Time To Move On

 

Privacy fence in Pinos Altos, NM, 6 miles north of Silver City.

Hard to believe our 3 weeks in Silver City are just about over. We keep finding new trails to hike and forest roads to drive on. In fact with the Gila National Forest so close, it would take a long time to exhaust all the hiking opportunities nearby.

Boonie suggested a hike to Cross Mountain the other day. A short 1.5 mile climb up to a cross with views of Pinos Altos, a former gold mining town along the Continental Divide. I think Boonie had an epiphany at the top.

Doing an internet search about the cross, I found several different versions of why it was originally built. This seems to be the most common explanation, but over the years it’s significance became religious. Believe it or not.

“Apache attacks continued to plague the area until 1874, when a deal was struck whereby, as long as a cross remained standing on an adjacent mountain, there would be no fighting. Both sides held to the deal and the cross was upgraded a total of three times, just to be on the safe side.”

This skull was posed on a dead tree trunk near the cross.

Views of Pinos Altos from the cross. We’re really happy with the excellent zoom on our Panasonic Lumix FZ200.

Yesterday we hiked along the Tadpole Ridge trail, about another 7 miles north of Pinos Altos on Hwy 15, which leads to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Most trails in the mountains climb from the start, and this was no exception. After a couple miles it leveled out and went along the ridge.

We were accompanied by Debbie, Boonie and his sweet dog, Coffee Girl.  Good company, lots of wildflowers, scenic vistas and perfect weather made for a great few hours of hiking.

Boonie, Coffee Girl and me. Sorry Debbie’s mom, no pictures of her (again).

Views from the trail.

After we dropped off Boonie and his pup, we took a 3 mile detour down a one lane forest service road to a meadow. It was rough and rocky in places but not too bad until we came to a stream crossing. We were surprised to see water, as dry as it’s been here. We got out to assess the stream, and Jim decided it would be fine to drive through. I stayed out and watched and waited, and he made it without any trouble. This off-road stuff is hard for me to get used to!

Tomorrow we are heading to new territory for us, near Alpine, Arizona, where we hope to find a quiet spot in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest to hang out over the Memorial Day weekend. We’ll see how that turns out.

The cats are driving us crazy and Jim thinks we need to find them a real home where they would have more room to run and jump. We love them dearly and it would be hard to give them up, and I ‘m sure we won’t find anyone out there to take them, but I tend to agree with him, they need a bigger place.

Oh, but they can be so sweet sometimes.

We Found It

 

The Net of Doom, Boston Hill, Silver City, NM.

Last year when we met Randy and Boonie and the gang, they told us about a large net over a former mine shaft in the Boston Hill area, near downtown Silver City. We hiked there a couple times but never came across it. This year we were determined to find it, and with a few more hints from Boonie we finally did.

Jim walked out on it a few feet but the net sways and the holes are large enough that a toe could get caught. Having lost his prescription sunglasses on a previous hike, he decided he’d better take his cell phone and keys out of his pockets first.

We’re not sure how deep this shaft is, but I could barely take Jim’s picture and look down into the mine. Trust me, it’s deep. And no, I didn’t even attempt to walk out on it. Especially when I saw this.

Jim thinks it would be more fun to ride a bike over it, but I can’t even imagine doing that.

Now for a bit of history, despite the name, silver mining didn’t amount to much in Silver City. The principal ore mined at Boston Hill was manganiferous iron ore, but that doesn’t make for a very catchy name. Now everyone can hike or mountain bike on the many miles of trails in this rugged, scenic area.

Yesterday we also found the riparian area on Saddlerock Canyon Road that we searched for last week, thanks to Lisa at Metamorphosis Road. We read that there is a gate at the end of the road about a mile and a half in. The first time we drove a couple miles in and didn’t find it, so we thought we missed a turn and went back and found another nice area to hike. Turns out the gate is more like three miles down the road, so we kept going and found it.

A short distance down the road is another sign. To the right is the ATV route, to the left is for hiking only.

We met a couple on the trail who told us you can make a loop and come back down the ATV trail, but they didn’t give us good directions and we weren’t in the mood for getting lost so we just did an out and back hike on both trails. This is what it looks like.

It’s mostly level but sandy, which makes for a little harder walking, but it’s a nice area to explore. We saw several blooming cacti growing right out of the rocks.

A few days ago we met up with Boonie and hiked up to Gomez Peak. Although the trail to the peak was longer than Eighty Mountain, the switchbacks were gentle and it was a pleasant hike. Except for the fear of being struck by lightening and Jim losing his prescription sunglasses that he just got in Mexico last month.

We’ve also hiked with Debbie and the pups at Ft. Bayard. The Big Tree trail is a nice easy few miles, and dogs are allowed off leash.

The Big Tree

In between hiking and a few raindrops, Jim and Debbie managed to put the Eternabond on her roof, also. Jim was contacted by a couple other Lazy Daze owners with some questions about it, so he put a comment in the last blog post with more information and a link, if anyone is interested.

It’s Sealed

 

That would be the roof seams on the Lazy Daze, thanks to some help from Debbie. Jim washed the roof the other morning, and of course whenever you try to do one thing, something else needs attention. He discovered the cap over the sewer vent had broken off, so I went to the nearby RV dealer to get a new one while he finished washing. The one we had was metal and had rusted, and since all they had was a plastic one, that’s what I bought. As per Lazy Days usual overkill, the old one was screwed in place with 10 screws and gobs of caulk. Getting the old one off took lots off elbow grease, but he finally removed it and installed the new one.

Later that afternoon he and Debbie got up on the roof to cover the old seam caulk with Eternabond tape. We’ve been carrying it around since we were in Mission, but it was so humid there Jim was afraid it was always too damp to apply it and was waiting for just the perfect time. I had every intention of getting up there to help, but I found out the previous day on a hike that my fear of heights has come back with a vengeance, and there was no way I was climbing all the way up that ladder to the roof. He and Debbie worked well together and got the tape applied without too much trouble, and I was their gopher.  He plans to help her do the same to her rig in a couple days. We are glad to have that project done, as we hope this will last for as long as we own the Lazy Daze.

The previous day we took a drive to Saddlerock Canyon Rd, just west of Silver City. This is a lovely area with interesting and colorful rock formations.

There are no formal hiking trails, but there are plenty of dirt roads, and you can walk through the canyon washes. The place we picked involved lots of rock scrambling, which we haven’t done in a long time. I had a hard time getting back down some of the places we climbed, and had a couple panic attacks due to my fear of heights, and fear of bees and wasps, which were gathered by a tree we had to pass. Jim finally went on without me until he found a spot even he wasn’t comfortable going up.

Our “trail”.

Where I lost my nerve.

We found several large, level boondocking spots which would be doable. but  we had no cell signal at all.

It’s a lovely area, and we will probably go back and explore it again before we leave Silver City.

Eighty Mountain Hike

 

Jim, Boonie, and I climbed a mountain yesterday, beginning with a couple of miles on the Continental Divide Trail, then an uphill, rocky, trek to the summit of Eighty Mountain.

It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, and we got to meet this sweet little service dog, Penelope, along the trail.

While eating a snack at the top, I saw something come out of a crevice in the rocks. It was the highlight of our hike, watching this guy and trying to get photos without frightening it.

Meet a Crevice Spiny Lizard, also known as Sceloporus poinsettii.

We had a hard time identifying it by pictures on the internet, so Jim emailed a photo to a herpetologist, who was kind enough to respond.

So take a hike, you never know what you might encounter.

Food For Thought

 

I received an email yesterday from my friend Denise in Erie. PA, along with this photo from the Erie Times. Someone placed a “ghost bike” at the intersection of Joann’s accident. She said they hadn’t yet figured out who did it, so I did some research.

It says a sign nearby reads “Live life like there is no tomorrow, because someday there won’t be.” 

I found a Facebook page for BikeErie, a local bicycling advocacy group, and asked the question. Here is their response.

"Gayle, Eric Brozell of Bike Erie started the memorial with the bike. Others from the community added the flowers, sign and additional items."

Here is a photo from BikeErie just after the bike was placed.

I guess the point of this is as a reminder for people passing by to share the road and look out for cyclists. Unfortunately it’s too late for my friend.