How do you get from Santa Fe to Bandelier?
Well, I spent two days at the hostel trying to figure out the best way. My possition officialy only started on Wednesday, which meant that I needed to be there by Tuesday night, but since I had nothing exciting to do in Santa Fe I decided to head there a day early. I almost got a ride from a couple of girls that were headed up to Taos, but that fell through on the morning of the trip. The other option was to use a bus that runs about 6 times a day from the lab in Los Alamos to Santa Fe and back. It's meant for commuters so the first three runs are at ungodly hours of the morning, and then it only runs again at 2pm, 3pm and 4.
So I had the morning to sit in the sun and read, and the afternoon to cook some lunch (the leftover stirfried chicken from two days before mixed with tomato sauce and nuttles- not bad).
Loaded my backpack and headed for the bus station- about a 15 minute walk from the hostel.
At 2:15 a clean, air conditioned, empty bus picked me up and about an hour later, after driving through a few narrow streets in Santa Fe, and stopping at a couple of Indian Casinos on the highway, the driver let off at an intersection outside of LA (Los Alamos) saying- "this is the closest I can get you to Bandeleir, and probably the best place for you to try and hitch...
After driving around with Dale for the past days I know that across the road from where the driver let me off is a the entrance to the "Tsankawi loop trail", a detached piece of the park that the rangers check on a daily basis- at least twice a day. But I didn't know that, so I crossed the intersection towards Bandelier, picked a wide spot at the side of the road and stuck my thumb out. I was going to give it an hour (it was 3:15 pm at this point), and if by then I wasn't picked up, I would start walking towards Los Alamos (where the bus turned to). My only real fear was getting caught I a thunder storm- This is after experiencing the Monsoon season in Santa Fe.
There was plenty of traffic on the road, but no-one seemed to be in the mood for picking up hitchhikers. Took about 25 minutes (Can't complain too much) for a large Buick to stop and for a young, college aged, guy to say "I headed towards White Rock. Is that any help for you?" White rock is on the way, so I hopped in. It only took about 5 and a half minutes of conversation for him to offer to take me all the way to Bandalier (20 minutes out of his way, round trip). Funny how things just work out, when you are in no hurry at all. My ride dropped me off at the entrance to the park and I loaded my backpack and walked over to the booth. A couple of days later I got to Mindi. She is sweet and friendly, plays great Frisbee and bakes awesome granola bars, but when I showed up on foot at her booth and said "Hi, I'm Yoash, I'm the new backcountry SCA", she took two quick steps back and very suspiciously picked up the radio and shot out "I have a guy here who says he's the new backcountry SCA. Anyone know anything about this?" Luckily Dale was on shift and I overheard his voice come on the radio saying "Yeah, I'm not far from you, I'll be there in a few minutes to pick him up". I think Mindi was more happy to see dale (Law Enforcement ranger with a gun) than I was. Dale seemed only a little surprised to see me when he drove me down to park headquarters at the bottom of Frijoles Canyon. "Well, I'm not sure your accommodations are ready, we will check it out now. If not, you are welcome to spend the night at our place". When Dale interviewed me, over the phone, a while back, he said that I'll be spending five days a week in the cabin in the backcountry, and for my two days off, there will be a bed for me at park headquarters. Well, the "bed" turned out to be a small apartment with a full kitchen, bathroom/toilet. This whole bunch of buildings were built by the CCC and are historic buildings.
Well, I spent two days at the hostel trying to figure out the best way. My possition officialy only started on Wednesday, which meant that I needed to be there by Tuesday night, but since I had nothing exciting to do in Santa Fe I decided to head there a day early. I almost got a ride from a couple of girls that were headed up to Taos, but that fell through on the morning of the trip. The other option was to use a bus that runs about 6 times a day from the lab in Los Alamos to Santa Fe and back. It's meant for commuters so the first three runs are at ungodly hours of the morning, and then it only runs again at 2pm, 3pm and 4.
So I had the morning to sit in the sun and read, and the afternoon to cook some lunch (the leftover stirfried chicken from two days before mixed with tomato sauce and nuttles- not bad).
Loaded my backpack and headed for the bus station- about a 15 minute walk from the hostel.
At 2:15 a clean, air conditioned, empty bus picked me up and about an hour later, after driving through a few narrow streets in Santa Fe, and stopping at a couple of Indian Casinos on the highway, the driver let off at an intersection outside of LA (Los Alamos) saying- "this is the closest I can get you to Bandeleir, and probably the best place for you to try and hitch...
After driving around with Dale for the past days I know that across the road from where the driver let me off is a the entrance to the "Tsankawi loop trail", a detached piece of the park that the rangers check on a daily basis- at least twice a day. But I didn't know that, so I crossed the intersection towards Bandelier, picked a wide spot at the side of the road and stuck my thumb out. I was going to give it an hour (it was 3:15 pm at this point), and if by then I wasn't picked up, I would start walking towards Los Alamos (where the bus turned to). My only real fear was getting caught I a thunder storm- This is after experiencing the Monsoon season in Santa Fe.
There was plenty of traffic on the road, but no-one seemed to be in the mood for picking up hitchhikers. Took about 25 minutes (Can't complain too much) for a large Buick to stop and for a young, college aged, guy to say "I headed towards White Rock. Is that any help for you?" White rock is on the way, so I hopped in. It only took about 5 and a half minutes of conversation for him to offer to take me all the way to Bandalier (20 minutes out of his way, round trip). Funny how things just work out, when you are in no hurry at all. My ride dropped me off at the entrance to the park and I loaded my backpack and walked over to the booth. A couple of days later I got to Mindi. She is sweet and friendly, plays great Frisbee and bakes awesome granola bars, but when I showed up on foot at her booth and said "Hi, I'm Yoash, I'm the new backcountry SCA", she took two quick steps back and very suspiciously picked up the radio and shot out "I have a guy here who says he's the new backcountry SCA. Anyone know anything about this?" Luckily Dale was on shift and I overheard his voice come on the radio saying "Yeah, I'm not far from you, I'll be there in a few minutes to pick him up". I think Mindi was more happy to see dale (Law Enforcement ranger with a gun) than I was. Dale seemed only a little surprised to see me when he drove me down to park headquarters at the bottom of Frijoles Canyon. "Well, I'm not sure your accommodations are ready, we will check it out now. If not, you are welcome to spend the night at our place". When Dale interviewed me, over the phone, a while back, he said that I'll be spending five days a week in the cabin in the backcountry, and for my two days off, there will be a bed for me at park headquarters. Well, the "bed" turned out to be a small apartment with a full kitchen, bathroom/toilet. This whole bunch of buildings were built by the CCC and are historic buildings.
Not bad for my first day, Hah.
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