Topics: Both forests are in Stage 2 Fire Restrictions until September 30th or until rescinded Water updates Altitude sickness I am getting word of or communicating with several hikers who have gotten altitude sickness and have had to get off trail. It tends to happen right around when people are at Santa Barbara Campground or…
A few highlights of recent developments: Water conditions Hikers wandering into private property I received a complaint from a property owner along the Camino Pequeno section about hikers wandering onto private property. Please stay on the trail corridor through this area. If hikers continue leaving the trail here, we may lose access to this lovely…
Jack’s Creek Campground and Horsecamp is also closed until September 30th, as is the road to Jack’s Creek from Cowles. Per the Closure order: “The Described Road is in San Miguel County, north of Cowles, New Mexico, at the junction of New Mexico State Road 63 and NFS Road 555 starting at the middle gate…
Lower elevations are clear, but at least one section of trail is still dangerous enough that most hikers won’t be comfortable with it. Might be cleared by late next week. Water sources are fine, but water flows are at critically low levels for this time of year.
Fire conditions Santa Fe National Forest has been put under Stage 1 fire restrictions. These are effective until September 30th. Stage 1 means: I greatly appreciate the SFNF doing this. It’s a big relief. Carson National Forest has no such restrictions yet, but I hope they will implement them soon. There’s a good article in…
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about when the snowpack will be cleared enough to do the trail. Unfortunately, it will be much sooner than normal. As outlined in the FAQs and elsewhere, normally the season for the SF2T Trail would be from June 1st until about mid October. But this year? Let’s toss…
I’ve been toying with the idea of extending the thru hike so it’s more even for at least two years. Like “ski basin to ski basin”, or “plaza to plaza”. I started with ski basin to ski basin (“basin to basin”), probably because the Taos Ski Basin is gorgeous, and just a good place to…
The fire is out. Maybe not by strict definition, but it’s out enough to say that. The monsoons arrived early this year. The rain started falling last week, about 10 days ago. I was in New Hampshire helping my mom recover from a broken hip and got to talk to my husband, who was in…
The fire has slowed considerably. It’s still burning, but as of this morning the fire crews have got it 65% contained. We also have rain in the forecast, for a second week in a row: Despite the forecasts from last week, we got very little actual rain – 0.04 inches per NOAA’s three-day history tool….
The fire has slowed, but it is still working it’s way west. Here’s yesterday’s progression map: This is the scale of it now: Evacuations are ordered for the north part of Pecos – everything on Rt 63 north of the monastery. So Holy Ghost, Tres Lagunas, El Macho and Lower La Posada in the Pecos…
As you probably know, the Hermit’s Peak / Calf Canyon fire is sweeping up the eastern flank of the mountains between Santa Fe to Taos. It may well reach all the way from Las Vegas to Angel Fire within a week. It shows no signs of stopping. There is no rain forecast for at least…
Finally got an escape day to get out and try to find American Spring. It’s on the Taos side of the hike, about 4 miles from the El Nogal trailhead according to the maps. Where the maps (and Gaia GPS’s “USFS 2016” map) say American Spring is supposed to be is on the right side…
This website documents an 11-day backpacking trip from the Santa Fe Ski Basin over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to Taos Plaza. To my knowledge, a Santa Fe to Taos hike over the mountains has not been done before. Though of course Santa Fe is very old, and I find it highly unlikely no one…
There are many reasons why I did the thru-hike. The first was just the adventure of it. The thrill of finding a way through. Of trying to do something that was not guaranteed, that was not already documented and reviewed and established. I did it because it’s fun to connect trails and trailheads in a…
Something looms over this whole project. It shaped how I did the through hike, and when I did it. I saw it in the trees while I was walking and in the lack of snow the winter prior. I watched it on TV during the fires in California. 40% of the people in my country…
Hello! These blog posts document the first time I did the thru-hike back in 2018. The current (January 2025) route of the thru-hike is here. What is described below is still on the route of the thru-hike. It is documented in these sub-sections: S2-1: Ski Basin / Winsor trailhead to “the Y”. 2.4 miles. (Gaia…
