DAY 23: NEW MEXICO *BONUS DAY*

In the original plan, today was the day I was set to arrive back in Pittsburgh. In a later plan, I would be headed further east today. Some plans are meant to be broken. So today I am still here in New Mexico, ready to celebrate the heck out of Sunday Funday, adventuring with my new friends.

The day started off around 7am for me. Going to the kitchen booth to type and, when the blog article was done, I hand washed the dishes to help clean up. Portland had slept with Luke and Valentine, favoring cozy beds to a spot on a couch, but he was the first to appear in the kitchen before the others. The morning was a bit slow from then on, with lounging and slowly moving towards breakfast, which Luke and Valentine created while I got ready and F-something jets from the nearby Air Force base flew overhead. ”This is Maverick requesting fly by...it’s time to buzz the tower.” I couldn’t help having Top Gun quotes spring to mind.

Eventually, we went out to watch the skies from the front yard, where Portland sniffed and roamed after breakfast. Breakfast was coffee, omlets with gorgonzola, tomatoes, and arugula, wilted spinach with nutritional yeast, and toast smeared with homemade ghee. I wanted to know more about ghee, since it is something that I have often seen but never bought or understood. It is a further rendered butter with a nutty flavor, apparently healthier and with a higher smoke point than regular butter. It was tasty on toast. Bone broth followed later, an afterthought this morning, but deemed necessary.

We started to pack up for the day and get ready to hit the road, packing snacks, towels, swimsuits and sunscreen for our day of adventure further north in New Mexico. It was around noon when we finally loaded into Luke's car and I sat in the backseat with Portland.

We drove maybe an hour or so, passing the Sandia Mountains, where we'd hiked yesterday, and out to the BLM Lands at White Ridge bike trails. I've been seeing BLM on a lot of signs during this trip, and for the first bit of the trip only one BLM meaning stuck in my mind. On Friday, it dawned on me BLM is the Bureau of Land Management, and these are public lands, open for multi-use. Somehow I equated these places to a good remote place to commit crimes when we had all talked and laughed about this on Friday night. In actuality, it’s more like a State Park with different rules and designated uses.

The drive out to White Ridge was beautiful, with a bumpy road to get up to the trailhead. Here, there is a network of mountain bike and hiking multi-use trails around a large canyon. A short walk from the parking lot, revealed a sudden drop and expansive canyon with bright red colors striped into the landscape. It was shocking and beautiful - breathtaking. Here on the top, the ground is whitish grey crust and ground packed cryptobiotic soil (soil that contains billions of microorganisms), and there is a lot of gypsum in the area. The gypsum could be seen along the trail and a gypsum mine was off in the distance and Luke pointed it out at one point in the hike. Such a good descriptive tour guide, always pointing out landmarks for orientation and sharing his knowledge of the area.

We walked along the narrow, single track trail near the edge of the canyon, called Dragon's Back. The trail up top seemed so different than the surrounding lands to our left and the canyon to our right. Where we walked, there were many desert plants on the bright light surface with sinkholes here and there on the delicate soil. The “crust” layer looked a little darker, more brownish grey and bumpy like jagged pumice, but much more delicate. Signs at the trailhead read, “don’t bust the crust,” to promote the importance of staying on trail in the fragile landscape. There were junipers and the craggly old skeletons of twisting dry wood, from old junipers from a past time.

We walked on and on, the slight muffled crunch of the path underfoot somewhat calming and meditative. At one point, we turned a corner in the trail and walked up a short hill, and the next thing I knew Portland was just on the edge of the canyon ridge, looking over! He is such a funny pup.

We could hear guns being fired in the distance from shooting ranges on the BLM lands, but when there were no shots, it was only the wind and our on and off conversation that could be heard. We had seen a few mountain bikers closer to the trailhead, but we seemed to be the only ones out here for most of our hike.

Walking along the spine of the Dragon's Back was so beautiful. Always something new to notice, like the colors in the landscape, puffy clouds, or new extensions of the trail reaching even further into the distance. The whole trail is a loop that Luke estimated was eight or nine miles, wrapping around the other rim of the canyon. A hike that long would have to wait for another day. I am not a mountain biker, but some of these trails looked doable and fun, while others looked scary!

We hiked for about an hour in one direction, took some pictures, and started to head back towards the car. Portland leads the way on most hikes, liking to be in front, but looking back every so often to make sure the group is still intact. The hike was fully exposed to the elements -- sun and wind today, and it felt pretty warm at times in the fall sun, but the temperature was perfect. The trip back took less time, as it always does. There were a few minutes to look at interpretive signage at the trailhead before we went back to the car to snack on apples, long narrow strips of cheddar cheese, and dried apricots.

We drove back down the road and I had been told about the cows grazing in the fields potentially eating the cactuses that grow there. The thin, winding branched, extra spikey cacti. We hadn't seen the herd of cows in the field on our way up, but they were there now. Sure enough, we spotted a cow or two nibbling on the cactus and also using it like a head scratcher, rubbing against it. What a sight!

Outside of the park, and on route to our next adventure, we stopped at a Speedway for a lunch of snacks. I thought we'd packed in enough car snacks for the day, but I was also hopeful for something more substantial for lunch. We went into the gas station market, and spent some time making our selections. Back at the car, we did a little show and tell with our finds. I had picked out some green chili beef jerky that is locally made, Gardetto's rye pieces, elote Mexican candies that are all covered in chili powder, turning into strawberry flavor towards the end. I also bought a Bai coconut water, which just sounded so hydrating, and a six pack of Happy Camper IPA from Santa Fe Brewing Company for victory beers at our next stop.

We snacked and each had a chile elote lollipop, driving on through Jemez, NM, a small town past the start of the stunning red rocks and the climb into the mountains on highway 376, which of course, made me think of the 376 back in Pittsburgh. Our final destination was San Antonio Hot Springs, a bit further up into the mountains. There was a chance that the seasonally closed gate could be closed. If it was, we would have an even longer and more challenging hike to complete. Luckily, the gates were open. We drove up the bumpy road for six or so miles, parked and packed up all that we would need for the short hike to the hot springs. It was a little more than three quarters of a mile, down a blocked off service road with deep red soil, across a bridge above a stream that shimmered in the near dusk, and up a short stretch of switchbacks to the hot springs pools.

At the pools, there were maybe ten or so other people, relaxing in the cascading pools, probably eight or so pools in all, cutting down the hillside with incredible views across the valley. We had seen a lot of people leaving on our way in, so we were hopeful that we'd have a bit more room to roam, but we chose the lowest (and therefore a bit cooler in temperature) of the pools to have the most privacy and room between Portland and the other dogs.

We'd seen a few off leash dogs along the trail and running around here by the side of the hot springs, and Luke and Valentine were quick to intercept the other pups, triangulating around me and Portland while I held him. We waded across the row of three shallow pools in our swimsuits in the quickly fading light. I found a spot to perch my daypack to keep it dry, and Portland waded into the warm water of the pool. It would have been great to get into the warmer and deeper waters up top.

The view was incredible on a pine forested hillside, with the mountain rising up behind us and across from us on the other side. Tall, vertical pillars of sand colored rock marked the hillside across from us, and I was told that there is another trail route down from the campsite at the top of that ridge. I would love to return and camp here in warmer weather.

It was in the 30's now, as the last of the daylight faded and the stars started to pop out. I had known that this wouldn't be the most comfortable resting situation for Portland, but I draped his fleece blanket from the car across a flat part in the rock between pools and he was able to sit or lay there somewhat comfortably, although the blanket got soaked. We cracked open a round of beers and enjoyed the warm water and the view. Portland hopped into the water when he got cold, and waded around visiting each of us in the water.

Even with other people around, it was quiet and relaxing. So much so that we thought some of the other pools might be open after seeing some people leave, and Valentine and I explored a bit with my headlamp, but they were all still occupied.

We stayed and talked and stared up at the sky, letting our eyes adjust and seeing the band of the Milky Way in its shimmering wisp across the sky. These were definitely the best stars that I've seen on this trip, and I wished I had my Nikon to try to capture some of it. We were there for awhile, but I would've loved to stay longer. It was later than we'd thought we'd be here, although it was only around 6:30pm when we got out and dried off and got ready for our trek back down the hill. I was the only one with a headlamp, but phone flashlights worked fine for Luke and Valentine, and we quickly made our way down the switchbacks and across the bridge in the dark.

At the end of the road, we killed our lights and took another minute to stare into the sky. We thought we saw a planet above the hillside where we'd just been, and we'd seen many satellites pass by. I saw a constellation near the horizon in the direction we were headed that looked a lot like Orion but was missing some stars and the belt. I think it was Orion and remembered that at Goblin Valley, some of the constallation’s stars had appeared more clearly later in the evening.

The walk back went by quickly, talking about camping gear, and we got Portland all cozy in some airline blankets that Luke had in the car. We turned up the heat as we drove out of the mountains, starting to think about dinner ideas, and listening to an old Jurassic 5 CD (it had been The Head and the Heart on our way up).

It had been a long and exciting day, and I think we all started to feel tired as we drove through the darkness toward town. We hadn't had a formal lunch and that never helps on active days like these. We made it back into reception, and Valentine called a few places to see where we might be able to get some food either eat in or take out, but everywhere was closing soon. We would be back in town just after 9pm, and that was the time that a lot of places were doing their last seating.

In town, we stopped by the supermarket, Smith's, and looked in their beer cave at a few local beers. I definitely wanted the Cholo Stout I'd had at Marble last night, and picked up a mixed six pack of Bosque Brewing Company (pronounced Bos-Kay) IPAs, since that is one local brewery we didn't get to visit (it had been a dinner possibility for tonight).

Nearby, we picked up takeout from an Albuquerque staple, Frontier, which has been around since the 70's and is huge big inside, taking up several storefronts, and almost has a dining hall feeling. Big framed art on all the walls, and a tortilla making station where you could watch them make fresh flour tortillas. There is a New Mexican food menu amongst other fast food type meals, and I got the Frontier Burrito which is a beef and bean burrito with green chiles and green chile stew with cheese on top.

We brought the food home to eat around the kitchen table with a beer, and I hungrily devoured my burrito. We shared some songs and favorite artists on Spotify, and I added a bunch to my playlist for the rest of the trip. I tried to make some sense of my car and compact some of the take home beer and new snacks into smaller spaces. It was nice seeing Valentine's art studio space in their spare bedroom, where she paints and creates jewelry. It was such a nice in home studio space with a lot of bright light (even at night) and good vibes.

Everyone was tired, so it was an "early" night soon after dinner. It was already 11pm. I did a quick stretchy yoga and sat down in the kitchen to blog. I had planned to make tea but never made it back up to turn on the kettle, wanting to write as quickly as possible to get a good night's sleep. It'll be back on the road early tomorrow morning and I'm looking forward to more adventures for the rest of the trip.

I'm so thankful to Valentine for allowing me to use her laptop each night, and to both Luke and Valentine for being such great tour guides for the busy weekend of exploring. We met as strangers and will part as friends. I'm looking forward to sharing more adventures in the future with these two.