“Bad weather makes for good photography”. One of the many statements uttered from my landscape photo instructors. Bad weather is
promised; rain most of the day Friday and Saturday with partial clearing on
Sunday. How much rain, who knows,
somewhere over a half in is promised in Jemez Springs. I’m going higher so I’m expecting more.
“Where do you want to hike???” “I don’t know where do you want to
hike???” Sometimes that’s how our hiking
discussions start, other times we already have something in mind. We put this question to the new hiker in our
mini-hiking group, Nicida. It is a bit
unfair to do this because she is relatively new to the area. Laurie and I have been hiking/exploring for
better than the past year always looking for something different. “How about the Valles Caldera?” Valles Caldera (VC) it is.
456 AM comes around early every day for me. That’s the time I programmed my clock radio
to wake me each morning for work. We
want to get an early start on the river so I didn’t change my wake-up time. This morning I got right up; not the usual
lie in bed for an additional 10 to 15 minutes readying my brain for work. Today we are back to fly fishing, the first
time since our weekend on the San Juan this past February; too long.
This is my first camping trip with my camper. I am excited and a bit nervous; do I have
everything?, will I remember to turn things on and off at the appropriate time?,
will I remember to lock the refrigerator before driving? – no, but the results
were not too bad. Do we have enough food?
– more than enough – one issue settled.
Up to this point the range of my hikes has been dictated by leaving,
hiking and returning home the same day.
I have been looking to expand my hiking area by adding day(s) to my explorations. I’ve never really been a hotel person when
getting out for hiking/photographing or fishing, not that I don’t like hotels,
generally they just aren’t located at the trailhead or trout stream of
choice. So for the past period of time I
have been looking for a large pickup and an in-bed truck camper.
My hike into the Inner Basin was an opportunity while I was
in the neighborhood. I’m actually in
Flagstaff to attend the Overland Expo, a marketplace of camping, camping
vehicles, motorcycling. In general different ways of just getting
outdoors. I am interested in seeing
camping equipment; primarily truck campers.
I did stop to see other forms of camping; tents on trucks, tents on
trailers, plain old everyday tents and large expensive and very expensive all
terrain camping vehicles. The only thing
I didn’t explore was camping via motorcycle; I like four wheels and a lot of
sheet metal around me. I’m glad I
went. I didn’t get all my questions
answered but I was able to narrow my choices.
My rental car’s thermometer says it’s 10°. I let the car warm up before taking off on my
photo expedition. Thankfully the car has
heated seats, but they seem to take way too long to warm my butt. Warm air will not pour out of the vents for
another 10 minutes. I’m still going.
This is our final day, and hike for this trip. After loading up with the free breakfast at
the hotel we pack the car and start our trip to Fay Canyon. Laurie texted then called Don to see if he
was hiking or not. No response. Oh well, we can do this one on our own. As we pull into the parking lot Don is
already putting on his pack, waiting for us.
Should have known better.
