My Walkabout

The trail initially seemed easy enough to find, at least on the GPS. What I found out though is that snow levels are not taken into account on today’s modern devices.

A clearing in the road was filled with trucks and empty snowmobile trailers. The snow covered road was filled with the tracks of the machines, but all was silent around me.

I start hiking upward, leaving Pagosa behind me.

A couple of miles in and I see another soul, the first since I started hiking, his two large dogs leap on me. “Don’t worry, they’re friendly”, shouts the stranger.

He asks if I’m from around here, I smile and shake my head, realizing we are both lost wanderers in the mountains. Parting ways, I continue to climb.

A couple more miles in and I finally see a sign. It has my final destination listed, but it’s another 6.8 miles. I discover that this trail is for summer hikers when you can drive closer to the trail head.

There was only a couple hours of daylight left, or perhaps I would have carried on. No matter though, as I’ll take blue skies and beautiful views any day….

even when I’m lost.