Red Canyon

Dale and I took Adelaida on her first "real" hike today--we've taken her on several small hikes, both from our house and on the Albuquerque side of the Sandia mountains. None of those hikes were more than two or three miles long, and we either carried her or strapped her to our chests in a simple carrier.


Today, we drove down to the east side of the Monzano mountains and hiked up the Spruce Spring Trail, across the Monzano Crest Trail, and down the Red Canyon Trail, a total of about eight miles. It took us four hours to do the entire hike, including baby-mandated stops for nursing and diaper changes. Adelaida rode the entire way in a hiking backpack that we got just for her--it's a large external-frame backpack that has a seat for Adelaida, space for all of our gear, and a sunshade to keep her shaded in the sun and dry in the rain. She slept for close to three hours in the backpack, so it must have been pretty comfortable for her (except that I kept messing with her--tucking her hands inside the backpack so she'd stay warm, making sure her face wasn't mashed in the blanket, adjusting her had--and she kept waking up).

The entire backpack is quite a contraption, and relatively heavy even before we add Adelaida's gear (diapers, wipes, dirty diaper bag, diaper changing pad, extra clothes, sun shade hat, hat to keep her head warm, two blankets, toys to keep her occupied, and so much more), Adelaida (all 12 pounds, 10 ounces of her!), and our gear (water, food, first aid kit, and windbreakers). With Dale carrying the backpack with Adelaida and me carrying only two liters of water, Dale was weighted down enough that we were walking at about the same pace (Dale usually slows down to allow me to keep up with him). The backpack itself has several neat features, including a hand mirror to look at the baby while carrying her (no, Dale isn't just admiring himself on the trail!).

We saw evidence of several animals and came within about fifteen feet of a very large animal. We had stopped on the trail and I looked up the hill to our left and saw a large moving mass. I immediately identified it as a bear and my heart started racing...then it started walking toward us and I realized that it wasn't a bear and must be a mountain lion, which I know will eat young babies--but seconds later, it moved out into the open and I saw it was a common grey mule deer: an herbivore, not much taller than I am, and more scared of me than I should have been of it. The bear-mountainlion-deer calmly walked away from us without even glancing in our direction. Nevertheless, I was really frightened, and spent the rest of the hike imagining bears and mountain lions everywhere I looked.

We completed the hike safely--without spotting a single carniverous animal larger than my foot--and bought some of the famed Carrizozo cider on the way home. We got home and made dinner, at which Adelaida had another exciting first...but more about that in a future post ;)