Hikes are Therapy

I got to spend a couple of hours outdoors on a hike today.  I always seem to forget that one way to release stress is to get out and go on a hike.  I tend to just sit and suffer until I feel better.  I take the hard way instead of doing something easy--taking a hike!

So today I tagged along with a group from my church (Unitarian Universalist) of middle school kids and a couple of their advisors. We set out to explore the Quemazon Trail and find the Cave of the Winds.  I've never been on this trail so was excited about setting out somewhere new.  We parked at the little lot at the trailhead, walked along the trail, then turned left at the water tank to go up the hill.  Some of the trail had us walking in ponderosa pines that had survived the fire but most of the trail was in the burn area. The view from different points along the way were beautiful.  This photo on the above right is of our Omega Bridge, which connects our townsite to the Laboratory that is the major employer of our town.  You can see the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the distance.  Santa Fe is below the mountains in the valley toward the right.

I found out that the Quemazon Trail used to be a main route from the Pajarito Plateau to the Valle Caldera and there were wagon ruts carved into the soft volcanic rock along the trail that we walked on.  I could imagine the early homesteaders taking this route in their wagons and how difficult it must have been to go up and down the slope.  I wonder how many days it took.

At the top of the first hill, we walked into the recovery area, and it was an area of such contrasts.  There were broken off trees next to new ponderosa pines that were planted as seedlings the first years after the fire.  I know a lot 

of those seedlings didn't make it, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were quite a few around that looked healthy (reports say that 45% of seedlings have survived).  There were grasses everywhere also, which were green a few months ago, but now are brown.  Some purple asters and a few little berry bushes were also dotted around the area.

We found a trail marker off to the left of the trail that marked the way to the Cave of the Winds.  Without that trail marker and someone who had been on the trail before, we would not have made the left turn!  We walked a little way toward the canyon and at the edge, we headed down. The opening to the cave was about 50 feet down the hill and my knee felt every foot of it (damn patellar tendonitis!).  

One by one, we went into the small opening and I was surprised that the cave opened up to a large space that was the size of my living room, maybe even bigger (left photo).  There was an extra "room" off the back side of the cave that we discovered and once we got into that area, we turned off all our flashlights.  It was completely dark!  Flashlights did pop back on pretty quickly :-)).

After exploring the cave, we climbed out to sit on the rocks and 

have some water and snacks.  I was surprised again when looking across the canyon to the other side.  The other side of the canyon was devastated by the fire while the hill that we were sitting on still had tall ponderosa pines scattered all over it.

I thought that this is what was meant when the news reporters said that the fire had "jumped the canyon" and was headed toward town.  The fire just jumped over the slope we were on and burned the top of the hill.

The walk back didn't feel like it took as long as the walk up.  I think it was a total of about 2 miles and just the right length for someone who hasn't hiked in a while.  The weather was beautiful, the company was pleasant, and the kids didn't complain at all.  It was a fun expedition and I can't wait until the next time I can go out hiking.

 ~~~~~~~~~
Neat

Fires

I was born and raised in northern California (as I've mentioned in my profile) and moved to the Land of Enchantment 9 years ago this week.  When we first visited here on a house hunting trip in September 1999, it was a beautiful town with mountains covered in evergreen pinon and ponderosa pine trees and gorgeous quaking aspen.  I always thought it looked like Lake Tahoe without the lake!  When we came to our new home a month later, we were told that we should have come a couple of weeks earlier so that we could have seen the fall colors with the aspens and oaks turning orange to yellow on the mountains.

About 6 months after we moved here a great fire burned through our mountains and our town.  We never did see the orange hills in the fall.  Four hundred homes were lost and the beautiful green hills were gone forever.  We were evacuated from town on May 5, 2000 when the fires were said to have "hopped the canyon" and were headed for the homes in what was called "the western area".  We scrambled to get our most valuable belongings together and packed into the cars and joined the other vehicles that were on the road evacuating town.  As I sat there in the car at a standstill I was pointed toward the hills and watched in horror as the flames burned right in front of me.  Sure, it was about 50 feet up the hill but it was in my direct view and really was frightening.  We learned later that the homes directly below where the fires were seen on the mountain and in between the main road were lost.

When I was looking at various website's Week in Pictures links as I like to do each week, I was struck by this photo below from Yahoo!'s Week in Photos:

This photo was taken in Southern California in the San Fernando Valley area and reminded me of what the view was as we evacuated town all those years ago, only with the cars facing the opposite direction and it being later in the day in the above photo.  We evacuated town in early afternoon so it was still pretty light.  When I saw the photo I felt a hard pang in my stomach, even after all these years.  Hy heart goes out to everyone affected by the fires.

Now, over 8 years later, the aspen trees are filling the mountain areas little by little.  Each year is better and this year in the spring and summer, there was green "up there in them-thar hills".  And this fall we've seen some oranges and yellows from the new stands of aspens in the brown hills.  They say the pines won't come back for at least 30 years but at least we're seeing recovery (this photo taken this spring and the first two photos at the beginning of this blog via The WoodsWanderer).

Our town is still beautiful but scarred.  It doesn't look like I remember Lake Tahoe looking anymore, but is fantastic regardless.  If you ask me, it is the people who make this town beautiful!