Shallow Thoughts : : hikes

Akkana's Musings on Open Source Computing and Technology, Science, and Nature.

Wed, 01 Oct 2025

Flying Fluff and Spiderwebs

[Looking up at tall trees from the forest floor; one of the trees is blocking the sun so there's a flare around where the sun is] On a recent bike ride up at the East Fork trail, Dave had to go back to the car to get something he'd forgotten, leaving me guarding his pack.

It turned out that was a blessing in disguise. While I waited, looking up at the spectacular backlit sky high above the ponderosas, I saw hundreds of little fluff pieces floating by, highlighted and glowing from the sun behind them. Occasionally, I'd see long filaments drift past: I assume they were strands of spider web, perhaps with tiny baby spiders attached, invisible at that distance.

I tried to capture them on phone video, but unsurprisingly, the video wasn't good enough to capture them, and neither were the still photos.

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[ 14:41 Oct 01, 2025    More hikes | permalink to this entry | ]

Fri, 10 May 2024

New Hiking Route: Ancho Rapids to Lower Water Canyon

[Panorama of the Rio Grande from the River Trail just north of Ancho Rapids] Can you follow Lower Water Canyon (in the DOE open space lands south of White Rock, NM) all the way to the Rio Grande?

In the decade we've lived here, we've heard that question and asked it ourselves, and have heard a few anecdotal reports. You can follow it down most of the way, but there's a pour-off near the end that you won't want to do without a rope. Or there was a pour-off fifteen years ago that wasn't that big a deal, but it's changed since then and isn't passable now. Or ... well, anyway, the story kept changing depending on who we asked, and nobody seemed to have tried it in many years.

Now I've done it. It's a beautiful hike, and right now there's an abundance of wildflowers in bloom along the canyon.

Read more ...

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[ 12:42 May 10, 2024    More hikes | permalink to this entry | ]

Sun, 17 Sep 2023

Carrying Water for a Canine Companion

[Labrador retriever drinking from a water bottle] The weekly hiking group I'm in has quite a few members who bring their dogs on hikes, as long as the trail allows it (National Parks, Monuments and Preserves don't allow dogs).

I've seen various solutions for carrying dog water: bowls that telescope out in use, and can be compacted flatter. Bowls out of flexible materials like waterproofed nylon. Smallish cups. Then there's the tricky job of pouring the unused water from a flexible bowl back into a narrow-mouthed water bottle each time.

But dogs are more flexible than you might think. One of our canine hiking companions, Lewis, has been trained to drink from a water bottle. He just laps at the stream as it falls, and spills surprisingly little. So his person can give him a drink at any time, without stopping and digging around for a bowl.

I'd never seen this before, but it seems pretty handy for a dog and person who go hiking just about every day.

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[ 18:04 Sep 17, 2023    More hikes | permalink to this entry | ]

Thu, 31 Aug 2023

Signs on the Way to San Antonio Hot Springs

[Rock wall on the way to San Antonio Hot Springs] This week's group hike was to San Antonio Hot Springs, in the Jemez above La Cueva. It was nice and cool up there, especially since the trail is mostly shady, winding through ponderosa forest with views of San Antonio Creek below and towering rock walls above.

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[ 12:06 Aug 31, 2023    More hikes | permalink to this entry | ]