Dealing With The Conditions

I was really hoping to get out of town this weekend, but I have hours of grading to do. Seniors will be taking their final exams on Monday and Tuesday, and I must have their grades ready to submit by Wednesday morning. I also gave my Algebra 2 classes a test on logarithms this week, and I need to get those graded as well. Yuk! Maybe I will get lucky and get them graded quicker than I expect. I hope so, because I really want to get out of Dodge for at least one overnight this weekend.

Next weekend is Mother's Day, and I would not think of not being home on Sunday. Last year I did a two day tour out of Silver City with the New Mexico Touring Society over Mother's Day weekend, but since I will be gone for about 9 weeks this summer I want to spend the time with my wife instead.

Besides grading logarithm problems I need to inventory, label, and pack the drop boxes. Also, practicing gear packing and unpacking a few times will help iron out any potential issues ahead of time. Unfortunately that only leaves the weekend of May 17-18 for finding the spring north of Grants, which I think may be a better stop than the San Mateo spring.

The good news is the time is near! The bad news is that the Cumbres Toltec narrow gauge railroad tracks that run from Chama, New Mexico to Antonito, Colorado is still snow packed! The GDMBR crosses those tracks a couple miles north of the New Mexico border. Also, there have already been 7 fires in the Gila National Forest. Six of them were man-made (abandoned campfires) and only one due to a lightening strike.

New Mexico is packing both extremes in the conditions this year. I told my wife over diner tonight that I plan to pack my Bogs, which are a great mud and snow shoe, in northern New Mexico. Probably I will have them shipped to Cuba, New Mexico, and hopefully mail them home at Del Norte, Colorado. I wore my Bogs for four days on my Ignacio Chavez Grant shakedown in March, and they kept my feet warm and dry in the mud and snow on Mesa Chivato at 8000 feet.

I am glad that I discovered an interest in the Iditarod Invitational race this year, because it has helped me learn to adopt a respectable hike-a-bike psychology when the conditions dictate. It has also helped encourage me to lighten my load. It is all coming together nicely, which is exactly what needs to happen.