SF2T- Day 10 (End of trail)

It rained for about 30 minutes last night. It was a gentle rain, but off to the north there was thunder. It never came my way, though.

I was up at 4 for a 5 a.m. start. I still had about a thousand-foot climb over a mile of trail to the top. I hiked through the dark by headlamp, looking around frequently for any sign of yellow mountain lion eyes looking back at me. Fortunately, none were seen. It took me a solid hour to go that first mile, and I gained the top of the ridge at 6.

From the top, I started down the last 9 miles of trail into Taos. An old forest road once again provided the tread. It switched back for roughly 5 miles, slowly changing from pine forest to high desert terrain. The sun made its appearance, first light being on the mountains to the west of me.

Eventually the trail moved from the west side of the mountain around to the east, where the sunshine was more direct.

As I got near the bottom, I followed the guidebook instructions to skirt private land and use utility right of way to make it to Highway 585, then on to Witt Road, which then took me to Highway 64 into downtown.

I had arranged to meet Cappuccino at the Bent Street Grille just off the Taos Plaza. I did pass through the Plaza, but I was thinking of lunch so much that I forgot to take a picture of myself at the end of the trail. However, I did meet Cappy and her dog, Ellie, at the restaurant where we had an excellent celebratory lunch. After our meal, we drove back to Albuquerque.

I spent another couple days in Albuquerque hiking with Cappuccino and Ellie in the Sandia Mountains, going to a wonderful Stravinsky concert, and having an amazing gourmet dinner at Level’s that was prepared by his wife.

So I completed the SF2T in two sections. I will admit that the last third was fine with nice forest and challenging terrain, but the first two-thirds through the wilderness was spectacular and amazing. Just a stunning wilderness trip. All in all, the SF2T is a very worthy trail with lots of variety, charismatic megafauna, great scenery, and challenging trail. Short enough to do in a couple of weeks, but long enough to give one a sense of accomplishment.

So until next time, safe travels and happy trails…