New Mexico and Arizona Plus - June 2013

After flying into Albuquerque airport, we picked-up our rental car and drove to our hotel for the first two nights. After a bag drop, we headed to Old Town Albuquerque and the Church of San Felipe de Neri, built in 1793. We were not impressed with the Old Town, but did take some nice pictures there.

 

From there we went to Marble Brewery, a regional favorite and enjoyed a beer sampler platter and some sandwiches.

   

On Day 2, we went to Petroglyph National Monument and hiked the Rinconada Trail. There are hundreds of 400 -700 year old petroglyphs along the trail. We didn’t see more than 100 and we were searching hard.

 

From there it was a short drive to Sandia Peak Tramway, the longest in the world. The tramway rises to over 10,000 feet. Upon arriving at the top, we hiked the Summit and Luz Trails for about 4 hours.

 

The CCC’s work is always popping up everywhere across the US.

 

 On the early morning of Day 3, we drove the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe. There wasn’t much along the way to see (not sure why they call it that name). We did stop in the town of Cerrillos with dirt streets and a rock shop. Of course, Zach had to buy a few.

 

 

We spent the rest of the day in Santa Fe. The old town/historic/shops district was very nice. Our first stop was Saint Francis Cathedral.

 

 Followed by San Miguel Chapel and the oldest house in the US and always stops at shops.

From there we went to the New Mexico State Capital and New Mexico History Museum, both very interesting.

 

The next morning we took the High Road to Taos, which was much more scenic than the Turquoise Trail. We stopped at the Santuario de Chimayo with its miraculous “Holy Dirt.” We brought a container home with us.

 

In Taos, we stayed at the finest hotel we ever stayed in, the Marriott El Monte Sagrado.

That day as we walked around town, literally, everyone asked us if we were there for the concert. Our answer; what concert? Apparently, Munford and Sons was performing in town that night. With an expected crowd of over 10, 000, that was a big deal for Taos.   

 

 

The next morning we did what we came to Taos to do, climb Wheeler Peak. At 13, 161 ft. it is the highest point in New Mexico. The climb took longer than expected with a lot of snow pack and scree. It was colder then we expected in the morning so we put a pair of socks on our hands. We made it up and down in about 7 hours.

 

 

 

 

 
Day 6 was our first day with a lot of driving. We went to Taos Pueblo, a living pueblo and the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.

 

Then we took Hwy 64 to Farmington, stopping at the Aztec Ruins along the way.

 

 

 

The next day we drove by “Shiprock” and spent some time at the Four Corners where New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah connect at a single point.

 

The rest of the day, we spent at Canyon de Chelly on the Navajo Reservation near Chinle, AZ, also, on the reservation. We did discover that there are no liquor sales on this reservation and we really would have liked a beer after spending five hours in the Canyon. 

 We spent the morning of day 8 at Monument Valley. We had another long drive to Page, AZ.

 

The only reason we went to Page was to go to Antelope Canyon, where we have wanted to go for many years. It was worth the wait. We did go to Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell first.

 

The next morning we started at Lower Antelope Canyon. That is the best time of day to visit this part of the slot canyon.

 

At noon, we went to Upper Antelope Canyon. The two parts of the Canyon are separated by a wash several miles long. The Upper is at ground level and the Lower is below ground. 

  

 

 

From there we drove to Vegas. The next day we went to Red Rocks, spent time with our grandson Mike, who lives there, and walked the Strip for about an hour.   It was home the next day.

The 60-Somethings at the Jackrabbit Mountain Adventure Race 2013

That’s right! We are no longer the 50-Somethings. Last year we became the 60-Somethings. This was our first competitive adventure race since we had our body parts replaced. We are now racing bionic, Cathy with her hip and Zach with his shoulder. It has not made us any faster or stronger.

In the past we have not competed in 6-hour races; too short for us. Time has changed that. We had not raced in a while and it was a good warm up for our 14th Blue Ridge Mountain AR coming up on 13 April.

The Jackrabbit started and finished in Hayesville, NC. We were taken by bus to Jackrabbit Beach on Lake Chatuge for the 9 am start. The race started with a short running prologue where we had to find two out of three checkpoints before we could pick up our passports for the rest of the race. That was easy.

Next came the mountain biking section at the Jackrabbit Trails. We are not fast on the bikes anymore. The night before when we were strategizing for the race, we decided to skip Checkpoints (CP) 1 and 2 since they were on the longest out and back loop. That’s what we did. We rode to CP 3 through 9, not in any particular order and were able to find all of them. Cathy commented that those were the nicest single-track trails we had ever biked and she actually enjoyed it (she usually doesn’t like single-track). We knew we had to be back by noon to stay on time for the 3 pm finish. It was 1145 am when we returned to the Transition Area (TA).

Three hours left and we were in the kayak on the way to CP 11, which was located on an island. On the way to the island we passed two teams in canoes. A short climb to the top of the island and we were back in our kayak on the way to the next CP and the boat take out on and start of the portage to the next TA.

After putting on the portage wheels, we pulled the kayak up the trail to the top of the dam, a very big dam. We left our kayak and set out on a three CP trek section. We gave ourselves an hour and a half to complete this section. The first CP was at the bottom of the dam next to the spillway. Then it was on to the next CP that we knew would be difficult. After working our way through briars and brambles to the area we were expecting the CP, we couldn’t find it. We worked our way to a trail above the area and attacked the CP from that direction. Still couldn’t find it. Time was moving on and so did we. Hate when that happens. You know the CP is there; just can’t find it. We followed the trail to the third CP and returned to our kayak on top of the dam. By now, we were plenty scratched up from briars and brambles.

On the portage to the TA, we had to find a CP along the river. We took the wrong approach and ran into a solid wall of briars. We were scratched up enough and running out of time so we passed that CP and kept portaging to the TA.

At this TA, we had to decide to go in the river and paddle to the finish or run back to the finish. Cathy was not comfortable with how fast the river was running; so, we ran back. On the way back we were able to work our way to the river through more briars and brambles to get one of the CPs. We found out when we finished that a number of teams had spilled in the river and had problems with strainers. One team even lost their canoe to the river. Glad we ran back instead!

We finished at 5 hours 46 minutes. We finished 10th overall and 3rd in the 2-person Masters Division. Not bad for grandparents of 11 whom are 20-30 years older than almost all other adventure racers.