WalkingCarrot

We started the bushwhack up Placer canyon thinking the bluffs too high to hold a trail. Not wanting to get blocked out by cliffs we dropped into the canyon and navigated the boulders up the creek for a short ways, only to discover faint trail coming in from the cliffs above.

Placer canyon led into broader and easier to navigate Long canyon and eventually to a crossing of Highway 64. Heading north the trail parallells the highway for several miles along old roads so faint that the are almost indistinguishable from natural ground disturbance. With patches of forest and fields and few distinguishing landmarks we moved slowly, going by feel and frequent consulting with the GPS.

As we climb a high, un-named knoll, distant mountains with snow patches appear to the northwest. Yonder lies Colorado! We are closing in on the next state.

Clouds are moving in and out all day with more bluster than bombast. The trail spends a much time in open meadows as in forest. Tall, lush green grasses with scattered wildflowers mixed in. We are easily adjusting to the change to a different side of New Mexico, to more moist habitats. But it comes at a price. Biting flies and mosquitoes.

A herd of elk grazed near our lunch spot, moving out as we arrived. It’s a good place for elk, good grazing with decent “cover”.

We choose to follow the new route along ridge above the rio San Antonio, thinking it would be preferable over the more traditional bushwhack in the rio San Antonio valley. But the trail tread becomes faint and indistinguishable from the many cow paths in the area. Infrequent and inconsistant trail markings don’t make following the trail any easier.

We end up making another “course correction” after climbing a mesa near a cow tank rather than following the bovine way into the ravine. Back on trail, in the ravine, a coyote crosses our path, probably out looking for a lost hereford.

A young bull mule deer is alert to us, and probably aware of the coyote too. Certainly the elk and deer are more aware of, and in tune with, their surroundings. It’s a wonder that evolution doesnt shift the coyote to an all beef and lamb diet. Maybe given time it will.

As we climb out of the valley to the ridge above the rio San Antonio the trail follows cliffs just below a rim. Too steep to pitch a tent we pick up the pace and finally bushwhack a short bit to the top to the cover of a few tree to camp. Even here, camped at 10,000 foot on the dry mesa top the mosquitos find us….ahhh mountains in the summer!

20 miles