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So, once again, it’s summer in New Mexico, and New Mexico is-in case you hadn’t heard-burning.
Again. :angry:
Last Thursday, this was the view from our Los Alamos driveway, of what would come to be called the Colorado Peak Fire, near Cochiti lake.
We also have the Little Bear fire-which rapidly surpassed all previous fires in size, and is now around 350 sq. miles:
and a couple of others.All of which of course means that at some point in the near future, we can expect our favorite playgrounds here in New Mexico, the Santa Fe National Forest, Bandelier Monument, and the Carson National Forest, to be closed-they are already under pretty severe fire restrictions. In anticipation of this sad event, Rita-that’s the wife –and I decided to try to get some alpine time in. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been above 12,000 feet, and I needed to find out about how it would affect me now, given my advancing age and debilitation…..:lol: the best place to do that, of course, would be Wheeler Peak, the tallest mountain in New Mexico (though that’s been the subject of some debate over the years, with a few 13ers in competition) at 13,261 feet, its summit sits about 2,000 feet above one of my favorite high altitude runs, the Williams Lake trail from the Taos Ski resort.
So, last Friday, Rita and I made the morning drive up to Taos with our daypacks. We had a nice breakfast at Michael’s Kitchen, and made our way to the Williams Lake trailhead, at about 8900 ft.This is the greeting at that trailhead:
View attachment $526886_3853365825507_574005884_n.jpg
But most of the wildlife we saw was pretty benign, actually-though I did find some old lion kill.
Anyway, we made our way to Williams Lake, on a trail hat winds through some pretty thick piney woods. I saw this little Baby’s breath along the way:
View attachment $Wheeler Peak 052.jpg
Again. :angry:
Last Thursday, this was the view from our Los Alamos driveway, of what would come to be called the Colorado Peak Fire, near Cochiti lake.
We also have the Little Bear fire-which rapidly surpassed all previous fires in size, and is now around 350 sq. miles:
and a couple of others.All of which of course means that at some point in the near future, we can expect our favorite playgrounds here in New Mexico, the Santa Fe National Forest, Bandelier Monument, and the Carson National Forest, to be closed-they are already under pretty severe fire restrictions. In anticipation of this sad event, Rita-that’s the wife –and I decided to try to get some alpine time in. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been above 12,000 feet, and I needed to find out about how it would affect me now, given my advancing age and debilitation…..:lol: the best place to do that, of course, would be Wheeler Peak, the tallest mountain in New Mexico (though that’s been the subject of some debate over the years, with a few 13ers in competition) at 13,261 feet, its summit sits about 2,000 feet above one of my favorite high altitude runs, the Williams Lake trail from the Taos Ski resort.
So, last Friday, Rita and I made the morning drive up to Taos with our daypacks. We had a nice breakfast at Michael’s Kitchen, and made our way to the Williams Lake trailhead, at about 8900 ft.This is the greeting at that trailhead:
View attachment $526886_3853365825507_574005884_n.jpg
But most of the wildlife we saw was pretty benign, actually-though I did find some old lion kill.
Anyway, we made our way to Williams Lake, on a trail hat winds through some pretty thick piney woods. I saw this little Baby’s breath along the way:
View attachment $Wheeler Peak 052.jpg
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