Being a child again

This morning's hike was such fun! Eight of us piled into three cars and drove up Big Tesuque. Some of us (me included) didn't have our snowshoes with us but we had yaktrax (cramp-ons) so Dave decided that those with the snowshoes would go ahead and pack down the trail and the yaktrax folks would follow.

As usual, the first half hour was tough; I always have difficulty starting. Thoughts go through my head of turning back and waiting in the car. But I continued on and was grateful that one of the fellows was quite slow too; it gave me plenty of time to stop and breathe. But after the half hour I got my rhythm and the hike became its usual wonderful experience. It was a bit cold--30º--and it started to snow but we were sheltered from the wind in the trees. And I had enough layers on that I was very comfortable. We climbed about 500', up to 10800' and then we went off trail--as Dave likes to do--and that's when it became more difficult. These photos show us at that point.





First, it started snowing harder and those of us without snowshoes started punching through the snow. The snow was about 4' deep in places so when we sank, we sank up to our hips. Although it was difficult, it was still so much fun. We became like kids again, rolling in the snow and laughing as we sank. Even one of the snowshoers slipped and fell in a spray of snow.

But it eventually became too difficult and we turned around and started heading back down. By the time we arrived at the cars, about 5 inches of snow had accumulated and the temps had dropped to 25º. It normally takes us about 30 minutes to drive down the mountains to Santa Fe but because of the slick, windy roads, it took us an hour. The drive home was even worse. My car almost did a 360º turning left on one of the side streets and 15 minutes later a truck almost plowed into the back of my car at a stoplight. I was SO relieved to get home!

I've spent the afternoon relaxing by the gas fire, reading a book and feeling VERY happy to have had 2 hours of fun in the snow!