I need Santa Fe every day! Plus Pecos Wilderness and Misha's first real backpack!

We celebrated our 1 month anniversary of the GWA yesterday at Pecos Baldy Lake, an absolutely stunning natural lake in the Pecos Wilderness. Plenty of pictures below. Mostly we have been relaxing and exploring Santa Fe and the beautiful landscapes around. 

First, pictures of Lincoln:

We've been getting a lot of quality time which is pretty special since he is a super active, neat, little guy, and he loves my rendition of 'Wheels on the Bus' with the guitar. He will be walking before we know it.

We bought a fishing rod and John got a 5 day license so he and Scott hit the Pecos river several times last week. Scott showed us how to clean the fish if we do manage to catch anything in Colorado. So we are ready for some fresh trout out of Blue Lake in the South San Juan's!

Scott pulled a trout out of the Pecos our first time out there!

More Lincoln

 For Memorial Day we took an awesome drive through the Valles Caldera to Lake Fenton for a picnic and some fishing. The weather has been unusual for this time of year, instead of hot and dry, its more like sunny one minute, cloudy the next, with the occasional rain. With no luck pulling any fish out of the lake, we headed for some trails to get some exercise and let the dogs run a bit.

Eastburn family!!!!!! So many thanks to these 3 for putting up with us and spoiling us with the most delicious awesome locally homemade meals of elk steaks, red chile jack rabbit tacos and smoked trout.   

Mountain Mama!

On our way back to the car it actually started hailing for a bit! This is the 3rd time John and I have been in a hailstorm this year (Ecuador, Big Bend and now Northern New Mexico). It's a good lesson for preparedness while we are out in the wilderness.

Our biggest frustration thus far, has been issues with gear. We don't have a lot of room in the Honda so it's important that what we do have is practical and functions appropriately. Our whisperlite stove is on the fritz, we've taken it apart and cleaned it 20 times and its still spewing intermittently out of the jet. We had to buy a backup butane stove. Our lantern also stopped working so it had to be replaced. We are trying to work out all these issues here because our plan is to head to Pagosa Springs, CO next weekend and spend about 10 days in the South San Juan Wilderness where we won't be able to restock things like fuel and food.

Another adjustment we made was getting Misha a doggie backpack. The weight of our packs makes a huge difference so we are learning to leave some luxury items behind when we backpack, like camp chairs, hammock, etc. Misha borrowed a doggie backpack from Laura while ours comes in the mail, for our trip in Pecos it made a huge difference with her carrying her own dog food. We did an overnight, maybe 20 miles. Part of the trail was snow covered at the higher elevations.

The pack didn't seem to slow her down a bit. 

You can see the burn scars on the trees from previous years wildfires. 

Misha's excitement at the first mound of snow we encountered.

The sun over Pecos Baldy

Pecos Baldy Lake. The first natural lake of our trip. 

Natural refrigeration.

We camped nearby and set up the tripod to take these pictures in the morning celebrating 1 month on the road!

Misha sleeping at our lunch spot. We had a long second day hiking down to
 Beatty Flats and wrapping around and back to the car. 

View of the Pecos River flowing through Beatty's Flats.

Gila Wilderness

Here are some pictures from Gila Wilderness. This was the first designated "wilderness area" in the US. It is also one of the largest.

We kicked it off with a 10 mile hike through Little Bear Canyon and along the middle fork of the Gila River:

Hiking in little bear canyon.

Saw a brown bear around the size of a smart car down in a meadow by the river. Luckily it was running in the opposite direction!

Middle Fork of the Gila River, one of 31 crossings on the trail.

Misha loves hiking near rivers.

One of several free campgrounds in the area.

Double rainbow

For John's birthday, we went on a 34 mile 3 day backpacking trip:

After raining all day, the sun (and the birds) came out for the last hour of the day

Camp night 1 in the meadows.

Misha playing wolf at camp.

Is that a Mexican Wolf? Unfortunately not.

Misha and John looking into the Meadows and the middle fork.

A hunting shelter or something along those lines at Prior Creek.

Two stones that looked like feet.

I have to interject here and tell this mouse story: while on the trail that Saturday (John's Bday), Misha, always the hunter, saw a field mouse and pounced. We started yelling at her but it was too late, she ran off with a mouse, but startled by our shouting, eventually dropped it, dead from her jaws. We continued on hiking thinking that would be the end of the mouse killing for the day, while a few miles further on she pounced on another one. This time, Misha ignored our pleas and chomped the mouse down in a few bites. Totally grossed out by this, but always the nurse, I inspected her poop for a few days, to discover that somehow, the wolfdog can digest whole, raw mice without any trouble. Final score: misha 2, mice 0. 

The birthday campsite - night 2.

Misha was wiped out after four long consecutive days of hiking.

Visited the cliff dwellings our final day in Gila:

Our last morning in Gila, we discovered our backpacking stove was clogged. Since we were already out of proprane for the other stove this left us without coffee. The idea was too dreadful to consider for long so we high-tailed it out of the wilderness and stopped at the closest coffee shop which turned out to be a bakery, perfect! They gave us a loaf of cranberry bread that was too small to sell, fresh from the oven, which we greedily tore apart in the car. 

With very little warning for the Eastburn Family (due to lack of cell service) we headed for Santa Fe, not having showered in 6 days, and hungry for fresh food and cold drinks. 

Naturally, we stopped in Albuquerque to sample La Cumbre Brewing and stock up before we arrived in Santa Fe. 

This little guy has been an excellent host. 

I wasn't kidding about the van. It's perfect for us and fits right into our Great Western Adventure M.O.

So we are hanging in Santa Fe, soaking up the New Mexican lifestyle, reading books, catching up with friends, fixing through some gear issues. Many thanks to Laura, Scott and Lincoln for having us in their home. John got a 5 day fishing license so he and Scott have been trying their luck for trout on the Pecos river. Misha is laying around the house like she owns the place, gnawing on elk bone and dreaming of mouse hunting. Scott has been spoiling us with smoked trout, elk steaks and pancakes. So life is good. Thanks for reading and we'll be in touch.