I meet Tom at 7 am again, but this time we drive north to Taos before heading into the mountains for one of Tom’s favorite loops over Wheeler Peak, New Mexico’s high point. It is indeed a hike packed with treats: wildflowers, cascading streams, mountain lakes, bighorn sheep, ridges, peaks, and expansive views. We figure the loop is about 23 miles with 5,500 feet of elevation gain.
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Maps and pictures also at Everytrail
It’s likely to get too hot to climb at Penitente this time of year, and we resolve not to sleep in too late to catch the cool morning. That translates to about 8:30 in practice. Dave, Lisa, and Dyson were waiting for us at the campsite last night, and Dre and Serena join us in the morning. Ann and I attempt to “warm up” on a crack across from the virgin wall that we can’t find in any guides, but has anchors and looks pretty easy. We almost can’t do the start. I spot Ann through many falls, then fall a few times myself before fighting through it. Thankfully, the rest of the climb is much easier. We spend the remainder of the day on some of the area’s prime sport routes.
Sport routes:
We’re sore and the day is looking hot, so instead of climbing we start our drive south and stop to check out Mount San Antonio, a solitary volcanic dome that has always piqued my curiosity. There are two summits of nearly equal height, and one of them is home to some radio towers. On our map a forest road leads to the towers. When we find the road, there is a gate across the road stating pretty clearly, “if you pass through this gate, you are trespassing and will be prosecuted”. Our map does show a small square of private property on the lower part of the road, so I attempt to skirt it while Ann stays behind to hunt flowers. Despite the bushwhacking it turns out to be a lovely hike. When I get down a local drives by, and tells me that it’s fine to hike the tower service road, and the real private roads have locked gates.
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When Ann gets off work we head to Cochiti Mesa to check out the climbing there. We find an old trail up the Ponderosa-filled canyon, reach the rocks, and spot bolts, but we can’t identify the climbs at all. After a lot scrambling and scraping through brush we find the last route on the cliff and work our way back. In the end we have time to do one route, Killer Bee 5.9+, the easiest and supposedly lowest quality route on the rock. It was fun enough that we look forward to returning to try more.
As promised, Tom meets me at 7 and takes me to the lush Winsor Creek trailhead in the Pecos valley, where we begin our 4,200-foot climb up to the Santa Fe ridge. Storms move in as we near it, but never hit us directly. The ridge walking is superb, as are the wildflowers and views of storms in the surrounding valleys. We meet the backpackers Tom is guiding and hike with them up Redondo Peak for another 750 feet of climbing, then descend through forest to Johnson Lake, where Tom and I head back for the trailhead to complete our loop.
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Ann prods me to go hiking to get me in a better state of mind this week. I still manage to start in a frustrated mood, having forgotten batteries for my GPS receiver, but that soon fades with the rhythm of a good hill climb up Raven’s Ridge. By the time I reach Desolation Peak I’m feeling great, and there I have a serendipitous encounter.
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Tom Hickey is atop Desolation Peak, and greets me enthusiastically. I follow along the rocky catwalk to Lake Peak, and begin to suspect that he knows his way around this country. I agree to follow him over to Penitente Peak. I soon discover that Tom is a walking trail database, and start interviewing him extensively. By the time we return to the trailhead, I’ve agreed to join him on a longer hike tomorrow.
I can’t think of anything I’d rather do for my birthday weekend than explore a new climbing area! Tres Piedras (Three Rocks) is a tiny town in northern New Mexico, distinguished by three rock formations visible from afar. The largest is partially in Carson National Forest, and has some nice climbing on highly featured granite. I haven’t seen so many chickenheads since making the long, long drive into the Church Domes in the southern Sierra Nevada domelands. Camping in the quiet Ponderosa woods surrounding the rocks is sublime.
Our routes:
I’m pretty much settled in here in Santa Fe now, and my various projects are all underway. Too many projects, it felt like this week. Far from reveling in my freedom from obligatory work, I bit off too much of my own work and got myself even more stressed than I used to be! I dove into working exclusively in Linux on my laptop, then immediately tried to edit a video on it. That alone could drive a person mad. Add outdoorism, my WordPress Geo Mashup Plugin and related freelance work, a new website for one of Ann’s clients, some work on the camper, and I became kind of a mess. I got irritable and made dumb mistakes. And all done to myself! Next week, maybe I’ll be able to hang onto a little more inner peace from outdoor mojo.
Some significant overhauls have been made since the last beta release, which will make this upgrade a little more involved than usual. For details on this and documentation of new features, see the Beta Documentation. If that looks good, go for the download. Please report any issues you have soon – it’s time to get the current beta feature set into a stable release.
This release was supported by www.hidden-teesside.co.uk, publicenergy.co.uk, Vernal Creative, and A blog of my travels by Christopher Weddell. Thanks also to Joost Rooijmans and other users who have been helping out behind the scenes.
The change log:
We feel like climbing cracks today. There is some high cloud cover, which Ann thinks may keep it cool enough to climb at The Overlook in White Rock, another scenic area on the Rio Grande.
Our routes:
