Santa Fe

Due to a desire to save money for the immediate expedition I am planning on going on.... my plans to go to Colorado's Rocky Mountian National Park were debunked. I instead decided to go to Santa Fe National Forest... and man! The Santa Fe gods do not like me. Ever single time that I have gone there I have both gotten lost, and had the wierdest weather. I checked the weather several times before I went and the weather looked like it was going to be really nice. I spent one night at my friends before I went, and during that night........ it SNOWED! So I get up there and there is snow all over the ground and it is COLD! Just my luck. I luckily brought some extra layers.... but I still froze that night while sleeping.


I ended up only backpacking about 3 miles the first night. Where I stopped was on top of Raven's Ridge, where I saw one of the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen. Here are a couple of pics at that spot.

I woke up the next morning shivering, but hopeful that the sunrise would be worth the pain I endured on the ridge all night... and it wasn't. So I packed up, headed done the ridge and had breakfast at the main trailhead. After breakfast I headed down Windsor Trail 245 hoping to get some amazing fall colors from some Aspen trees that I knew where down there. Unfortunately the cold weather was causing the leaves to fall before they really turned, so most of them were either on the ground, or at the very tops of the trees. This was very dissapointing, because I had several shots in mind that I was not able to get because of the conditions. I managed to pull a couple off though. Here is one of them.

So after about three miles of backpacking, I stopped, read my bible for a while... and took some pictures. Then I decided that I was going to make the trek up to Nambe Lake. Wow! That was rough. I got up there after about 2 hours, and it was at about 11,300 ft., and realized that I did not want to spend the night up there, wet and cold. By then it was already 4:00 and the sunset was at 6:55, so I booked it. I got down back to the main trail in 35 minutes, and then was able to backpack back up the hill (2- 3 miles) and down the initial hill (1 mile) before the sunset. I was so tired though that my knees were giving out the last mile.

With my shoulders cramping and my calves aching, I finally decided that I had enough of Santa Fe for a while. So I stopped and got about 3 energy drinks and 2 cups of coffee and drove back that night. Now I am not a pessimistic person, I am normally very positive, but this trip was a pretty big dissapointment. I think it is becuase I expected certain things out of it, and they didn't happen. I guess thems how the dices roll. I hope that my trip to Maine for the fall colors will be more fruitful. I will keep you posted on my adventures.