Hiking CURSED.
I am hiking cursed. Really. We set out for Jemez Springs in order to do the hike out to the McCauley hot springs. Our guide book said that the trail was likely to be very poorly marked, but gave fairly specific instructions on how to get to the springs. So we get out to Battleship Rock, park the SUV, and start hoofin' it. About a third of a mile in, we see a sign for the hot springs with a big ol' arrow and a 2 mile marker. Okay, fine.
Our guide book describes ascending switchbacks that end in a big clearing. We did all of that. Next, it says, that there will be a lake and a spring pool. Ummm. Not so much. The trail completely ended in the clearing. We are perplexed. We turn back. We go back to the damn sign and ask a passing hiker which way to McCauley hot springs. He points to the way we just came kind of nondescriptly. He says it's pretty hard to get lost. So we hike the approximate mile back up the damn mountain and keep our eyes peeled for any place we could have missed the trail. Same deal. The trail just STOPPED. So we hike a half mile in one direction. Nada. We double back and then hike another half mile in the other direction. Nothing but big trees and boulders.
We then say fuck it, strip down to our hiking boots, and run around naked for awhile on top the damn mountain. That part was nice. First of May, First of May, and all that.
Then, um, thunder and lightning. We'd gotten really far off trail by then, so we kept going until we found another trail and start making our way down the mountain. We realize that it's the trail to the right of the sign we saw, as it is also a series of switchbacks, though much more of a gradual grade than the one we took, which was moderately strenuous. Thunder and lightning intensifies. Downpour is imminent. We go off trail, scaling straight down the side of the mountain instead of continuing along the switchbacks. (Wilderness Skillz +1.) After about 30 minutes of straight up ass haulin', we made it to the car right as big quarter-sized splatters of rain began to pelt the windshield.
Got home, looked it up online. The steeper trail indicated by the sign is the "new trail" and was supposed to have been marked by pink ribbons or somesuch (not so much, really). The trail indicated by our book was the longer, more gradual one. And that makes sense, but still... why did the "new trail" just vanish like that? I am so confused. We're going back tomorrow, and we're going to hit it from the other side... starting at the Jemez campground. After we bask in the glory of the hot spring, we're going to keep going until we hit the trail we were supposed to have taken today so we can see where we were confused. My thigh muscles, they love me.
And then we came home and sat in our own hot springs... a nice half hour dip in the jacuzzi. Nice. I had a very nutritional dinner of a Lean Pocket and sugar free Jello. Ahh, life with a diabetic. We were just way too tired to cook a proper dinner tonight.
Tangent: as we were leaving, Jason tested his blood sugar and he was pretty low. We pulled off at Taco Bueno, this awesome little place that's like Taco Bell, but with non-greasy food. For fast food, it's relatively healthy. It's also yummy. Anyway, I say "I'll take two small beef soft tacos." He orders two small beef soft tacos and a package of the cinnamon crisps. Odd, I think, but the crisps are sugary, I guess. We pull up the window and he says "I don't even like soft tacos." I say "what? Those are for me." He then looks at me like I'm speaking Sumerian. The light slowly dawns and he then asks the cashier to add in something else. We pull over to the parking lot, and he scarfs down his food, then moves onto the cinnamon crisps. He makes a face. I ask, again, "what?" He says he thought he'd ordered nachos. Ahhh, the low blood sugar brain glaze. I've gotten pretty attuned to it by now, but it's still a bit startling every time. It's started to make sense why my little brother was considered developmentally disabled before he was correctly diagnosed with Type I a few years ago. Words don't so much make coherent sense when they get low like that. Thankfully, it's quite temporary.
Anyhow, we had the house to ourselves for much of the weekend, which was wonderful. Yesterday, we sat around, cuddled up, watched a lot of DVDs*, and fell asleep on the couch. The boy works too damn much; it was really nice to be able to spend actual quality time with the stranger who crawls into bed with me at night.
*Breaking Bad continues to be really good. Australia was really long and actually more like two 150min movies than a three hour one, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. Hugh Jackman helped. Continuing my re-watch of Rome, and I think the acting is some of the finest I've seen on TV. Plus Lindsay Duncan is fuckin' bangin' for her age. Finally, I recommend Blindness to ABSOLUTELY NO ONE despite its brilliant cast. It was like 28 Days Later in its totally bleak dystopian vision... only with no point to speak of. At all. Plus-- SPOILER-- there is a deeply graphic rape scene that almost made me turn it off halfway through. And it was shortened from its original version-- which caused 10% of the test audience to walk out. Yeah, really, really triggery. The movie could have been so much better. Julianne Moore was awesome. Gael Garcia Bernal was really creepy. Mark Ruffalo, who is usually not my cuppa, gave a very nice performance. All the supporting actors were great. The visual direction was lovely. But the story just completely punked out at the end and I was left feeling like I got stuck watching two hours of violence with no real message (beyond the de rigeur "people are savage assholes in crisis situations") AND giant plot holes. Fail. Danny Boyle did it way better.
Our guide book describes ascending switchbacks that end in a big clearing. We did all of that. Next, it says, that there will be a lake and a spring pool. Ummm. Not so much. The trail completely ended in the clearing. We are perplexed. We turn back. We go back to the damn sign and ask a passing hiker which way to McCauley hot springs. He points to the way we just came kind of nondescriptly. He says it's pretty hard to get lost. So we hike the approximate mile back up the damn mountain and keep our eyes peeled for any place we could have missed the trail. Same deal. The trail just STOPPED. So we hike a half mile in one direction. Nada. We double back and then hike another half mile in the other direction. Nothing but big trees and boulders.
We then say fuck it, strip down to our hiking boots, and run around naked for awhile on top the damn mountain. That part was nice. First of May, First of May, and all that.
Then, um, thunder and lightning. We'd gotten really far off trail by then, so we kept going until we found another trail and start making our way down the mountain. We realize that it's the trail to the right of the sign we saw, as it is also a series of switchbacks, though much more of a gradual grade than the one we took, which was moderately strenuous. Thunder and lightning intensifies. Downpour is imminent. We go off trail, scaling straight down the side of the mountain instead of continuing along the switchbacks. (Wilderness Skillz +1.) After about 30 minutes of straight up ass haulin', we made it to the car right as big quarter-sized splatters of rain began to pelt the windshield.
Got home, looked it up online. The steeper trail indicated by the sign is the "new trail" and was supposed to have been marked by pink ribbons or somesuch (not so much, really). The trail indicated by our book was the longer, more gradual one. And that makes sense, but still... why did the "new trail" just vanish like that? I am so confused. We're going back tomorrow, and we're going to hit it from the other side... starting at the Jemez campground. After we bask in the glory of the hot spring, we're going to keep going until we hit the trail we were supposed to have taken today so we can see where we were confused. My thigh muscles, they love me.
And then we came home and sat in our own hot springs... a nice half hour dip in the jacuzzi. Nice. I had a very nutritional dinner of a Lean Pocket and sugar free Jello. Ahh, life with a diabetic. We were just way too tired to cook a proper dinner tonight.
Tangent: as we were leaving, Jason tested his blood sugar and he was pretty low. We pulled off at Taco Bueno, this awesome little place that's like Taco Bell, but with non-greasy food. For fast food, it's relatively healthy. It's also yummy. Anyway, I say "I'll take two small beef soft tacos." He orders two small beef soft tacos and a package of the cinnamon crisps. Odd, I think, but the crisps are sugary, I guess. We pull up the window and he says "I don't even like soft tacos." I say "what? Those are for me." He then looks at me like I'm speaking Sumerian. The light slowly dawns and he then asks the cashier to add in something else. We pull over to the parking lot, and he scarfs down his food, then moves onto the cinnamon crisps. He makes a face. I ask, again, "what?" He says he thought he'd ordered nachos. Ahhh, the low blood sugar brain glaze. I've gotten pretty attuned to it by now, but it's still a bit startling every time. It's started to make sense why my little brother was considered developmentally disabled before he was correctly diagnosed with Type I a few years ago. Words don't so much make coherent sense when they get low like that. Thankfully, it's quite temporary.
Anyhow, we had the house to ourselves for much of the weekend, which was wonderful. Yesterday, we sat around, cuddled up, watched a lot of DVDs*, and fell asleep on the couch. The boy works too damn much; it was really nice to be able to spend actual quality time with the stranger who crawls into bed with me at night.
*Breaking Bad continues to be really good. Australia was really long and actually more like two 150min movies than a three hour one, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. Hugh Jackman helped. Continuing my re-watch of Rome, and I think the acting is some of the finest I've seen on TV. Plus Lindsay Duncan is fuckin' bangin' for her age. Finally, I recommend Blindness to ABSOLUTELY NO ONE despite its brilliant cast. It was like 28 Days Later in its totally bleak dystopian vision... only with no point to speak of. At all. Plus-- SPOILER-- there is a deeply graphic rape scene that almost made me turn it off halfway through. And it was shortened from its original version-- which caused 10% of the test audience to walk out. Yeah, really, really triggery. The movie could have been so much better. Julianne Moore was awesome. Gael Garcia Bernal was really creepy. Mark Ruffalo, who is usually not my cuppa, gave a very nice performance. All the supporting actors were great. The visual direction was lovely. But the story just completely punked out at the end and I was left feeling like I got stuck watching two hours of violence with no real message (beyond the de rigeur "people are savage assholes in crisis situations") AND giant plot holes. Fail. Danny Boyle did it way better.