't lead me back to my car.

I was very short on water. Soon the vultures were circling above and El Canon del Muerte seemed threatening and dangerous. It took me four hours and 2 quarts of water to climb up it. I now had maybe as many hours of daylight, but only a quarter Nalgene-full of water.

So I headed back into el canon. I followed my footsteps right back through the canyon. Pushing on through the aspen, ponderosa pine, gooseberry, single leaf ash, and gambel oak I was soon covered by sweat, twigs, leaves, and dirt. A bullsnake passed near my hand on a boulder and I crossed several scattered cow bones. Those poor bastards.

In less than an hour I was back down in the pumice mine, wading my way through the light airy stone to the trail.

Cochiti II

Cochiti II, originally uploaded by craptastica.