 |
| South Mountain trail |
I have been going up to the Valles Caldera National Preserve,
VC, a few times each year for the past several years. I’ve taken a few of their guided tours and
hiked around a bit on my own. When I
received an email announcing a ‘Guided Winter Wildlife Adaptations Snowshoeing
Adventure’ I marked my calendar with the hope of snowshoeing. I have never snowshoed before so this will be
an adventure. Now all we need is snow.
 |
| Our short hike across the meadow |
The VC had received 5” of snow from the same storm. We were on for snowshoeing! I kept an eye on the number of people that
signed up for the hike; which is limited to 10.
As of Thursday night there were still 10 open spots. My hiking buddy, Byron, decided to go; he has
never snowshoed either. The rental guy
at REI was not very positive about renting us the snowshoes. “There’s not enough snow, there should be at
least 8”, you will be trekking in mud.”
We rented them anyhow.
 |
| Dark Canyon Picnic Area |
When Saturday arrived it was cool, upper 20’s in Albuquerque
and clouds. All along our drive there
was little to no snow; I was getting worried thinking we had rented snowshoes
for nothing. When we passed Jemez
Springs snow started making a regular appearance. By the time we got to the Dark Canyon Picnic
Area there were several inches of snow everywhere. Of course we stopped for the photo op.
 |
| Frozen pond |
We arrived an hour before the adventure started. We left Albuquerque early not know what kind
of road conditions to expect; fortunately the roads were clear. We signed the official paperwork, met with
our guide, and took a look through their spotting scope at a herd of elk
grazing at the other end of the meadow.
The open meadow is almost 3 x 3 miles so even large elk look small at that
distance. To pass the time before our
adventure we hiked out to one of the ponds about a half mile away. The temperature at the VC is about 19° with
partly cloudy skies. The good thing is
that there is little to no wind. Once we
arrived at the frozen pond Byron and I each went our way to photograph whatever
interested us. The pond looked pretty
well frozen but I was not about to take any chances wandering more than a few
feet from the frozen shoreline.
 |
| Fellow adventurers |
We got back to the visitor’s center just in time to start our
adventure. It turns out that we are the
only two that signed up. Carmen was
glad, she’d rather be out hiking than working in the office, I agree with that
myself. Phil, a VC volunteer, also came
along. We rode a couple miles in one of
the VC vans used to transport visitors to the start of the trail. Once we arrived we all donned our winter
gear, sun screen, water, food, photography equipment and snowshoes. Carmen had scouted the area the previous day
and said that one can go without snowshoes but it will be easier to wear
them. She confirmed we made the right
choice renting the snowshoes.
We trekked along what is a road in summer, disguised as a
groomed path in winter, to the trail head for South Mountain. The path goes along the edge of the meadow I
mentioned before. After about a mile and
a half it turns into the forest and the South Mountain trailhead appears. All along the trail there are animal tracks
crisscrossing our trail. We saw tracks
of coyotes, weasels, voles along a few unidentifiable tracks. As we were driving to the preserve earlier in
the day we saw a coyote roaming across the open meadow. I am amazed at the number a tracks, meaning
that these guys are active most if not all winter. Tracks of the smaller animals and birds are
centered on dried flowers and ‘weeds’.
They see food where we see brown sticks sticking out of the snow. We did see a few birds but they were active
earlier in the day.
We stopped for lunch at the trailhead. It took us about 2 hours to get to this point
and we were all hungry. As usual we made
several stops along the way to photograph and learn about the winter
wildlife. Carmen is an excellent guide
answering our questions and telling us the volcanic history of the area along
with the geology and biology of the preserve.
Once fortified by our lunches we continued up the trail. The trail here is along an old logging road from
when the area was privately owned. It is
on the north side of the mountain and lined with trees. We are in shadows most of the time so it is
cooler than in the sun filled open meadow. There is quite a bit more snow, maybe a foot
or so in some spots. The trail also gets
steeper, not real bad, just enough to make you want to stop and catch your
breath every once in a while. In all we
went up this portion of the trail about a half mile. I think we would have had to go over another
1.5 miles to get to the top of South Mountain.
I’ll save that for another time, maybe when the wildflowers are
blooming.
 |
| South Mountain trail |
We all felt good that we made it as far as we did. Carmen mentioned several times that she’s
tailoring the hike for us. If we wanted
to make it to the top we would have gone for it, instead we are interested in
shooting some nice winter scenes. Keep
an eye out on the VC website and FB page you may see some of our hiking images.
I really enjoyed getting out and snowshoeing. It is only slightly harder than hiking; you
have to pick up your feet a bit more. You
don’t want to have to walk backwards in them otherwise there’s not much of a
difference. My hips were a bit sore the
next day but nothing major. I have been
looking to purchase a pair but wanted to try before I buy. We haven’t had enough snow the past few years
for me to consider even going snowshoeing.
If you are thinking of trying snowshoeing go for it. It is another excuse to get out of the house and
enjoy the great outdoors.
Thank you for stopping by,
Mark
No comments:
Post a Comment