Attitude: Making Boring Interesting
Somewhere along the line I realized that “boring” is just an attitude, and attitudes can be changed. Now long hikes are composed of long days walking long miles. Many of those miles are going to be considered monotonous and boring, and at the end of May in 2018 I was looking at just such a day. I was northbound on the CDT in northern New Mexico, through a “featureless, barren, and boring” desert. At least, that is the way it had been described to me by a southbound thru-hiker I met the day before. It didn’t help that, with the exception of a possible spring 2.6 miles from my camp, there was no other water for 30 miles!
The prominent mountain on the right is Cabezon Peak. Its top sits 1,700 feet above the valley floor.
So it was understandable that I was anxious about the water and worried about 30 miles of thirsty boredom as I packed up my camp in the dark at 4:30AM. But I was trying to keep an open mind. After all, attitude plays a huge part in perception.
Cabezon Peak poking up to the right of center.
As I dropped down from my forested camp near 7,000 feet to the desert 900 feet below, the sun started to rise, and what a sunrise it would be. The smoke particles from a fire near Pie Town, hundreds of miles south, were giving the sky extra strong color. And a weather front pushing those particles was just moving in as I took off. The sun, the clouds, the sky, everything was in alignment for an extraordinary sunrise. And so it was.
 (Cabezon means big head or big headed in Spanish)
This was the start of my “boring” day. The amazing sky would entertain me for much of the 2.6 miles down to the possible spring. But would there be any water? That was the big question. I was down to 2 L of water and if the spring was dry, the 2 L would have to last me for 30 miles through the desert!
As I reached the desert floor, I could make out Cerro del Ojo Frio, the hill that marks the spring. It’s a curious 400 foot high cinder cone rising out of the flatland I was now traversing. As I approached it I could just make out the spring at the base. And then I was there, at Ojo Frio Spring, which was very much alive and well. An old crumbling circular concrete tank held the precious fluid and neatly reflected its companion hill.
Filled up on water from the spring, I set off across a wide arroyo, Arroyo Chico. This translates as “little dry stream,” which was a bit of a misnomer, since the dry stream bed itself was the size of an 8-lane highway. Shortly after that I entered some amazing “badlands.” The soft multicolored rock had been nature sculpted to fit any imagination. With hues mostly of tans, browns, and blacks, along with the now overcast skies, there was an air of melancholy about the scene. Still the overcast was keeping it cooler and the fantastical shapes were surprisingly interesting.
(Not me, the rock. :^)
After all the fanciful sculptures, the trail led up, up, up to the top of the mesa where it skirted the edge for miles. In most areas I was walking along the top edge of a 300 foot cliff. The views were spectacular and the footing was dicey in places. This day was turning out to be anything but boring.
with the valley hundreds of feet below
By this point you know that what the southbound thru-hiker described as “featureless, barren, and boring“ desert was colored by his attitude. Although, I had feared I might find it the same way, I tried to approach it with an open mind. And the incredible sunrise didn’t hurt either. In the end, I’m sure I could have decided to have a boring day and just soldier on through, as my southbound friend did. But with a little attitude adjustment I had an absolutely splendid day searching out the interesting things along the trail. I ended up hiking 30 miles and enjoying an amazing sunset to bring it full circle.
As my dad used to say, “Have a great day, unless you’ve made other plans.”
Happy Trails…
