Multiconstruct

It’s Christmas evening and I’m camped at the Cherry Creek Campground in the Gila Mountains. I had a room last night in Silver City and a night with heat and a king size bed got me to go back into the mountains which I hadn’t explored much traveling through them to go to the Cliff Dwellings and back out before dark.

I lounged in the hotel until checkout as is my wont. The travel and hiking and the cold has tended to wear me down so my hotel time is not as productive as I planned. I just want to watch some TV and enjoy the amenities.

I went to The Big Ditch which had been Main Street in Silver City but with logging and grazing big floods would sweep through and dug a big gulch through town. Eventually they built a couple bridges and stabilized it and are trying to turn it into a riparian area. Only 2% of New Mexico is riparian so it’s valuable habitat even in its half-assed form.

After that I planned to see the ghost town, Pinos Altos, in the foothills but there wasn’t much to it. It’s a going concern and ghost town is a misnomer. I hiked a short interpretive hike on early gold mining and grabbed a camp seat. After walking up the creek bed, down the road and climbing around on some rocks I dropped in on my neighbors camp.

I had loaned them my axe and it was 8 young Syrians. They were really gracious and pushed water on me and a nice seed/nut mix. We enjoyed the fire and hiked up the hill above the campground. They were nice young men and 55 seemed old to them which was funny.

The unexpected party and texts, calls and social media connections with family and friends made for a pretty nice Christmas. The full moon is a nice bonus.

I am still quite behind in my narrative. After Guadalupe, I camped at a BLM campground and went from there to Carlsbad Caverns. I met another traveler who was making coffee in the parking lot named Jon and he ended up being on my tour.

The Caverns are amazing. Mostly I stay off the beaten path but sometimes you have to dip into super mainstream country to see something amazing. The Big Room is the largest cave in North America and there are seemingly endless features. I’m writing this without a signal so I’ll add photos later.

I climbed out of the Caverns to get my cardio which I’m glad I did as their were lots of features still to see. Jon invited me for lunch at his camp on BLM land towards Carlsbad. Jon shared a couple chapters of his novel and it was a pleasant afternoon. Lunch was excellent, lentils with broccoli and sausage. We also smoked some of Jon’s mom’s weed and he sent me with a joint to go. It’s nice to be in a legal state.

Post Script: Back in Silver City. Going to hike the Dragonfly Trail to see some petroglyphs then catch the Mimbre pottery exhibit at the local university. Going to try and find some BLM land at lower elevation to camp, it was 19 degrees when I got up this morning.