My wife is on the cautious side of this whole covid thing. But she's on the cautious side of the whole hunting season too. She doesn't want me walking back in the canyon during hunting season.
The thing is, I've found that it's clear and beautiful out there, and though it's a little rocky beneath your feet, generally it's really easy to figure out where you are and what you are doing. I've mostly been walking straight back from my house, into Board Tree Canyon, and then I'll go out to the border of the reservation, or over west toward the little valley where gullies come down from the highlands back north beyond the high mountain. This road snakes around that mountain back there, and I guess you would call it a jeep trail; I wouldn't want to drive my car on it, but it's not bad for walking. And it's very beautiful back there.
Slowly I become accustomed to deer poop, elk poop, and cow poop; there's plenty of them all. I like that because I know they're around, and I also know they hide pretty well when I come walking. None of the critters seem to want to mix with me. And there are no people at all.
My wife says, watch out for the hunters. I say, I think I'll be able to spot them from miles away. But who knows? I haven't been doing it all that long. Maybe they let me go for a while, but then if I keep coming back around, they spring on me because they don't want that. They don't mind me showing up every month or two, but if I make it a regular habit, then they have to let me know who owns the place.
Sometimes, you get a good view of the mountains. My plan, as I may have said, is to walk to Cloudcroft. It's about seventeen miles, more or less straight west. I probably can't go there and back in a day, but I could get pretty far. Overland. In the forest. On trails. And where people can find me, if things go bad.
It's just a plan, a dream, an aspiration. Stay posted.
