My Cabin

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I went to my cabin, and let me tell you- it is awesome!I went there on Tuesday and only spent one night. I'm going to go out for a whole five day stint tomorrow.

Who would have believed that in the 21st century, when I can sit in front of the computer and write this blog to you all- which will reach anywhere around the world the second I hit "post", pictures included, that in this same reality I can go out and survive for 5 days without electricity and running water?

I have a hand pump outside and I have to carry my water in a bucket to the filter in my kitchen before I can use it.

I have a propane stove and oven- but once it gets cold- I'll probably do all of my cooking on the wood stove- that I need to cut firewood for...

The propane refrigerator is not working yet- I'll have to fiddle with that. But don't you worry- this cabin comes with a complete set of tools and a tool shack. My outhouse

has a great view of the cliffs of the canyon (yeah, I keep the door open. It's one of the perks of being alone in the wilderness), and at night I cook and eat to the light of candles. GOT TO LOVE IT!

I can't wait to go out again.

Down canyon from my cabin is a site called painted cave. It's pretty cool, as you can see.

So this is my new home, and for now- I am really excited about going and spending some time out there.
I took the long way out on Wednesday. Dale picked me up outside of the western boundary of the park (opposite side of HQ). That meant hiking a long trail that is no longer used very often. After you leave the park boundary you still have about 4 miles in National forest land. As I was walking out, dealing with a whole bunch of fallen trees on the trail (The ones in the park I cleared, when I crossed the boundary out to forest land I just started jumping over them), I could see the sky darkening, and a thick layer of black clouds approach. No one likes to get caught in the rain, and I was already late to my rendezvous with Dale (fallen Junipers really put up a fight when approached with an axe), so I started walking really fast. I got to the "pumis mines trail head" quite short of breath- but it was well worth it. Three minutes later the skies opened up and it started pouring. Rain and hale dropped like it was being poured from buckets. Since we were all the way around on the other side of the park and most of the way back was through forest dirt roads- it took about 40 minutes to get back- and it was pouring the entire time. When Dale dropped me off we had another surprise- The creek that runs through the main canyon had over flooded from all the rain and was washing over the small concrete bridges. Apparently a very rare thing. We all ran out to see the flood- which lasted about an hour.

The next morning was supposed to be my day off. At 11am, as I was having a late breakfast, Brian (another law enforcement ranger), and John Mack (head of resource division) came knocking on my door. "We need someone to patrol the main canyon trail to see if they can re-open it to the public, after closing it due to flood. So I packed up and went on a three hour hike, during which I was glad to see that all the small double-log bridges were washed away. It was like nature sneezing away all those man made restraints on it. Like a dog shaking water off from his fur. Some parts of the trail were washed away- but you could still hike it. Anywhere you needed to cross the creek- you could still do it by jumping on a few rocks. I was also surprised to see at least four small bull-snakes just warming up in the sun. I guess the flood washed them out of their normal hiding places. Another species was out of it's element: the fish that I found lying on the trail. The flood brought them there and then settled down and left them high and dry on the high ground. Took photos of all the fallen trees and washed out bridges, along with GPS locations- put them all in a report for the rangers, and went on to enjoy what was left of my day off. In the evening Bree was nice enough to drive me over to the library and the grocery store.

Today, on my second day off, Bree and I headed to the post office in Los Alamos and then went hiking to a hot (luke warm actually) spring. A lovely little spot in the Jemez Mountains- about 40 minutes away from the park. The sky was threatening rain again so there was no-one else on the trail. The spring flows out into a little pool (assisted just a little bit by a man-made dam to deepen it). Had a great time, though the water wasn't really hot. Later today Dale had me over for dinner at his house in White Rock. There was a Zydeco concert in the park and we went over after dinner. Not a bad weekend (Thursday and Friday- but who cares). Tomorrow I head out to my cabin, and besides the beginning of a new month it's also the beginning of hunting season. No hunting is allowed in the parkalthough there will be a lot of hunting going on in the national forest land all around us. I'm definitely going to be wearing my orange vest this week.