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East Bay Side Trek
It’s most likely my last night in Berkeley and I’ll be making the long slow way towards home tomorrow. I had planned to leave a couple of days ago but I had a warning light on the electric. Replaced the battery, still no good so swapped out the alternator today. Everything looks good on the meter and the rest drive for burritos.
I haven’t been in any kind of hurry. I’m staying in a boat in the Berkeley Marina. It’s a charming little efficiency apartment with teak wood everything and it rocks you to sleep when it’s windy.
Rich got the diesel heater going and it’s toasty. There was frost in the grass which is uncharacteristic for here, but it’s cold everywhere. Hence why I am in no hurry to leave. It’s only California cold here.
Since I’m writing this at water level I don’t have much signal, so no photos. It’ll be lucky to publish. If it doesn’t I’ll have added some pics. I’m going to turn in, but at least wanted to check in.
(epic road trip 2 #7)
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.
Epic Road Trip 2 #3 (4 forts in Texas)
Well constant reader, I have made it Great Bend National Park and have been here about 4 days. I made much better time than I planned and the trip has become more and more magical. I am in a campsite in the Cottonwood campground drinking a cup of herbal tea and winding down from the drive in before I turn in. I don’t have a signal so I will work in some photos if I get the chance, if I don’t please excuse the wall of text.
I believe I left off in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has a lack of outdoor recreation that makes it really standout, not only in the West but nationally. The conservation area I camped at probably required a hunting permit. My second night in Oklahoma was in a Walmart parking lot.
The bright spot was the Seminole Museum. They have a number of very cool artifacts and their interpretation tells their story very well. I was somewhat familiar but definitely learned something. They had the longest campaign to force their relocation of any tribe. Basically in 3 waves they were defeated militarily and forced to move over 80 years I believe. A remnant was able to maintain in the swamps and that group ultimately received tribal recognition.
The British encouraged slaves to flee to Florida and they were taken into the Seminole Tribe. I also learned the Seminole were a composite group of remnant tribes decimated by disease that formed the Seminole fairly late in history. A lot of their tribal traditions, like dress, were based on trade goods. Trade cloth was a lot better than buckskins for the Florida heat.
They originally started more northerly in Alabama, Georgia and the panhandle but were pushed deeper into Florida. The museum had cultural artifacts and a lot of contemporary art. I did enjoy driving the back roads through Oklahoma. I found a conservation area to camp in after crossing into Texas.
I got an early start but backtracked back a bit to Tulsa and went to a park and botanical gardens that also had the historical museum. The Japanese maple were in all their Fall glory and it has been fun to turn back time to the leaves changing as I’ve traveled south.
I visited 4 forts in Texas under different arrangements and in different conditions. Fort Richardson is in a State Park and has preserved buildings and some recreational similar to Fort Scott. The state park has more buildings open but less interpretation and archeology than the feds but provided an overall better experience. The Fort
Fort Phantom Hill was ruins, mostly chimneys and some stone foundations. Fort Chadbourn was privately owned and run by a foundation, with like 4 people doing it. It has a little bit of ruins but mostly reconstruction. It also had the best collection of artifacts. Lots of guns including guns from the Little Big Horn.
The Comanche had killed a couple guys on a mail run, it was precipitated by one of the soldiers but it got them both killed. The Comanche were confronted and threatened with arrest so they seized an officers barracks and forted up. A Lieutenant kicked the door in and got killed for his trouble but the Comanche were defeated. You could still see the bullet holes. There was also soldier graffiti writing Tecumseh, Michigan about 20 miles from where I grew up. Warmed my Yankee heart.
I had a nice talk about running a nonprofit with my museum tour guide and met the ranch owner who grew up with the ruins and learned they were important in college and built the museum and led the reconstruction. His workman consulted on the stabilization of the chimneys at Fort Phantom Hill, which did have an existent magazine. Ammunition storage buildings are mad so thick they stand the test of time.
The last fort was Fort Stockton. It’s owned by the city and run by the local historical society. Not much to it. It was a Buffalo Soldier fort. Noticed it’s guardhouse had chains on the wall and it was the first fort without a bakehouse. They fed those fellows leftover hardtack from the Civil War in 1858. The chaining up was reflective of the harshness of Civil War discipline the interpretation said but I wondered if it wasn’t the fact that they had white officers and Black soldiers?
I got my first hotel a week into the trip at Fort Stockton knowing it was the last cheap city before Big Bend. I finished my tea and will take another trip to the pit toilet before calling it a night.
PostScript: I am at a McDonald’s in Alpine Texas enjoying access to a sink and flush toilet, a second cup of coffee, a couple of sausage biscuits (one would have been better) and crappy wifi. I’m going to slow track to Marfa camping at roadside parks unless I find something better. Researching on how to do Guadalupe Mountains National Park with camping full.
Epic Road Trip 2 #2
My free camping app took me to a conservation area in Oklahoma. The mapping function has degraded or I need to download All Trails because it has been consistently unreliable. I was able to take clues from the description and find it in Google Maps. There was a big camp of presumably hunters but they were quiet and across the campground. I had a nice campfire and heated up a can of spaghettios and toasted some marshmallows.
I drove up to the main road to get a signal and routed to a hiking area west and south. On the drive I stopped for gas and looked at attractions again and backtracked to Tulsa to go to Woodruff Park. It’s a rose garden park which December is not it’s best face. They had some other gardens and this great statue of Linaeus.
There was also a historical society with a museum. I walked through the herb society holiday market but it was all peopley and I’m opting out of Christmas this year with solo travel so it had nothing to offer. Hot cider was tempting but not in a Styrofoam cup.
The museum volunteer was nice and they had a room devoted to the Tulsa Race Massacre. Lots of photos and I learned the Black folks were put in internment camps after which I did not know. An Oklahoma task force examining the issue 25 years or so ago recommended reparations but of course they’re still waiting.
I learned Tulsa was founded by Native Americans, Cherokee I believe but it was light on artifacts. There was a big exhibit on Route 66 and I mentioned that some day car culture would be looked at similarly to the Tulsa Race Massacre, also acknowledging I’m on a road trip. I still took up the offer for a photo.
I also checked out the statuary of Native American ballerinas and finished up with a walk through the collection of the trees as I’d heard the holly was impressive. Not a lot of berries. The Japanese Maples were impressive and rolling back to an earlier stage of Fall is a nice benefit of traveling south.
My next destination was the Seminole Museum. I knew a lot of the history but learned a lot more. The Seminole were a collection of tribal remnants ravaged by disease and were in Florida panhandle and Alabama before being pushed south. Great history of resistance and had to be captured in waves to get sent west. Lots of Black folks fleeing slavery had joined up which drew the ire of the US.
The two newest bands were both Black Seminoles. Those sent to Oklahoma were first put on the Creek Reservation and had a tough time of it. Including Black folks they were threatened by slave owning Creeks. They split over the civil war but most backed the South and took a further beating during reconstruction. Others joined the Black regiments of the North.
The museum was cool, lots of artifacts and in depth interpretation as well as a growing collection of modern Native American art. I don’t have enough signal to post pics. I’m currently camped by the Brazos River Dam. I got in just before dark and enjoyed a nice campfire and had the free campground to myself. I’m going to hike the Brazos today and stay another night to get some time out of the van.
My last night in Oklahoma led me to a Love’s Truck Stop. It was a small car lot with lots of loud trucks so I stayed at a nearby Walmart Parking lot. I brought a sleeping mask and had a good night there. I went back to the truck stop for coffee and my morning constitutional.
It was heavy fog and cool so I read until well after sunrise. I took back roads and drove slow until the sun finally burned away the fog. I wish I could upload pics when I stopped at a graveyard. You can see one on my Facebook page. Mike Trapp Columbia MO, look for the personal page and not my professional page which is not really active.
I’m going to do my morning chores and go for a hike so I’ll leave Ft Richardson for my next post. Thanks for reading. Would love to see comments, questions or whatnot.
Epic Road Trip 2 #1
I cleaned out my apartment and dropped off keys and stuff I was donating and dropped off my router at the Spectrum Store in Olathe. I had also packed the van for the trip. I forgot my cooler and cooler food but I don’t normally travel with that and was as much relieved not to have to mess with it as disappointed.
I set out for my first campsite a little over an hour south. Since it was night and raining I took the interstate. The next morning I put the “avoid highways” option on Google Maps so I’ll probably end up on more gravel roads than interstate like my last Epic Road Trip. It was a municipal fishing lake with dispersed camping. I think I was the only one there.
I heated water in my new heated pitcher that runs off the cigarette lighter. It took about 40 minutes but I made some drip coffee. I have some home roasted to get me started. I only slept fair but that will get easier as I’m more tired. I had some leg cramps from the 40 flights of stairs I climbed packing and cleaning out my second floor apartment.
I did a short hike at a Fort Scott municipal park and read about the flood in the 80’s. The big attraction was the fort which is preserved buildings and some recreated. It was really well done with interesting exhibits. One of the better forts I’ve seen and I’ve been to a bunch.
Fort Scott abuts the fort and I had some lunch and walked around downtown.
I also learned Gordon Parks was from Fort Scott. I went to his museum at the local community college. He was a renaissance man as an important photographer, civil rights activist and directed Shaft amongst other things.
I half assed looked for his grave but it was wet and I was tired and I settled for a monument with some quotations on being a Black guy from there that was pretty cool.
I’m tired so I’ll leave it at that for now. I’m hunkered down in a Walmart parking lot a little north of the Texas border. It was cold and drizzly so I made more miles than I planned. I’ll try to get more succinct and share less pics in future posts.
Epic Road Trip #15 (The Final Leg)
Had an expensive fastfood type breakfast at a diner in Granby. Did some laundry and found dispersed camping in the National Forest. I took a not so great site lower on the mountain since I had the donut on. I walked up the road to the High Lonesome Trailhead and hiked that to the cabin at the end.
The next morning I drove into Winter Park, I think and got my tire fixed. Had another expensive fastfood type breakfast and checked out the local thrift store. It was $44 for the flat fix, which was steep but since the other was free I made out ok.
I backtracked to head north and picked up a hitchhiker and took her to Sulphur Springs before her Food bank milk spoiled. It was my third hitchhiker of the trip which made up for my two rides and one for the hundreds of times I’d hitchhiked in my youth.
I drove up north through a large burned area of the Rout National Forest. It was surreal seeing the total devastation which read like an indictment of our poor forest management practices.
I stopped at the big wildlife management area and saw it was moose country. There was no free or cheap camping or hotels in the Walden area and all the restaurants looked like the same pricey fastfood like stuff I was coming to hate about Colorado so I pushed on to Wyoming.
I found a hike in the Medicinebow National Forest on a rails to trails trail. There were a lot of ponds from the borrow pits making the railway and I saw a lot of Willow and some moose droppings so I camped in a burned out area and got up in the cold predawn for a morning hike to see Moose, but no luck.
I drove into Laramie and filled up on cheap Wyoming gas. I drove to the Lincoln statue which is at an elaborate rest area celebrating the Lincoln Autoway which was the first cross country auto route. There were allegedly trailheads there but I couldn’t find them. All the trails had a $5.00 day use fee so I drove on up to Cheyenne.
Cheyenne has a great municipal park with a botanical gardens and a swimming lake. Had a nice lunch at a Filipino restaurant and looked at my options. When I went to Cheyenne I’d decided to turn towards home. I did Yellowstone and Grand Tetons a few years ago and Devil’s Tower at 250 miles away didn’t seem worth it.
With nearly a full tank of gas I figured I could head back to Colorado. Drove down to Fort Morgan where I found a reasonably priced hotel in the High Plains. I hiked a riverside trail along the Platte which wasn’t great.
I headed west and had lunch in Nebraska before turning south into Kansas. I had talked to my friend Trevor that morning about our bi-annual trip to the Detroit Jazz Festival and he reminded me of Nicodemus so I decided to head there. Passed a memorial to the Sand Creek Massacre and related tragedies some of which had happened nearby. I found some free camping east of their in Hill City at a municipal park. It’s hot in the flatlands and I slept poorly.
The towns along 24 each had little historical parks and signs about their settlement. Nicodemus is a National Park site being settled by former slaves. I took a solo guided tour with a ranger and we had a great dialogue on racism and city development.
Nicodemus had a strong start but got screwed out of their railroad stop by the white developer who had helped found the town but pulled some shenanigans to get the stop in one of his white towns. In addition to a good breakfast place the ranger told me about a dugout Nicodemus residents had made outside of Stockton which was a sundown town. It was in good shape and I don’t recall having seen one for as many as I’d read about in westerns growing up.
I drove to Grand Junction and got another hotel as it was hot again. Had some so so barbecue and another crappy hike on a riverwalk this one the Republican River. Then I drove home. It was nice to be back. Nine weeks on the road, ten states, 5,000 miles, 5 nights at friend’s places, 4 nights at hotels and never paid for camping. It was a sweet trip and a great adventure.
Epic Road Trip #14 (Across Colorado continued)
I forgot to mention before I had van trouble in coal seam pass I had a really cool alpine hike to start the day. I was hiking to an alpine lake but I wore my tennis shoes and the first snow I had to cross they didn’t fare well. I did make it to a beautiful alpine meadow above the treeline and saw an elk and the tiniest chipmunks I’ve ever seen. I turned back when I got to some serious snow realizing I wasn’t going to be able to swim anyway.
I ultimately made it into Silverton and had some ok barbecue and picked up a six pack of Colorado beer. There was great dispersed camping right outside of town next to a rushing river with beautiful views. There really wasn’t a site left but there was a gravel area where the boundary marker was set and it was flat and worked out fine.
I drove towards Ouray along the million dollar highway which was about as windy of a mountain road as you’ll find. There was a high waterfall and some amazing scenic views. I stopped at all the lookouts and large areas are despoiled from historic mining. In Ouray they have a park with a waterfall that was pretty impressive. I meditated in the spray, had lunch and watched the people.
Coming out of the mountains I stopped at a historical marker where a fort had been that was used to Dispossess the Utes when ranchers found them inconvenient. I struck up a conversation with another epic road tripper and noted about every third history sign documented genocide. Zach had been on the road for a year and we exchanged numbers but it never worked out to hang out.
I drove into Gunnison Black Canyon National Park and did all the overlooks and short trails on the south rim. It’s like the Grand Canyon only smaller but black rock and more sheer. It was pretty cool and I saw a 650 year old pinyon pine. I met another epic road tripper and read her “To You” out of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass which has been my daily devotional while she cooked dinner. She shared her dinner and we had a great talk, she’s been on the road for a month and seemed pleased to have a break in the solitude.
I got to the BLM site well after dark seeing the obligatory mule deer for a twilight drive. I managed to find a space after getting myself into a bad place and having a long back up in the dark. I’m getting cavalier about navigating sketchy road and this was a nice wakeup call. I found a spot but it wasn’t flat and it was tough getting out in the morning. I still considered myself lucky.
It’s hot at Gunnison so I hiked the 3 longer trails between six and nine. When I came off the trail it was packed and all the tourists made me feel weird. I had breakfast and made plans while I had internet at the highpoint in the park.
I texted my buddy with the hotel and drove through the hot in a, for me, marathon drive to Steamboat Springs. A shower, a whirlpool, AC and a king sized bed dismissed the notion of heading home. The heat broke in Steamboat so I lingered until checkout and enjoyed breakfast and second breakfast at the free breakfast bar as well as another jacuzzi session.
I went to see another waterfall and did the 2.5 mile hike to the upper falls. It was incredibly beautiful and everyone was really friendly. I carried a GPS for some University of Wyoming researchers. Then I drove to some dispersed camping. Even that was crowded and touristy. I did get flagged down by a big pick up who wanted to marvel that I had a minivan up there. I found a widespot/sort of pull off with a trail to a campsite that I made my home. Lots of traffic for a sketchy Forest service road.
This morning I got up early as I always do and did a historical tour of downtown. I also caught the farmers market and got some gluten free chocolate chip cookies and a cup of good coffee. I checked out the hot springs. Steamboat had a geyser but the railroad ruined it. I took a swim in the river and checked out the hot springs from there.
Then the crush of bourgeoisie tourists started to bug me. I had met a City Council person and she was smug on their lack of homeless people and the whole place was getting to me so I drove up through the mountains East on 40 to Sulphur Springs. I’m camped where Beaver Creek meets the Colorado and it’s pretty nice. It rained some and it’s chilly which is sweet in a giant heatwave. I’m going to take 40 East to 115 North, I think and check out Wyoming. The cookie guy says it’s nice up there.
I’ll post this and add pictures when I get some internet. Tata for now faithful reader.
Woke up to another low tire. I put on the donut and would have stayed put, it being a Sunday, but I noted my campsite required a Colorado fishing license so I drove into Granby. I’m going to try the National Forest near Gavel Mountain and come back to Granby for tire repair in the morning. Happy Father’s Day to the Dad types out there.
Epic Road Trip #13: Across Colorado
Boy a lot has happened in the last 6 days. As I mentioned in the last post I stopped at The Ancestral Pueblo Cultural Center which apparently is rebranding but the maps haven’t kept up. There were a couple of ruined pueblos on site and the museum had tons of current artifacts. When they built the nearby reservoir they harvested all the artifacts they could find before submerging them.
The ranger recommended Sand Canyon and to start early but it was already too late for that and I hit the trail at noon. I took it slow and with a gallon of water I hiked to all the sites on the first 3.7 miles before I decided to turnaround. It was really cool being in the wilderness and finding all of these cool cave dwellings you could get fairly close too.
I was surprised I was up to 14 miles with the hiking I had done earlier and the spur trails to get to the sites. I had also missed Castle Rock Pueblo by entering on an alternate trailhead but I stopped in a winery and picked up a half bottle of a white blend to taste the local terroir. I considered a tasting but even 4 oz of wine didn’t seem wise when I was going to be doing more desert hiking.
Took me a walk to find the site which turned out to be the big rock that looked like a castle. It was sad to see it pockmarked with gunshots and you couldn’t see the ruins from outside the prohibited area.
I drove on to Hovenweep and saw in the brochure my dispersed camping was really a campsite. It was $15 which I would have paid if it had included a shower. I decided to hike the 2 mile main trail even though I was 15 miles into the day and dark was approaching. It was an amazing hike and Hovenweep is the unknown gem of the trip for sure.
After the cliff dwelling period the ancient pueblans built free standing towers right before abandoning the area and moving south into the Rio Grande basin. There is another ruin on a 4 mile trail but I left that one for next time. I took the hour plus drive back to the BLM land by Mesa Verde I’d been staying at. It was a bit of a harrowing journey with 3 episodes of mule deer in the road one where I slammed on the breaks and stopped within inches of it as it looked at me sort of dumbfounded. Even more nerve-wracking there were these birds flying in front of the van scooping insects out of the headlight glow I assume. I made it back late and slept the sleep of the just. 17 miles hiked through the desert, I’m definitely getting stronger.
I drove the Canyon of the Ancients loop the counterclockwise this time and went to Sand Canyon Pueblo. It’s excavated ruins reburied to protect it. It had a subtle beauty and good interpretive signs but the young family who hiked it after me were unimpressed.
Then I challenged some dirt roads and visited a couple more ruins. You never know what you’re going to get but Painted Hand Pueblo was especially cool with a nice freestanding tower.
I then did some driving and got a burger and green chili beer at a brewpub in Durango. Drove seven miles up a mountain and was in some beautiful Aspen/Ponderosa Pine forest and a nice cool night. I noticed I had a rapidly developing flat tire but decided to wait until morning to deal with it.
I swapped on my donut and drove back to Durango. Got a great breakfast at a diner, picked up a pair of pants at a resale shop and they fixed my tire for free. I’d hiked a piece of the Colorado Trail on my way down the mountain which was amazing and hiked the interpretive trail by the overlook on my way backup the mountain. Had a nice campfire that night which was a nice surprise being in a worse drought then what drove the Ancestral Pueblans out of the area in the 13th century.
I hiked the Log Chute Trail coming down the mountain and should have known better by the name. It was a 5 mile loop with the last bit being super steep downhill and was obviously designed with mountain biking in mind. It was a lot of loose sand and I had one bad moment but I got my feet back under me before I had a fall.
I started up 550 North and pulled into an overlook at Coal Bank Peak, steam erupted from under the hood. I popped the hood and saw a hole in my radiator hose, about the only mechanical problem I was capable of fixing. I saw an auto parts store and looked at the map and thought it was in Silverton so I hit hitchhiked there. Got a ride right of way and quicky learned Google was messing with me sending me to Silverton to turnaround and drive back to Durango.
Rather then doing that I went to an auto repair place and the old boy running the place sold me a random one for $22.00. I had a choice of 2 so I picked the longer of them. I walked about an hour before I got a ride back to my van with a dude who knew his way around cars and gave me some sage advice.
It was difficult getting at the clips and then getting the hose on. Twice I felt my composure slip a little bit and I took a few breaths and centered myself and treated it like a meditative exercise. I got it done and it heat sealed and I drove my hot and filthy self to Silverton. I searched hotels and they were all pricey so I settled for some ok pulled pork and fries and got some cool dispersed camping by the river right outside of town.
I took this as a sign that mountains were not for the Cookie Monster and considered heading for home. My ride had said only a couple of passes and 550 flattened out. My last picture wouldn’t upload so I’ll wrap up and publish. I stayed at Steamboat Springs last night and am going to camp and hike in the Medicine Bow-Rout National Forest for a couple of days and figure out my next moves. The heatwave broke here and it’s pretty nice being at some elevation. Looks hotter then he’ll everywhere else so I’ll try and stay put. Stay cool.
Epic Road Trip #11: Jimez Mountains
For full disclosure I have left the Jimez and moved on to Chaco Canyon, one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. I’m on a back country hike and I’ve settled in some shade under an overhang/shallow cave and I am going to wait out some of the heat.
At the end of my last post I was camping in the Santa Fe National Forest trying to hike this elusive Civil War Trail. I ultimately found it and it was closed on a Saturday. I have never known a trail to keep banker’s hours or worked so hard to do something I wasn’t that excited about. Google maps took me to another trail which was not open for the public and I drove to the Jimez a day easier then I’d planned.
You have to pass through Los Alamos which was weird having a military checkpoint but I ended up spending enough time in the area it just became life. They have great dispersed camping in the greater Bandelier National Monument.
I spent a day at Bandelier proper which is very cool. Long house ruins and cliff dwellings. Lots of tourists but I’ve been isolated enough to find them all charming.
I took a long drive to the second site. It had a nice unimproved trail and there were cliff dwellings and some petroglyphs. It was an interesting climb up the Mesa and didn’t see too many people.
I did enjoy the prairie dogs and saw some elk. There is a stand of old growth Ponderosa pine but it’s a manicured stand and didn’t feel like a forest. I climbed one of the hills and there were a lot of wildflowers especially wild irises which I’ve seen a lot of on this trip.
I went back to camp and the next morning I went to Valles Caldera at my friend Rodger’s suggestion. It’s a beautiful valley surrounded by the hills of the long extinct volcano that formed it. It’s a fairly new National Park (2015) and feels more like a cattle ranch (which it still is by statute, when there’s not a drought) then a National Park.
I hiked a short nature trail and drove down to Los Alamos for a vegetable rice bowl which was cheap and excellent (Tiger Bowl). I did the Los Alamos walking tour and learned about life during the making of the first Atomic bomb. There are a few original buildings, some settler stuff and some ancestral Pueblo ruins; all right downtown.
I meditated at the Unitarian church and grabbed a Gatorade out of their Gaia Box. It was raining so I went to Starbucks and enjoyed a coffee and some WiFi and it was well worth three dollars and a poor nights sleep.
It was still raining a bit and their was a nice rainbow which I took as God’s promise he wouldn’t destroy us with atomic bombs. I picked up a quart of oil and made the clerk go look at the rainbow. She was glad she did.
After another night at my usual spot I drove down through Santa Fe and south to La Cinguella Petroglyphs. It’s on BLM land and it’s pre-columbian and a huge collection. I scrambled over the rocks awestruck for 5 hours before I was done in and didn’t see them all.
I got some great Guatemalan food down the road. A steak with a chili sauce and all the fixings. Then I went to REI and got a new pair of Chacos. My old pair were hanging together by a thread as I’d had them for more then a decade of hard wear. Coincidentally I broke the new pair in at Chaco Canyon. Having some tread is amazing.
Speaking of those Chacos. I’ve forgotten how unpleasant the afternoon heat is and I’m getting stuff setting here so I will get back to the adventure and catch you up later. I’ll have to climb a bluff to get a signal tomorrow so maybe I’ll have time to catch the narrative up to the present before then.
I got hot and tired at Chaco and got a hotel room. Going to Aztek today and camping in Bizi badlands tonight.
Epic Road Trip #8: Oklahoma to New Mexico
The fishing lake I camped by was nice and quiet and I set out back on the road early. I made for the Chocktaw National Recreation Area which turned out to be a sweet stop. There was some great hiking and I replenished my supply of spring water I’d drank from Hot Springs.
There were some nice trails with good interpretive signs and lots of CCC masonry. Don’t know if I’ve ever felt compelled to take a photo of a shitter before, but I have now.
I also got a swim in which keeps the road funk in check. I spent a rough night in a Walmart parking lot. I was considering visiting a friend who was relocating to Norman and I thought there was more prairie to hike. The little splash of it I’d hiked in was really lovely after the poorly managed Ozarks and Ouachitas.
Turned out the prairie “trail” was just gravel road surrounded by dense shrubbery and Norman didn’t seem worth frittering 3 days over so I put some miles on. I drove up to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and there I found my prairie. Best prairie I’ve ever seen. So many wildflowers.
There was also a really scenic prairie dog town, some wilderness rock scrambling and awesome hiking. I visited the Holy City which is a WPA project of some stone buildings and arches and stuff where they do a sunrise Easter service. Quirky in the extreme. I also saw some elk.
I got some wifi at a Subway and found a site to camp (freecampsite.net is awesome by the way). It was a drive but I pulled into a municipal park on a lake just over the border in the Texas Panhandle. I relaxed woke in the morning to let it warm up enough to swim and made my way west.
I stopped to hike and “swim” again at Copper Breaks State Park. I hiked a short trail and went to the knee deep swimming area. They have a beautiful little lake but it’s reserved for the boats. Not worth the 18 miles and 3 bucks I invested in that side trek.
I boogied on down to Silverton where they had a little free RV campground at their municipal park. It was a charming little dying town I explored the next morning. Had dinner at a cute little diner and breakfast the next morning. The locals were bitching about illegals and I thought they could use some immigrants to fill their vacant storefronts and bring a little vitality before they become one of those ubiquitous historical markers about where a town used to be.
I backed track to Caprock State Park and took an arduous hike. I missed the fern cave I was looking for and took another wrong turn adding another 2.6 miles to a tough hike. You don’t expect a 600′ vertical climb and decent in the Panhandle but they’re serious about their erosion in Texas. Still not doing a damn thing about it as far as I can tell
I did get to finally see bison after missing them at Chocktaw and the Wyandottes. A local rancher saved them from extinction in the hopes of making desert tough beef crossbreeds. It’s the source stock for the Yellowstone herds amongst others
I learned this at a little museum Comanchero Canton Historical Museum. Has a nice collection of arrowheads and whatnot. The curator was nice but warned me about the crazy democrat governor closing down the entire state of New Mexico so it’s probably not worth visiting.
I was going to crash at Silverton a second night but the travel bug got me and I pushed on to another free municipal campground at Mule Shoe Texas. Got in late enough had to have Subway again.
I stuck around for church, my third time on the trip. Nice, nice folks even mentioned the sin of racism in Sunday School. Better then the harsh criticism of the new religion of Critical Race Theory I’d been hearing on the local airwaves. Had my first Chinese buffet in a year and a half and I was on the road again.
I pushed on to the Sacramento Mountains Lincoln National Forest. I missed my turnoff and I was glad I did. After turning around I saw some creature shamble across the road. I would have sworn it was a sloth if I had to say what it was. I looked it up the next day when I got some internet and it was a white faced coati. Pretty cool. Also saw some mule deer.
Found a cool site nonetheless even arriving after dark. The moon was so bright I took a little hike. The next morning I realized I was camping with a cow carcass. Our National Forest and it’s multiple uses. I hiked some closed forest service roads and cooked some lunch on the zip stove. No more campfires I’m in droughtland now.
I drove to the other side of the forest where the recreation areas are and met some nice campers and cooked some dinner. (I fried an onion and some canned chicken in margarine, which has held up for better then a month, with some white sage I found. Added water, chicken bouillon and powdered goats milk and instant mashed potatoes when it boiled. Pretty good).
Headed out early and did all the hikes at White Sands National Park. That 5 mile dune hike kicked my ass. Had dinner at Denny’s (yay WiFi) and had a mocha and browsed used books at a dying mall in Almagordo. I’m camped at a dispersed BLM campground now so I can watch the Lunar Eclipse. It cools off nicely so I think I don’t have to hide out in the mountains all the time.
Tomorrow it’s back into the Sacramento’s I think to hike the trail I saw coming out this morning and to nap in the cool mountain air. Not enough signal to upload pictures. if it doesn’t upload this post I’ll add some. Otherwise consider following me on the Book of Faces to see pics. Mike Trapp in Columbia Missouri. Goodnight faithful reader, I hope the super blood moon shines on you in peace and prosperity
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