Shallow Thoughts : : hikes

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

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.

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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 | ]