First hike in the snow this Fall

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain beating on the roof. I listened to the radio and the weather forecast was for rain/snow here in Santa Fe, the temp only being about 35º. So I pulled out my warm hiking clothes--long-sleeved spandex shirt, waterproof pants, fleece hoodie, smartwool socks. But what jacket to wear? My warmer jacket has lost some of its water shedding ability--I need to NikWax it. So I decided on my unlined but waterproof jacket that I wore all summer and stuffed an extra sweater in my backpack in case I felt cold (and I did at the start of the hike.) My waterproof hiking boots and mittens completed my attire. Brewed up a thermos of herbal tea, had a breakfast of a peanut butter and apple butter sandwich and I sprinted out to the car; it's a half hour drive from where I live to where we were meeting up for the hike.

Three of the people who had signed up for the hike chickened out so that left Dave, myself and a new arrival in Santa Fe, Claire. Dave decided we would hike the Little Tesuque to Big Tesque trail. We've done the area a few times before but Dave always manages to find new trails for us to explore. When we arrived at the trailhead it was snowing hard--fluffy flakes--but there was no wind so that it wasn't too cold. Still my fingers were tingling in my mittens; I have yet to find a pair of gloves or mittens that keep my hands warm at the start of any hike. I usually have the tingles for the first 20 minutes or so until the blood gets flowing down to those extremities. Claire found that her hiking poles wouldn't lock so Dave found a couple of branches for her:

As she was also recovering from a hip injury, Dave modified his usual pattern of lots of hill climbing, something I was very grateful for as I huff and puff on hills. Still, the beginning of the Tesuque hike always involves about 20 minutes of gradual ascent.

This is a fence line that's become very familiar to me; I always feel relieved when we get to it because I know that the trail is going to flatten out for at least half an hour.

Toward the end of the hike Dave had me take the lead, saying that I would be able to pick the trail out. And I was, even with the snow on the ground. Maybe I will graduate to being a hike leader within this coming year!

October 21st A golden Fall

I am now back in New Mexico. Don't know how long I'll be here but, oh well, I've come to terms with that over the past week of heavy soul searching. So while I am here I am going to enjoy it with my weekly hikes up into the mountains.

Having grown up in the East, I remember magnificent Fall colours. Reds and deep greens and golds. Here in this part of the Southwest though, we have the aspen. I do believe they give the maples a run for their money. Take a look at these photos and tell me if you agree:

Someone on a hike last week said that she thought of the sky here in Santa Fe as "our ocean." I think that's very apt. While I sometimes miss the sound of waves crashing against rocks, there is a similar feeling of spaciousness, of timelessness looking up at our amazing sky. The midday color, that blinding blue. The cloud formations. The "dry rain" that is called virga; the moisture evaporates before it touches the ground. The evening sunsets, which are incomparably beautiful--although Arizonans would probably demur. The night sky with its thousands and thousands of stars. I remember a hike I took earlier this year--a full moon hike--where one of my fellow hikers pointed out almost every single one of the constellations that comprise the Zodiac. Wow, I had never seen that before.

There is so much to see here when I pay attention, when I am not immersed in my arguments with myself. "Be still and know that I am God"--if I place the emphasis on the pronoun "I" while saying this aloud, then all my machinations, all my worrying over making decisions, get put into perspective. "I" am not God and my creations are very small in comparison to His. I need to nurture them though and keep on creating, always being aware of what my place is in this world. A blog is a creation, relationships are creations. Dreams and worries that float away in my mind are not.

Ironically, though, after all my talk about gold and blue skies, it has been raining throughout the night and into the early morning. No virga, just honest to goodness rain that puddles on the ground. But I no longer here the "pipipipipip" on the skylights so perhaps it has stopped. The cat-who-lives-in-this-house, Flame, is lying beside me, having missed out on his usual morning poke around the back yard.

And my car sits in the driveway, the bird poop washed away (Sheila would be so pleased, she of the "bucket and soap every morning and those blasted pigeons" brigade), glistening in all its newness once again. I am not really "into" cars, not like my dh is and my dad was. This is a nice car, it performs well. But, truthfully, I'd rather have a home than a car. It was just that this was less expensive and easier to choose :) But I also want to say a quick word about our modern buying and selling and the lies that we tell one another. The car salesman told me this was a great deal. We had exchanged stories about how car salespeople cheat women and he was forewarned that I was in no mood for being shmoozed. So he didn't "shmooze" me, just told me the great things about this car and let me decide for myself. I only know certain "great things" about cars--how it drives, what the gas mileage is, does it have cruise control--just the basics and not much more than that. Dh wasn't around when I bought the car. As soon as I brought it back to Santa Fe, he immediately noticed that the back tires were different from the front. ???? Was I supposed to check that? So he called my salesman and the salesman gives this story about one back tire having had a blowout so they had to replace the other back tire as well. Dh says, why different tires and where's the warranty on the tires? Oh, said the salesman, ummm, well, we just buy tires from a tire place and I'll have to get the warranty. So on my almost-new car with 7000-odd miles, I have a pair of Michelins on the front and a pair of cheap tires on the back. Sigh. And no floor mats. Another sigh. And the CD player doesn't work properly. At least that's under warranty. What have I learned from this. Well, it's kind of like what Susan in "Miracle on 34th Street" says to Kris Kringle: "You're a very nice man, but you're not Santa Claus." Caveat emptor, buyer beware.

Sept 22nd to Sept 26th: From the Highlands to the Rockies

I arrived back in the U.S. on September 22nd. My dh met me and we immediately began driving to Alberta to visit my mil. It was a 600 mile drive in our old Toyota and we did it in about 10 hours. Jet lagged and bleary eyed, I stumbled along with dh while we visited with mil and tried to help her clear out her house. The high point of our visit, however, was a trip to Waterton Provincial Park. As I looked at these photos of the Rockies, I thought back on my trip to the Highlands in Scotland just two months before. Both places so very beautiful, similar in many ways except of course that the Rockies are much higher.

One view of Waterton Lake from the Prince of Wales Hotel.

And another view.

Sunlight dancing on Cameron Lake. Unfortunately, the sun also reflected on my camera lens. Need to learn how to compensate for that :)

Dh, mil and myself enjoying the sunshine at Cameron Lake. One of the few relaxing moments in my "re-entry" to North America. The next day we were back in the car, driving another 1300 miles in 2.5 days.

On the way, we managed to pick up a passenger, an abandoned cat that we found wandering at a scenic point at the vermilion cliffs. Didn't get a photo of the cat, but this is the area that the poor thing was abandoned in. Temperature was about 98º and she was so thin! She traveled with us all the way until we got to our dd's town in southern AZ where the animal shelter took her in, promising us that she'd be well looked after.

The three of us did see more spectacular scenery around the North Rim of the Grand Canyon though.