The Walking Boss

Fourteen months between posts is a suitable cliffhanger interval, isn't it? Our story thus far: Last June I walked up the highest point in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak. At a little over 13,000 feet, it is the highest elevation I've hiked. It was an amazing trip overall. During that trip I slept in the desert, slept next to snow banks, climbed mountains, descended (and climbed back up) 2000 ft canyons, and climbed down into ancient volcanoes. I also burned myself out. The day before I left for New Mexico I ended up riding my mountain bike nearly 50 miles, with the last 10 miles or so without water, and with a couple of gallons of diesel tied to my back. I had started riding north earlier in the day, leaving a request for my girlfriend to come pick me up in the truck at a certain time. It was just supposed to be a nice easy ride with the wind at my back the entire time. Well, it turns out the fuel gauge on my truck isn't accurate anymore, and within a mile of picking me up, we

After working 12.5 hours, I got off work Weds morning at 6AM, went home, got four hours of sleep, and then headed out for a quick overnighter. My friend and coworker came along. He's not done much true backpacking, but he's game to come along sometimes. The two hour drive to Mineral Wells seemed to pass fairly quickly, and we got to the trailhead around 5 PM. It was hot, very humid, and the clouds promised to dump on us while we made the two mile hike back to our campsite. The tent I found on my last adventure is the one on the left. It turned out to be a pretty decent tent, and will probably be what I use most for the rest of the year. My wishlist contains a TarpTent Rainbow, but it will have to wait for now. Fires are not allowed in the "backcountry" of Mineral Wells, so I removed the firering someone had left in our campsite. It rained on us before supper, but it felt refreshing after the sweaty hike. For supper I used a ramen noodle package (not using the fl

It was getting on into late afternoon, so I hooked up with trail #33 on the ridge, and started off, hoping to get of the ridge to camp for the night. The blurb I had read about the trail said there weren't many level spots on the trail for a couple of miles once off the ridge, so I knew I'd have to make good time. Of course, the snow, which on the ridge was nearly 6ft tall in places, fixed that. On the ridge at least 3/4 of a mile was spent on deep (to me) snow. I had to use my map and compass to be sure that I was staying fairly close to the trail. While I usually grumble about morons defacing nature, it was nice to be able to see that I was doing a good job at staying near the trail when I saw where people had carved their names into the aspen trunks. I found a sheltered spot without snow and camped at 10,000 feet for the night. After setting camp up, I scouted ahead, the trail was under even more deep snow. I'd also passed up the one water source on the ridge, so I us

I made the 6.5 hour drive up to Ruidoso this week to see the White Mountain Wilderness. What is an wilderness? * A place that is mostly biologically intact ; and, * A place that is legally protected so that it remains wild, and free of industrial infrastructure, and open to traditional indigenous use, or low impact recreation. Wikipedia has this to say: The US National Wilderness Preservation System protects federally managed land areas that are of a pristine condition. It was established by the Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577) upon the signature of President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964. The National Wilderness Preservation System originally created hundreds of wilderness zones within already protected federally administered property, consisting of over 9 million acres (36,000 km²). As of August 2008, a total of 704 separate wilderness areas, encompassing 107,514,938 acres (435,098 km2) had been set aside.[1] With the passage of the Omnibus Public Lands Act in March 20

The next morning I made the worst mistake of the trip, and filled my pockets with most of the ten essentials to day hike the rest of the Last Chance Canyon trail. My ankle was still sore, and I thought a day of mostly pack-free hiking would be good. Originally, I had planned on camping in the same spot, but it was not a great spot, and I had been less than comfortable. So, I packed camp, and left my pack under a tree. The trail climbed up the canyon wall, and for most of a mile was little more than a foot to 18" wide. As I walked along this narrow ledge, 200 feet above the creek, I could see that something had been nibbling the blossoms off the of the yucca. Once the trail started back down into creek bottom, I discovered what: a rangy bull. His back was too me, and the wind was in my face, so he had no idea I was there. I wanted to let him know that I was there, so he would not be surprised, or if there was a goring scheduled for today, to get it over with. He snorted, pawe

As usual, click the photos for my awesome flickr page of these photos. The next morning I filtered a couple of quarts of water and started up Roberts canyon. I didn't really have anything in mind, other trying to see every nook and cranny. Soon I saw an interesting place up the canyon wall A little hole in the rock that might make a good place to see down Roberts Canyon, and to have a little lunch. If it had been a little deeper, it could have been used as an Apache rock shelter, but I don't believe it was used as one. The little research I have done indicates that it would have been a little deep, and there were no signs of fire. It was also on a south facing slope, which would give more sun, and maybe some wind protection in the winter, but would be much too warm in the summer time. I cannot really discuss this intelligently, as that I have done too little study on the matter. That is something I need to remedy. Whether or not Mescalero Apache used this little shelf t