SF2T- Day 3

Up at 5 a.m. and on trail by 6:20. We started with a 400-foot climb to the ridge above our campsite. Then it was over a saddle filled with moderately healthy pines, and we joined the trail to Spirit Lake. (The official trail, at this point, climbs almost a thousand feet to a beautiful Lake Katherine and then descends. The mostly level trail to Spirit Lake is listed as an alternative and rejoins the trail coming down from Lake Katherine after a couple of miles.) We walked down the other side of the saddle through standing forest that has been ravaged by bark beetles. Many dead and dying trees were everywhere.

Whereas yesterday was over 3,400 feet of elevation gain, today’s hike was over 3,400 feet of elevation loss. The weather today was calling for fair skies, and that turned out to be accurate.

After a couple of miles, we reached Spirit Lake and stopped in the cool morning by the lake to have a snack. Then it was on to Stewart Lake, a couple of miles beyond. We met some faculty from a college in Lubbock finishing up a week in the wilderness. After a pleasant chat, we moved on and then came upon a local tracker and antler collector from Pecos who was curious about my destination of Taos. After that, we met a trail crew cutting away blown-down trees blocking the trail. Since it is a designated wilderness, they can only use hand tools, making it demanding and slow work. Beyond them, there were quite a few blowdowns, but we were able to negotiate all of them without trouble.

In the heat of the afternoon (81°), we finally dropped down to Cave Creek. Our proposed campsite was still 2 miles farther down the creek on a pretty rocky and unforgiving trail. It was about 12:40 p.m. when we arrived, but the site lacked any good hammock trees. Still, we had lunch there and then went to explore the shallow caves nearby that give the creek its name. They were pretty interesting with part of the creek flow disappearing down dark passages in the back of the caves. After our brief exploration, we decided to move on and find a better campsite. We walked a couple more miles to the Dockweiler Trail and started up that about a quarter mile to a level spot with some live trees for hammocks. We are camped here tonight.