more mountains
Sep. 9th, 2010 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaI've been doing stuff! But somehow failing to update.
Over Labor Day weekend, Britt and I drove down to Taos and camped on a mesa above the Rio Grande Gorge with some friends who were going to a music festival there. We, however, were there to climb Wheeler Peak, at 13,161 feet the high point of New Mexico. My friend Audra (who I know from a running forum; we met in person at the Boston Marathon) and her wife Loren are "highpointers" - they're visiting each state high point, both the trivial and the arduous - and Wheeler would be their first stop on a swing of western states.
They were flying in to ABQ late Saturday afternoon, and wouldn't be at our camp spot until that evening, so when our friends headed to the festival, Britt and I explored the dirt roads of the area on our mountain bikes. It was pretty nifty. We had to descend to a tiny bridge over the gorge and then climb out of it, and the scrubland on top had all sorts of architecturally weird houses - rickety cabins built around and on top of singlewide trailers, adobe houses which sprouted towers and domes, Earthships, you name it. Unfortunately, when we'd finished our ride and were on the turn-off to our camp spot, no more than 100 feet from the van, my front wheel slid into a rut and I took a hard fall and landed on a sharp rock which gouged a significant hole in my elbow. After cleaning it off as best we could, we decided it would be wise to get it taken care of professionally, so we drove in to Taos and found an urgent care clinic where I was cleaned off, x-rayed (it wasn't broken), and given five stitches, a tetanus shot, and a course of antibiotics.
This did not, of course, stop me from climbing Wheeler the next day. Audra and Loren had arrived just after sunset and we all went to bed fairly early, then woke to watch the balloon flight over the Rio Grande Gorge while we ate breakfast, then drove to the trailhead. There are two trailheads, actually, and we left their rental car at one and drove the van up to the other, so we could do it as a through-hike, 4 steep miles up and 8 less-steep but still challenging miles down.
It was a beautiful day, but very windy, and the final ridge to the summit was accomplished only by digging our poles in as support and leaning into the wind. Audra and Loren took photos on top and officially signed in while Britt and I found a lunch spot on the downwind side. The first part of the return was along a long ridge and we almost got blown off a few times, but persevered over the hump of Mt. Fraser (where the photo below of Loren, Audra, and me was taken, with Wheeler's summit behind us) and then worked our way back down to the second trailhead at the Taos ski area. For the last several miles we heard distorted snatches of music from the festival, carried on the wind.
We drove back to the Rio Grande Gorge, this time camping very close to the Manby Hot Springs trailhead. That evening we watched as a constant stream of people went down to the natural hot springs along the river, but the next morning we made our coffee and headed down before breakfast and had it to ourselves. Several pools had been constructed out of the river rock; we found a nice warm one big enough for the four of us and spent an hour or so soaking out the aches from the previous day. Afterward, we hiked back up to our camp and breakfasted, then drove out to gawk at the high bridge over the river, where we said goodbye to Loren and Audra (who were headed next for the Oklahoma high point) and headed back to Colorado.
This Saturday I'm running the Imogene Pass Run for the third time. (First, second.) I'm not sure how I'll do this year; I'm not running as much as I was last year because of my recovery from peroneal tendinitis, but I've been faster at the short distances. My A goal is 3:49 or faster; my B goal is to beat my last year's time of 3:55, and my C goal is to just get under 4 hours. We shall see.
Over Labor Day weekend, Britt and I drove down to Taos and camped on a mesa above the Rio Grande Gorge with some friends who were going to a music festival there. We, however, were there to climb Wheeler Peak, at 13,161 feet the high point of New Mexico. My friend Audra (who I know from a running forum; we met in person at the Boston Marathon) and her wife Loren are "highpointers" - they're visiting each state high point, both the trivial and the arduous - and Wheeler would be their first stop on a swing of western states.
They were flying in to ABQ late Saturday afternoon, and wouldn't be at our camp spot until that evening, so when our friends headed to the festival, Britt and I explored the dirt roads of the area on our mountain bikes. It was pretty nifty. We had to descend to a tiny bridge over the gorge and then climb out of it, and the scrubland on top had all sorts of architecturally weird houses - rickety cabins built around and on top of singlewide trailers, adobe houses which sprouted towers and domes, Earthships, you name it. Unfortunately, when we'd finished our ride and were on the turn-off to our camp spot, no more than 100 feet from the van, my front wheel slid into a rut and I took a hard fall and landed on a sharp rock which gouged a significant hole in my elbow. After cleaning it off as best we could, we decided it would be wise to get it taken care of professionally, so we drove in to Taos and found an urgent care clinic where I was cleaned off, x-rayed (it wasn't broken), and given five stitches, a tetanus shot, and a course of antibiotics.
This did not, of course, stop me from climbing Wheeler the next day. Audra and Loren had arrived just after sunset and we all went to bed fairly early, then woke to watch the balloon flight over the Rio Grande Gorge while we ate breakfast, then drove to the trailhead. There are two trailheads, actually, and we left their rental car at one and drove the van up to the other, so we could do it as a through-hike, 4 steep miles up and 8 less-steep but still challenging miles down.
It was a beautiful day, but very windy, and the final ridge to the summit was accomplished only by digging our poles in as support and leaning into the wind. Audra and Loren took photos on top and officially signed in while Britt and I found a lunch spot on the downwind side. The first part of the return was along a long ridge and we almost got blown off a few times, but persevered over the hump of Mt. Fraser (where the photo below of Loren, Audra, and me was taken, with Wheeler's summit behind us) and then worked our way back down to the second trailhead at the Taos ski area. For the last several miles we heard distorted snatches of music from the festival, carried on the wind.
We drove back to the Rio Grande Gorge, this time camping very close to the Manby Hot Springs trailhead. That evening we watched as a constant stream of people went down to the natural hot springs along the river, but the next morning we made our coffee and headed down before breakfast and had it to ourselves. Several pools had been constructed out of the river rock; we found a nice warm one big enough for the four of us and spent an hour or so soaking out the aches from the previous day. Afterward, we hiked back up to our camp and breakfasted, then drove out to gawk at the high bridge over the river, where we said goodbye to Loren and Audra (who were headed next for the Oklahoma high point) and headed back to Colorado.
This Saturday I'm running the Imogene Pass Run for the third time. (First, second.) I'm not sure how I'll do this year; I'm not running as much as I was last year because of my recovery from peroneal tendinitis, but I've been faster at the short distances. My A goal is 3:49 or faster; my B goal is to beat my last year's time of 3:55, and my C goal is to just get under 4 hours. We shall see.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-10 10:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-10 04:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-10 01:33 pm (UTC)You live in a beautiful land. Good luck with Imogene. Next weekend is the USAF Marathon. My goal is to finish, period.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-10 04:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-10 04:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-11 09:18 am (UTC)Good luck in your race tomorrow!