Note the second date change: I have additional travel coming up the third week of November and can't be gone that much. So I was able to change the backcountry site to the night of Dec. 23, and the car camp site to the night of Dec. 20. The two nights in between don't require a reservation.
This year we will start out with a planning session for the field exercise at Mesa Public Library on Thursday Dec. 12th at 17:30. The field session (snow permitting) will occur the following weekend on Sunday the 15th. In the field we will exercise our transceiver, probing and strategic shoveling skills.
UPDATE; Still some snow to play in! Bring your skis, transceiver, and a dish to share. We will have a grill and some brats buns and drinks, and some BC games. Park in Pajarito lot and ski up via camp may road and uphill past the Motherload lift (or walk up camp may road) We will put out signs.
We have many times travelled to Bluff, Utah for a taste of the canyon country. Bluff is less than six hours from Los Alamos and, situated along the San Juan River, at a low altitude best suited for trips late or early in the season. Even at the beginning of December the average daily high is around 50 F. There are numerous places to hike and explore from Bluff, including the ruins and big views of Comb Ridge, the canyons accessible from Cedar Mesa, the canyon rim just north of Bluff itself, and farther afield to places like White Canyon.
This will be a day after Thanksgiving hike in the Ghost Ranch area, exploring the mesas and slick rock in our little northern New Mexico corner of the Colorado Plateau. The weather looks promising - clear and chilly. We will leave Los Alamos at 8:30 AM, and drive to the highway rest stop just before the entrance to Ghost Ranch. We will then hike up the nearby valley, into the mouth of Talus Canyon, then up onto the mesatop to explore the slickrock edges that overlook the views to the west, including the view to Pedernal.
This Sunday, November 24, is the Annual Los Alamos Crop Hunger Walk and Turkey Trot. This event raises funds to support local, national, and international efforts to relieve hunger and to support disaster relief. This year's event is dedicated to the memory of Jeanne Butler, a long time volunteer for the Hunger Walk and L.A. Cares.
Meet at the Los Alamos Middle School Cafeteria at 1:30 to sign up and make a monetary donation, and grab a t-shirt while they last. The run/walk starts at 2 pm - there is a 1.7 mile course and a 2.6 mile course down the mesa and thru the stables.
Because of too much ice in Water Canyon - this hike is being changed to a Blue Dot/Red Dot trail hike - with visits to petroglyphs near the trail. This is between a 4 and 6 mile loop, depending upon how it is organized. Claire Schappert is still leading - contact her if you are interested in coming.
Let's hike the Water Canyon/Ancho Canyon Loop, south of White Rock off of State Rte 4.
Technicality: Intermediate: participants should be able to scramble over and down big boulders.
due to warmer and sunnier weather than predicted, the golf course is too soft for grooming. Those interested in skiing please reach out I will plan on Canada Bonita.
Ski and dinner -
The snow is here and the Los Alamos golf course will be groomed Friday! Come meet other Nordic Ski enthusiasts and enjoy in-town skiing. All levels welcome. We will meet up and then ski your own pace and distance on the trails of the golf course.
4:00pm meet in the Golf Course parking lot
I would like to announce the sixteenth edition of our successful hike/explore/bike trips to Moab. We have been going almost every November since 2008, and every time has been a great success. The 2014 trip report can be found at http://lamountaineers.org/node/479#comment-57.
