Camping in the Sacramento Mountains, NM

That sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you are in the wilderness and your truck does that whining, rerrrr-rerrr-rerr-rer-re-re-click-click-silence sound when you try to start it. That’s the worst, don’t you think? Well, I was four miles from pavement, camping in the Sacramento Mountains in the Lincoln National Forest near Cloudcroft, NM when it happened to me. I drove up the day before and ran a few miles with plans to run long the next morning. It was pretty chilly and windy at 9500’ elevation when I woke up so I got in my truck to drink a cup of coffee to get my heart started. My heart started just fine, but my truck didn’t. Luckily, I discovered my dead battery before I returned exhausted from a 20 mile run.

Being stuck in the middle of the wilderness all alone is kind of disheartening and thoughts of starvation, dehydration, cougars eating my flesh and vultures pecking out my eyes did enter my mind. However, I had three things going for me. 1) I had a little bit of cell phone service, 2) there’s not much meat on my bones and it’s old and gamey, and 3) I saw some other campers riding around on four wheelers the day before. 

I was going to run long anyway so figured I would take a walk to find someone to give me a jumpstart. I had jumper cables with me too; another plus. So, I took down my tent and packed up the truck so I could take off for home if I got my truck started before the mountain lions got to me. I went down the road and before long, noticed an elk browsing nearby; a much better tasting snack for a large carnivore. Anyway, in about a mile, I came to a group of RVs and trailers where I asked for a jump. A gentleman from Portales, NM obliged and I was home a few hours later. Whew, cheated death once again!

Wildflowers were plenty

Lincoln National Forest has good campgrounds, but some of them are closed and others are at limited capacity due to the current pandemic. Because of this, dispersed camping is the best way to go right now, but my family is not too keen on pooping in the woods, except for my li’l running buddy, Taz. However, after being cooped up at home for the last several months, my wife and nine year old daughter started to warm up to the idea. Hanging out in the great outdoors with all that fresh air and vast distance between fellows humans might be just what we all needed. 

Therefor, the next week, after buying a new truck battery, we loaded up and took off for a few days of camping near Bluff Springs off of Sunspot Scenic Byway south of Cloudcroft. We found a nice spot beside a narrow stream where the “Little Grasshopper” could play and splash around in the creek. Since we were at around 8500’ elevation, the temperatures were about 30 degrees cooler than the 100+ degrees in El Paso, a much welcomed change.

The Little Grasshopper

One morning we were sitting around the campsite while Maddie was practicing her fiddle. Over yonder came the din of a huge gathering with no social distancing whatsoever. We looked down the road and could see a great commotion; dust cloud rising and it was heading our way! As it got closer we heard the distinct mooing of cows and realized it was a cattle drive. Well, in order to keep the herd from stampeding our vacation home, an REI Basecamp tent, and trampling on the Little Grasshopper’s fiddle, we jumped into the bed of our truck and watched the cow hands drive the cattle through our campsite and up into the canyon.

Here's the L'i'l Grasshopper playin' a fiddle tune fer the cows:

We also drove to the Bluff Springs waterfall a few miles away but it was more crowded than Disney Land so we drove down a mile and picnicked under a big shade tree. Each evening we took a short walk, but otherwise we mostly just relaxed at stream side. 

Bluff Springs on an uncrowded day

This flower was the size of a pencil eraser

Each morning I woke early and headed out for a run with my running coach, Taz. It was quite chilly; down to 40 and windy one morning so I put his Mexican blanket poncho on him since he is part Mexican hairless. We took off on the Willie White trail (T113) which was straight up, with 1000’ of elevation gain in less than a mile and a half. Once on the trail we saw several elk calves and two adults. The calves were brown with white spots like fawns. I took a few pictures from a distance, but they were blurry since it was dawn and we were quite a distance away.

Taz, my little running buddy

The trail was steep and full of rocks, but paralleled a quaint stream with tree cover overhead. There were several massive Douglas firs with girthy trunks towering into the sky and also stands of quaking aspen. It took us a while to reach the top of the mountain as I was sucking wind because of the 9000’ elevation. My running coach didn’t mind a bit though, and just scampered along like nobody’s business stopping every so often to pee on the trees. After reaching the top we headed down on a steep gnarly trail full of ankle twisting  rocks that made the footing rough. I ran part of this trail several years ago, but started at the other end at Bluff Springs.

Read my post: Bluff Springs

The second day we decided to run the forest road (5009) where we were camping. With smoother footing and a more gradual grade, we could run faster and enjoy the scenery a bit more. Again, it was really cold when we started out; I even wore gloves. In July! The road was lined with tall yellow coneflowers that attract all sorts of butterflies, bees and huge flies. It snaked along the side of Water Canyon with fine views of lush meadows below, threads of glistening water slicing through the pastures. The cows that we saw the day before were in hog heaven, calves sticking close by their mothers. 

Water Canyon

Further up the road we saw a seep in the side of the mountain with a flourishing hanging garden of ferns and other vegetation. Tall thistle with deep purple stalks, spiny leaves and drooping wine colored flowers were interspersed amongst the ferns. The Sacramento Mountain thistle has evolved to thrive in the limestone rich waters and high elevation here. This highly adapted species of thistle can only be found within a 75 acre area in the Lincoln National Forest and is listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds regularly visit the flowers. 

Hanging Garden

Sacramento Mountain Thistle

In a few more miles of uphill climbing, we reached the Sunspot Byway and turned onto FR 64 where there’s a cosmic ray observatory. This area is also home to the Sunspot Solar Observatory, a partial ghost town now, that was once bustling with astronomers observing and studying our sun. Today the observatory is somewhat shrouded in secrecy and conspiracy theories like much of the quarks in quirky New Mexico. Think Los Alamos, Manhattan Project, Trinity Test, Roswell, White Sands Missile Range and you get the idea. Sadly, I believe research money dried up here and sun science is being done by more advanced telescopes and instruments elsewhere.

View from the Rim Trail, White Sands National Monument below

Anyway, the forest road was pretty smooth and flat; a good place for camping especially if you don’t have a high clearance vehicle. Near here is also the Cathey Vista, an overlook that is a short hike from the highway. While trees have grown up around the view, you can still see the beautiful gypsum dunes of White Sands National Monument and the town of Alamogordo on the desert floor below. In addition, about 75 miles NW of this spot, “Gadget”, the first atomic bomb, was detonated on Jul 16th, 1945.

The Atomic City, Los Alamos, NM

I’ve always been intrigued, albeit in a very strange way, by the Manhattan Project and Trinity Test. I suppose it’s because I’ve run races in Los Alamos and at White Sands Missile Range which was established just one week before the first atomic test explosion. I’ve visited the atomic museums and read many books about the project. 

In her book, The Last Cheater’s Waltz, Ellen Meloy’s colorful writing and sarcasm explores the natural beauty of this vast desert and the "atom wrangler's" desire to “blow up the universe”. 

On the New Mexico desert in July of 1945, not only did rainstorms trigger a sex orgy among local toads, they delayed the test. Thunder rolled over the basin. Lightning lit up the shot tower, the inert pillar of steel that held the bomb, and threatened to short-circuit electrical instruments stitched to the desert with five hundred miles of wires. For the scientists who waited, the weather delay allowed time for nervous speculation on whether the bomb would ignite the entire atmosphere or merely incinerate New Mexico…

…Few would return to the amorphous dread of nuclear anxiety, so absorbed are we in dreads with seemingly greater odds: cancer, heart disease, cerebral hemorrhage, bombs placed on airplanes for ideological purposes. Locust plagues and dire loneliness. Leaky breast implants, a diminishing supply of world sperm, electrocution by one’s turbo-powered tie rack. Fascists with Web sites. The frightening biological dystopia of the global economy. Planetary decline not by a couple of H-bombs but by the slow-cook of greenhouse gases and shredding ozone layers.

Pondering these words, I turned around and headed back down from Sacramento Peak with my running buddy close on my heels. How is it possible that man, in just a few short years, was able to harness enough energy to destroy our planet multiple times over? IN THE 1940s! Equally possible then, in this day and age, must be ways for man to save it in just a few short years. Like the rest of the natural world, humans are amazing and can accomplish anything with the right mindset; even harnessing the energy of the sun.

Writing in her nature journal

On the way back down, I made mental notes of several good camping spots so I can return for a long run once I become tired of running in the heat of El Paso where the sun shines 300 days per year. I hope to make a twenty mile loop using forest roads and part of the Rim Trail (T105). Lincoln National Forest is a great place to visit while social distancing and the family thoroughly enjoyed their visit except for maybe the pooping in the woods part. Nevertheless, they agreed to come back!

P.S.
Well, I was about to publish this post when I decided to take one more trip to the Sacramentos because we are having a week long heat wave with highs in the 107 degree range. I ran 26.5 miles with almost 5000’ of vert using the Water Canyon Rd (5009), the Rim Trail (T105), FR 64D, FR 223, Benson Canyon (5005) to Bluff Springs and then over the Willie White Trail from East to West. The morning was very pleasant and I saw a lot of elk with little calves. There's nothing as uplifting as the unmistakable scent of warm pine in the backcountry so I took a forest bath while I was running. The Japanese call it shinrin-yoku; spending time in nature has shown to have great physical and psychological health benefits. 

Native evergreens are both aromatic and release a high concentration of phytoncides—airborne essential oils that provide a natural immunity boost. The health benefits of this phytoncide “shower” can last for weeks. —NatGeo

The afternoon became quite hot, but I had dropped off some water on FR 233 which was about 11 miles into my run. I also filtered some water using my Mini Sawyer at Bluff Springs, but didn’t need it. 

Aliens are real!

You’ll never guess what happened when I returned to my truck hot and exhausted. The battery was dead! AGAIN! Even though I just replaced it. It only seems to happen when I go to quarky New Mexico. Maybe my battery is being drained from leftover radiation from the Trinity Experiment or Roswell Aliens trying to phone home. I don't know. Radio waves from the government spying on me or am I parking in the Twilight Zone? 

See you on the trail.