# Nice try, Rita! Close, but no cigar....



## elder999 (Jun 12, 2012)

So, once again, it&#8217;s summer in New Mexico, and New Mexico is-in case you hadn&#8217;t heard-*burning.

Again. *:angry:

Last Thursday, this was the view from our Los Alamos driveway, of what would come to be called the Colorado Peak Fire, near Cochiti lake.



We also have the Little Bear fire-which rapidly surpassed all previous fires in size, and is now around 350 *sq. miles*:



and a couple of others.All of which of course means that at some point in the near future, we can expect our favorite playgrounds here in New Mexico, the Santa Fe National Forest, Bandelier Monument, and the Carson National Forest, to be closed-they are already under pretty severe fire restrictions. In anticipation of this sad event, Rita-that&#8217;s the *wife* &#8211;and I decided to try to get some alpine time in. It&#8217;s been a long, long time since I&#8217;ve been above 12,000 feet, and I needed to find out about how it would affect me _now_, given my advancing age and debilitation&#8230;..:lol: the best place to do that, of course, would be Wheeler Peak, the tallest mountain in New Mexico (though that&#8217;s been the subject of some debate over the years, with a few 13ers in competition) at 13,261 feet, its summit sits about 2,000 feet above one of my favorite high altitude runs, the Williams Lake trail from the Taos Ski resort.

So, last Friday, Rita and I made the morning drive up to Taos with our daypacks. We had a nice breakfast at Michael&#8217;s Kitchen, and made our way to the Williams Lake trailhead, at about 8900 ft.This is the greeting at that trailhead:

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But most of the wildlife we saw was pretty benign, actually-though I did find some old lion kill.

Anyway, we made our way to Williams Lake, on a trail hat winds through some pretty thick piney woods. I saw this little Baby&#8217;s breath along the way:
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## elder999 (Jun 12, 2012)

Then we got to the lake:

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From which one can view Wheeler Peak:

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Usually, the grey jays will come and visit here: they&#8217;ll actually eat right from your hand, and are known for stealing things from hikers&#8217; packs. We could hear them in the trees, but they wouldn&#8217;t come down-I think they were busy feasting on caterpillars and moths: New Mexico has had a pretty large crop of tent moths and army cutworm moths this year, but I took it as an ill-omen that these gregarious birds- who normally mob us-wouldn&#8217;t deign to come down. After a quick snack, and some time spent trying in vain to coax the birds from their activities, we made our way back to the Wheeler Peak summit trail:
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which winds its way up to the summit over the course of about 2 miles of switchbacks, up another 1,000 feet or so through the trees:
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the trail keeps going over steeper terrain-the higher one gets, the more a slip to one direction means a rather precipitous tumble-important that a congenital klutz like myself watch his footing!


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## elder999 (Jun 12, 2012)

As we started to get out of the trees and above the treeline, I saw several wildflowers that I need to identify:
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Think this one is some kind of penstimmon:
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By now we were pretty well out of the trees, and above Williams  Lake:
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And above the treeline and on to our wildlife encounters.......


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## elder999 (Jun 12, 2012)

So, above the treeline, the mountain becomes somewhat barren and rocky, and _very windy_, and cold.


and we hadn't walked very far before we encountered a juvenile (yearling?) mountain goat, that was quite unafraid of the hikers-characteristic of goats, really:

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This one, though, actually seemed to want to pose for a few photos!
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## elder999 (Jun 12, 2012)

The goat was kind of polite, too. He just moved off the trail to let the hikers pass, but, in doing so, angered another resident of Wheeler Peak, the marmot. They've all set up nests in the rocks and had babies, and the goat got too close to this one's nest-it made quite the racket!
She's in the lower right corner of this photo:
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And here you can see the clueless goat in the rocks:
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and here's a better shot of the marmot:
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## elder999 (Jun 12, 2012)

By now we were quite high-just under 13,000 feet, maybe 300 vertical feet (but a little less than half a mile) from the summit:
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and we were going higher:
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and higher! When I saw something in the distance:
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It was that young mountain goat's family:
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## elder999 (Jun 12, 2012)

Sadly, it was just a little above this that I started developing a dry cough-the first-and usually unnoticed-symptom of altitude sickness. I drank a fair bit of water and beet juice, and really thought I could come through it okay, but Rita-_that's the *wife*_-insisted that we turn around.....of course, for those of you who don't know, I do most of breathing with about 1/3 of the lung surface that a man my size and activity level should have. At sea level, or even 8000 ft., this still isn't much of a problem, and high altitude hasn't been one in the past-sadly, there was a time not too long ago that this would have been a training _run_ for me, but, well, like I said, it's been a while since I was up that high.I was pretty sure I could power through to the summit, but the smart thing to do was turn around and make sure I could get down before I got really sick. I can-and *will*-try again, but this time I really had no choice but to turn around, especially after Rita-that's the *wife*-started heading down.
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Evil witch sent from hell to torment me! You'll not be getting my insurance that easily!:lfao:
'til next time......


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## WC_lun (Jun 12, 2012)

Awsome pics and beautiful country.  Thanks for sharing!


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## seasoned (Jun 12, 2012)

Your back yard looks awesome my friend. Thank you for sharing with us the adventures of you and Rita. What a great place to call home, and the pictures, although awesome, don't capture the feeling of being there, but they come darn close. 

Hope you made it back safe, and, Rita seems like a great and caring woman, and also strong willed, you are a very lucky man indeed.


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## Sukerkin (Jun 12, 2012)

Wonderful, wonderful stuff to see, my friend.  Thank you very much for sharing your trip (and brush with insurance payout ) with us :tup:.


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## elder999 (Jun 12, 2012)

seasoned said:


> Hope you made it back safe,




Funny thing about acute mountain sickness-altitude sickness, _whatever_. It can srike those who were previously unseceptable, then not.People can not get it all-that was me, and Friday was my first taste of it, though I'd _seen_ it before, but I've been above 23,000 ft., and not suffered from it. WHat I know is, that, with the opportunity, if you go below elevation, your symptoms go away-Rita knows that too, that's why she insisted on going-so down we went, and I did feel better-especially since my symptoms were so minor-well before we got back to the lake. Of course, exertion aggravates it-check. Fast ascents aggravate it-even cause it-check. And, of course, descent alleviates the symptoms, but your blood chemistry hasn't changed substantially-your blood dissolved oxygen is still somewhat low, 
After leaving Williams Lake, the trail crosses the Taos Ski resort, and ends at the Bavarian Inn-



Where the bar's motto is _Don't fear the big beer_:lol:





So, I was thirsty-low O2 and one quick 32oz beer later, and I almost didn't make it back to the truck....:lol:

Nice to know that I'm still capable of doing something foolish.....:lfao:



seasoned said:


> .... and, Rita seems like a great and caring woman, and also strong willed, you are a very lucky man indeed.



Yep. Got the one *everyone* was looking for, I did....:lfao:


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## Jenna (Jun 12, 2012)

Your wife she is very pretty if I am permitted to say and I think you both look lovely together.. I see this and these pictures of you and it is like everything is good (though I hope you are kept safe from fires!) And coca leaf tea it is good for your altitude issues also, and tasty!


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## Brian R. VanCise (Jun 12, 2012)

Beautiful!  Thanks for sharing!!!


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## bugatabugata (Jun 12, 2012)

Taos is gorgeous! I need to get my behind out there at some point. (Got some relatives in AZ, so next time might make a trip.)


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## elder999 (Aug 19, 2012)

So, yesterday we got up a little late: about 7:10, so we didn't get to the trailhead until about 9:30-we got a late start, when the rule this time of year is to really be off the mountain by 12:00, so as to miss the thunderstorms. We wound up getting hailed upon on the way down, and more than a little wet, but we'd made the summit by 1:00 (and immediately turned around, a bunch of other people who were eating lunch probably  got caught up there.....)

On the way back, I got to feed the gray jays again!

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And we had made it to the summit:

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The summit register is kept under this plaque. Rita signed for both of us, while I carried on my tradition of *not* signing the damn things because.......well, because you haven't successfully climbed the mountain until you've *gotten down off the mountain!* :lfao:

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More of the view from the top (and the way up) later, if you'd like. It's early here, and I just got up to take my meds....I'm going back to bed...


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## seasoned (Aug 19, 2012)

> More of the view from the top (and the way up) later, if you'd like. It's early here, and I just got up to take my meds....I'm going back to bed...



Is there a third person taking the last picture? It is always a pleasure being a part of you and Rita's excursions. I will be looking for those "view from the top, and the way up" pictures. 
Stay safe, climb smart, as I know you will.


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## elder999 (Aug 19, 2012)

Thanks, Wes! There were a bunch of people on the trail, even for a Saturday, and we met a veritable parade going up-there was a pretty big party going on up there-5 people had even ridden their horses up the other, easier and longer trail. One of them took our photo, and we did them the same....

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