The wind dropped and a wrap around blue sky persuaded me to down garden tools, take on the chill mid forties temperatures and head out onto the walking path on Friday afternoon this week.
Walking soon warmed me burning off the cold edge from snow currently happening further north in Santa Fe.
Somehow I have missed the seven mile marker (north to south) but on this walk I found the spiral of six miles (north to south), which the key on the trailhead signboards tells me represents the sun.
Sheltering under a Larrea tridentata (creosote) bush, this six mile marker is in reasonably good
condition, unlike the five mile (south to north) humming bird which I also found on this walk.
One has to go really close and look hard to see the faint outline of the humming bird on the stone.
The desert wrapped outstretched arms around me, sleepy in the midday winter sun, the still air punctuated by occasional crow calls resonating out of an infinite arc of the bluest of blue.
Maybe it's my imagination but the creosote bushes seem a little greener with the moisture of snow a few weeks ago. Maybe.
For the first time I saw other people on the trail. Two young women, walking briskly, heading south as I parked at the Lost Canyon trailhead. I headed north. Snow in Sante Fe draws visitors to the hotsprings and sunshine. It's the enchanted osmosis of this place.
At this point, in my out and back excursions, I have traversed half the 11 mile trail, but there's that niggling missing seven. Is it gone or did I walk by it, eyes and attention in another direction?
My other question is whether I am going to find all the markers before the heat of summer draws me, in a different osmosis, to spend my recreation time on water rather than land, paddling rather than walking?
It is academic really, because there will be another cool season and I don't have to find all the markers in a certain time span.
Right now new season garden preparation is keeping me head down, very busy in a tiny patch of desert earth, with not a lot of longer distance looking at horizon time.
Program Notes
The trail is the West Lakeshore Trail in Elephant Butte Lake State Park.
Use fees apply with various options available. I purchase an annual day use pass which allows me entry to any NM State Park, and, besides great walking opportunities in beautiful geographies, the yellow pass which hangs on my rear view mirror, is my ticket to year round dawn prayer paddles. I live between two big lakes.
The desert crust is fragile. It is essential that trail users stay on the marked trails to reduce negative impact.