SF2T- Day 1

I flew into Albuquerque yesterday afternoon, and Cappuccino picked me up at the airport. We did some errands and ended up having dinner with Cappuccino’s husband, Scott, and her son, Jake. Then we returned in for an early start this morning.

Up at 4:30 a.m. and over to Starbucks at 5 when they opened. Grabbed breakfast and then headed up to Santa Fe. We had arranged parking through the Santa Fe to Taos Trail organization and pulled into our parking spot about 6 a.m. From there it was almost a 2-mile walk down to the old Santa Fe Plaza where the trail begins. After a couple of pictures for Start of Trail, we left the plaza at 6:40 a.m. and started our journey.

We walked over to the Santa Fe River and started walking upstream for a couple of miles. Ultimately, we left the river as it went from flowing river to creek and eventually brook. Then we followed the dry tributary, Arroyo Polay, through the scrub desert hills east of the city. We joined the Dale Ball mountain bike trails, the so-called Dog Run trails, and spent the rest of the day ascending those.

Eventually, we left the desert scrub behind and even joined a stream that was flowing once again. During the late morning and early afternoon, the clouds had been building. We took a wrong turn and ended up on top of a ridge as it started to rain and the first rumbles of thunder were heard. We discovered our mistake and turned back off the ridge, much to our relief. We got back to the correct trail and it headed even lower as the rain came down and the thunder claps increased. The lightning stayed east of us on the other side of the ridge and eventually moved on as did the rain.

After walking nearly 17 miles today, we stopped in a ponderosa pine forest at 8000 feet and set up our hammocks about 3 p.m. Then it was dinner and retiring to our hammocks for the night.