Vacay Numero Uno
As you will soon find out, the adventures on this blog are not limited to the local hotdog stand, nor to the exotic and far-reaching edges of the globe (although, technically, globes don't have edges). We begin with a hidden treasure of New Mexico, nestled in the Carson National Forest. We spend the Labor Day weekend in the Cruces Basin Wilderness. But stay tuned next month for none other than... Bora Bora!!!
The Cruces Basin Wilderness is more or less in the middle of nowhere. From Albuquerque, we drove up to Taos, hit the fly fishing store, and then headed west to the Cruces Basin. There aren't too many places where you can still find a campsite late Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend, but this is one of them. Only one message of caution: BEWARE OF BOW HUNTERS! Not that I am normally an advocate of hunter's orange, a fashion faux pas if ever there was one, but I would hate to have one of those pointy things in my derriere.
But first, on the way to Cruces Basin, we stopped at the Rio Grande gorge. Note slightly suicidal doggie in photo.
That night, we camped "boonie style." (This, I am told, means not on a designated tent pad in a designated campground.) "Dispersed camping" is another less fun term for it. We were right next to Los Pinos river. We had read about potentially good fishing here, but no such luck tonight. We settled instead for a quick bike ride, a grilled chicken dinner and a hot game of "DaVinci's Challenge."
When you're married to an engineer, you often get the best of both worlds when camping. Check out the lights! They're hooked up to a transpondster which runs through the discombobulator and finally you can plug them into the gigamatrix. Very cool. You can't see it,
but the lights are actually little chef pigs with their grills and margarita glasses. I tell you, it just doesn't get any better than this.
The next day, we hit the trail. The hubster caught some fish in a creek branching off Los Pinos. Beautiful brook trout. We decided to "bushwhack" our way back to the trailhead, testing out the GPS. Lucky for us, we found the main trail just as the batteries were sputtering and the screen went blank. Shortly thereafter, we witnessed a small cow stampede. This is definitely one of the downsides of this portion of the Carson National Forest: cows everywhere. You know what they say: "Land of many uses." Don't get me started on that one.
On our last day, we went for a mountain bike ride on forest road 87. The highpoint, our lunch spot, was over 10,000 feet, and believe me, I could feel it. Lungs on fire! There were beautiful views of the valley below and San Antonio mountain. It was the perfect way to cap the weekend. If you love biking forest roads, this is a great ride. The dog, now feeling much less suicidal, gleefully galloped along for nearly 15 miles. Not bad!
Interesting camping food worth trying:
1. Mandarin chicken foil packets
2. Ham and sweet potato foil packets
3. Pita pizzas
Check out this link: www.camprecipes.com
The Cruces Basin Wilderness is more or less in the middle of nowhere. From Albuquerque, we drove up to Taos, hit the fly fishing store, and then headed west to the Cruces Basin. There aren't too many places where you can still find a campsite late Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend, but this is one of them. Only one message of caution: BEWARE OF BOW HUNTERS! Not that I am normally an advocate of hunter's orange, a fashion faux pas if ever there was one, but I would hate to have one of those pointy things in my derriere.
But first, on the way to Cruces Basin, we stopped at the Rio Grande gorge. Note slightly suicidal doggie in photo.
That night, we camped "boonie style." (This, I am told, means not on a designated tent pad in a designated campground.) "Dispersed camping" is another less fun term for it. We were right next to Los Pinos river. We had read about potentially good fishing here, but no such luck tonight. We settled instead for a quick bike ride, a grilled chicken dinner and a hot game of "DaVinci's Challenge."
When you're married to an engineer, you often get the best of both worlds when camping. Check out the lights! They're hooked up to a transpondster which runs through the discombobulator and finally you can plug them into the gigamatrix. Very cool. You can't see it,
but the lights are actually little chef pigs with their grills and margarita glasses. I tell you, it just doesn't get any better than this.The next day, we hit the trail. The hubster caught some fish in a creek branching off Los Pinos. Beautiful brook trout. We decided to "bushwhack" our way back to the trailhead, testing out the GPS. Lucky for us, we found the main trail just as the batteries were sputtering and the screen went blank. Shortly thereafter, we witnessed a small cow stampede. This is definitely one of the downsides of this portion of the Carson National Forest: cows everywhere. You know what they say: "Land of many uses." Don't get me started on that one.
On our last day, we went for a mountain bike ride on forest road 87. The highpoint, our lunch spot, was over 10,000 feet, and believe me, I could feel it. Lungs on fire! There were beautiful views of the valley below and San Antonio mountain. It was the perfect way to cap the weekend. If you love biking forest roads, this is a great ride. The dog, now feeling much less suicidal, gleefully galloped along for nearly 15 miles. Not bad!
Interesting camping food worth trying:
1. Mandarin chicken foil packets
2. Ham and sweet potato foil packets
3. Pita pizzas
Check out this link: www.camprecipes.com
posted by K. Murphey at 7:56 PM
1 Comments:
I can't believe this is where you guys went Labor Day weekend. If you had been a week earlier you would have found me cruising rd 87 from north to south. Absolutely incredible ride; especially the 1/2 mile of the road down the hill from where (I think) this pic was taken.
Don't be too tough on the hunters, a couple of guys near Lagunitas CG cooked up a huge dinner and breakfast for us and provided us with plenty of post and pre-ride beer.
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