Trip #129 (60): Escape the Heat: NM Mountains

Trip #129 (60): Escape the Heat: NM Mountains

Hopewell Lake, west of Taos x2 then Horca/Elk Creek, Colorado x2

[Trailer having many issues!]

Monday 8-21
It is still too as in low 90s hot in Santa Fe, so maybe a short trip to the mountains will help. About a 2 hr drive north to Hopewell Lake, small but still has water. We are west of Taos in the Carson National Forest, almost at 10,000 feet. So yes -- cooler! Mid 70s with some overcast and sun, and some summer sprinkles. Instead of the campground, we drove a little bit past and found a nice spot to Boondock. And as always the more space he has the longer it takes him to get it in place holy cow after about three moves I said just leave it somewhere!!! Anyway finally we pick a spot and cannot remember what we did the first day oh yes. 10,000 feet? Of course I can't keep my eyes open so I think we took naps. Zero signal here.
Issue: Dish remote wont work w/receiver

Tuesday, 8-22
Today is Timmy and Barbara's and Ann's birthdays, is how weird is that. A cool start to the day and we decided to ride the bikes up the road to see how far we can go. The answer was about 6 miles on a very bumpy, rocky steep but who would know with an e-bike road. The worst part was riding the brakes downhill. Then we went over to the lake to try our luck at fishing. Couple of nibbles on my fresh GARDEN worms from the garden but no takers. Looked like rain, so just hung out the rest of the time. Had planned to stay a third night, it was free and all..., but not much more to do so time move on to the next location.

Wednesday, 8-23
Moved on in heavy overcast skies slightly north into Colorado to Horca's Elk Creek CG, after driving through beautiful Chama. Finally made a stop at the Lowes grocery there and was pleasantly pleased, very nice store, one we have passed by a million times before. Still at about 8600 feet, just not quite as cool as Hopewell, tho the night was colder, mid 40s. Site number 12 was available so we took that, across the street from the creek. Got out right away on bikes, first going uphill to our former boondock site many years ago (now its full) and then back down toward town if you can call it that, there is a gift shop, a nice welcome center with WIFI and an RV community. The roads are rough here too, so that 5 mile ride was enough.

Thursday, 8-24
Trump surrender to GA day. A sunny day, cool in the morning, and today we have decided to hike up to duck Lake, supposedly 3.7 miles what turns out to be up at the mountain. The trail head is by the Boondock area so we drove it and then some in search of the trailhead. But first we went back to the welcome center to check our phones with the Wi-Fi to see if we missed anything and of course we did not... we have not done a mountain hike in possibly a year or more so we weren't sure how this was going to work out. Been mostly e-biking into lazyness. And it was really tough going at the start, straight uphill at 10,000 feet, I thought my heart would tick itself to death. But finally it flattened out and it was enjoyable. Beautiful land with big open meadows up in the mountains and forests very very nice. Was nice to be doing this again. I didn't think I would be up to the 3.7 miles one way to reach the lake but we just kept pushing on until we finally saw it and it -- and it was worth the work, just beautiful. And turning around going back what is plenty long as well, sliding down some of those steep areas! After this we took a drive to little Spectacle Lake, about 7 miles north of the town of Horca, there's a couple campgrounds we looked at but they were pretty small and empty.
This seems to be the issue trip: the electric awning wasn't working right, The solar panels weren't working right not sending power, and the toilet the next morning kept feeling as if that valve we replaced is not working again. This trip was one little thing after another so it's time to go home.

Friday, 8-25
We've done it all, time to go home and fix the trailer for the balloon fiesta. But we did enjoy that mountain hike so hope to do that at home in Santa Fe on Sunday. It's a plan.
Temps on way home: 74, 77, 55 (rain), 60, 88, 83, 75, 90...

RIP: Bob Barker, the day after we got home