Ojito Wilderness, Feb 28

I returned to Ojito again the end of February.  The first time I visited Ojito was April of 2013.  With the addition of my GPS I feel a little more comfortable with wandering farther into the wilderness.  I still have ...

my compass and still look back from the direction I came just in case.  Yes that is me at the end of February wearing just a light jacket.

I convinced Byron to come along so the two of us explored and collected images all along the way.  As usual the photography took precedence so mileage was secondary to images.  I am slowly learning from Byron to stop along the way to take advantage of whatever presents itself.  I am usually one of those guys that have a destination in mind and there had better be something spectacular for me to want to stop on the way to my destination.  It’s a different story once I get there, then I stop and look, but in between, there is no stopping, except when necessary.  With Byron stopping I have seen quite a number of things I would not have had the opportunity to see.

At least on this trip we didn’t get much farther than my first expedition last year.  I did see different things this time around.  Because I photographed the area with a wide zoom lens the first time I decided to challenge myself by using my 100mm fixed lens instead.  It took a while to get used to photographing details instead of overall expanses.  Overall I’m not as happy with the images I made but I will continue to challenge myself this way.  You see details within the landscape along with evidence of man having been in the area for some time.  The Ojito Wilderness area is both for those of us that like to hike, camp and explore as well as ranchers that bring their cattle out to feed.  I feel sorry for the cattle that roam this area because the pickings are pretty slim.

When Byron and I go out on these hikes we start out together then once we spot things of interest to photograph we start out photographing together then wander our separate ways, usually not very far apart, a few hundred feet or so but we find each other within 5 to 15 minutes or so.  This time I wandered one way and Byron another.  We were separated for 20 to 30 minutes.  We both knew the way back to the car but I was worried how we would find each other if one of us got hurt.  All of a sudden the area where we were hiking got very large and inhospitable.  As it turns out he saw me as I was looking for him but I didn’t see him so he was okay but I was still uncertain.  Finally we caught up with each other and he decided he is going to bring his hand held radios so we can at least talk with each other if/when it happens again.  In subsequent hikes we have picked obvious spots along our path to rendezvous if we get separated.  I can only suggest that for those of you that read this and go hiking you do the same.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark