Day Eight

I got up at 5:15 and me and my roommate Mary, went to meet Ron Lautenbach for an early morning hike.



















We went toward the mountains and met our group at the head of a trail that led into an old ghost town.
































We saw some elk up on the mountain ridges, which was pretty cool. But the ghost town was fabulous! This was the real deal!

















































And the nature was great, too!





































We hiked longer than we initially intended, but how often do you get to hike with a famous mountaineer? So Mary and I decided to just enjoy the morning and eat breakfast in the cabin. We got to class just in time!

My class today was Tracking and Sign Cutting with Charlie Pirtle, a former Border Control agent who has caught over 12,000 aliens using tracking techniques. He still teaches tracking techniques to law enforcement and border control agents as part of the State Department’s Anti-Terrorism Program. He was a great teacher, and the class ended with him leading us outside to follow a track he had made earlier that morning. We followed Charlie’s boot prints on dirt roads, through grass, mud and gravel, into and out of arroyos, and we even noticed where he had sat down for awhile and rested the but of his rifle in the dust. We finally found our goal—a note of congratulations tied to a juniper. Yay, we won!

It was now nearly noon—time for lunch and time for Dan to pick me up. I was anxious, since our phones didn’t work in the area and we hadn’t been able to contact each other and confirm any of our plans. But Dan showed up right on time, as promised. My bags were all packed and we got my gear loaded. Back at the cafeteria, I had some soup and they allowed Dan to have a lunch—sloppy joes and potato salad. We had a nice time talking with a couple from Albuquerque, and we got on the road at 1:00.



















It was nice to be on the road again, even though storms continued to swirl all around.



















We got to Santa Fe around 4:00 and met my father at the New Mexico State School for the Deaf. It was my first time to see his office. We made dinner plans, then got checked into our hotel and washed up. We had a nice Mexican dinner, and then my father and I went for an evening walk.

Tonight I’m exhausted. We’re heading south tomorrow to my Dad’s house in Bosque, near Belen. Once there, we’ll figure out what we want to do for the rest of this trip. We have lots of options, and all of them are good.

Day Seven

What a busy day!

I got up around 5 am and went for a run. It was a beautiful cool morning, and I saw some lovely sights, including lots of antelope


















and this moth, which appeared to have been painted by local Indians.



















I figure I ran about six miles.
































When I got back, everyone was getting ready to head to breakfast. I refused the many kind offers of a ride down to the cafeteria, and instead took my time showering, having breakfast out of the food I had brought with me, and getting ready to start the day.

My first class was Field Dressing Big Game. I know it sounds like a strange class for a non-hunter like me to sign up for, but I figured it would be good knowledge to have for my fiction writing, since my characters butcher both wild and domestic animals. The class was just down the hill from my cabin, so it was a pleasant morning stroll.

I had been worried that I might get messy in this class, and my concerns were partially justified. We certainly had the option to put on gloves and help with the gutting and skinning as much as we liked. But it was fine to just watch, too. I opted to stay out of the fray, since I wasn’t going home on Sunday, like the other participants. I wouldn’t have laundry facilities until at least Monday night, and if I ruined something, I had no closet of other things to wear. It was hard at times, to just stand by and do nothing, especially when everyone was skinning the hog. In my dissection experiences, I got good at discerning fascia vs fat and muscle, and there were many times I came close to jumping in, anyway. But it was just as well. Some people got pretty bloody.

Our class ended around 10:30, leaving us an hour of free time. I walked back to my room, puttered around a bit, and then walked to the cafeteria. Lunch was soup and make-your-own sandwiches, but since I had a cooking class in the afternoon, I just had some soup and ice coffee.

My next class, Wilderness Cooking in Foil, was a blast! And I was so glad I didn’t eat before I went, because we had chicken cooked with hot rocks, nachos in foil, egg and toast cooked on a coffee can, chicken dinners cooked in foil, ice cream made in a baggie in a jar of ice, and bananas foster, cooked in foil. We would’ve also made biscuits, but a storm was in the area and the wind got to be too much. We were spending more time trying to keep our ingredients from blowing away than we were actually cooking, so we went indoors and finished up with a short seminar.

After class, I walked back to my cabin with one of my new friends here. It was a nice walk, and as usual for this place, we saw antelope everywhere. Then I got a ride to dinner with my roommate.

Dinner was brisket, beans and potato salad, and the brisket looked really lean and tender. But red meat doesn’t sit very well with me, so I went with the vegetarian option of pasta alfredo. It was surprisingly good. And I steered clear of the peach cobbler and ice cream after dinner and had grapes and bananas instead.

After dinner, my roommate and I went for a walk, then went to a talk given by Ron Lautenbach, the world’s oldest active mountaineer, a member of Kodak’s climbing team, an internationsl speaker, and a former professor. He has been on Discovery Channel four times and showed us his pictures from a climb up Denali (Mt McKinley). He had fascinating stories to tell, which were only slightly marred by the stupidity of some of the questions that were asked. Ron was amazingly patient, though, and he wound up the talk around 9:30.

In the morning he’s leading an early morning hike, which I hope to go on. It will depend on if my roommate or someone else around here decides to go, because the starting point is too far away for me to walk. Or rather, it’s far enough away that I don’t want to have to get up an extra half hour early just to walk there.

Tomorrow I have Tracking and Sign Cutting class (another I’m taking for my writing), and then Dan is supposed to be here at noon to pick me up after lunch. Neither one of us has been able to get cell reception, so I hope everything works out. I hate not knowing the exact plan.

Day Six

I got up early and went to use the equipment in the weight room, or what there was of it. I didn’t get a very good workout. My asthma was bothering me a little, and I’ve never had much luck getting my heart rate up on an exercise bike. But I did what I could and started getting ready to go to camp.

We got out the door a little past ten, but the camp was only a few minutes away and we got there in good time.
































I got checked in and Dan helped me unload my stuff at my room. The cabins are pretty cool—I paid extra for a cabin that has several two-person rooms centered in a star pattern around a common kitchen, living area and bathroom. It’s pretty nice, and I took a picture.

































I went to lunch and it was good—soup, salad, and fixings for chicken salad sandwiches. There was fresh fruit for dessert. After lunch, they made announcements and then we went off to our classes. My first class was Survival Skills, and it was pretty good. The best part was alternative methods of starting fires, which we got to go outside and practice. Nothing like playing with fire!

I went back to my room after class and changed into cool weather gear. It wasn’t cold yet, but the distances at this camp are so far that you can’t just run back to your room whenever the whim strikes.

Dinner was grilled chicken cooked on a big smoker outside, with green beans and rice pilaf on the side. I skipped the carrot cake for dessert and had a banana instead. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to be this virtuous, but I’m sure going to try!

There was a choice of evening mini-programs after dinner, and I signed up for crafts and made a couple of painted boxes. I don’t think they came out so good, but it was a fun way to spend the evening and make new friends.

















Breakfast is bright and early, and I’ve got Field Dressing Big Game after. I’m still not sure if I should dress to get messy or not. I really didn’t bring anything I can ruin, so it’s more than just a small dilemma for me. My afternoon class is Wilderness Cooking in Foil, so I’m not at all sure when I’m going to get to run. There are so many great roads to run on around here, but time is the problem. Skip breakfast, maybe?

Well, I’ll figure it out in the morning, I guess.