Friday, June 12, 2009

Hike to the top of Mitchel Trail

Last Sunday we took an awesome hike that began at our own front door. The Mitchel Trail starts a block from our house, and ends at the top of a mountain overlooking Los Alamos, where you can see all the way to Taos, Albuquerque and you could, if you wanted, hike all the way to the ski hill.

When we opened our front door at 9 in the morning, seven deer were staring at us from the vacant lot across the street. Some had the peach fuzz beginnings of horns, and they all watched us closely as we went down the sidewalk to the trail head.

We're just happy to have a hike like this that starts at our front door. It goes through the area burned in the Cerro Grande fire. We started out walking through what looked like a field of fallen telephone poles. The burned pines cleared a space for aspens, brush oak and lots of flowers to grow.

We shared the trail with other families, dogs, and (as we gained altitude) runners. I couldn't believe those people running up the hill. (of course they had less to carry) But later we realized that the trail is the route for an annual race.

Now that Calvin can walk we like to give him a chance to walk on the trail as much as we can. When we reached the first ridge we took Calvin out of his pack and had some snacks. He enjoyed digging in the dirt and drinking out of the water bottle. We were sitting on a log, and he was learning the difference between a log and a stick.

Along the way we saw a multitude of blue beetles with black spots copulating on logs and sticks. There were so many of them, and soon there will be many more.

I wanted to collect some interesting logs to use for a messy art project that I am planning. I put a few twisted branches into my backpack, and later realized that they were slightly infested with spiders. I saw a couple of spiders crawl out of my backpack. I swatted them off. They weren't black widows, so I wasn't too hysterical.

By the time we got back we were starving, and had a big lunch at the Haagen Daaz (they serve sandwiches too).

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Three cavemen



Here's a picture from our hike in Ruidoso, NM last summer.