December 20, 2015

 We decided to make a quick trip to the cabin on the weekend before Christmas despite a recent heavy snow there the weekend before we arrived (we had been told there was up to 22" in town--which didn't appear to be correct).  Weather problems, Christmas parties, and difficulty getting time off work had caused us to cancel once already and made finding a good weekend almost impossible.  Amy & Vince and Randy & Sandra were unable to make it.   JD & Jill were available but could't leave until Friday at lunch.

We left early Friday morning and were at the cabin by 10am MST.  It was extremely cold in the cabin when we arrived (actually much colder than outside), and we quickly discovered that all of the water to the upstairs was frozen despite winterizing and blowing water out of the lines when we had left on November 1.  It took a little longer to get everything situated than anticipated, but we were finally able to leave for a MTB ride in the snow by early afternoon.  I had wanted to ride in the High Rolls area, but Rick didn't want to drive that far, and the late start made riding in the very snowy James Ridge area just up the road from the cabin more appealing.  We rode a whopping 10 miles in almost 2 hours.  It was mostly snow and packed snow with some areas of ice/slush/mud/water/rocks.  On the way back, it started getting pretty cold and the areas which had been slush became ice.  Rick had two hard crashes, including one which jarred his collar bone.  We stopped taking pictures and just tried to get the heck out of there before someone got hurt.  We were seeing large cat prints in the snow the size of my hand (most likely mountain lions), and it got a little scary (and cold--the water was freezing in our camelbaks!) before we got back to the car.

JD and Jill had arrived when we made it back to the cabin.  After a nice hot shower, we headed into town to The Western Bar for dinner.  The food and beer were great.  On Saturday, we were craving BBQ badly, so we headed to Mountain Jack's for lunch.  It was excellent as always!  We shopped around Cloudcroft and High Rolls, watched a movie, and had dinner at The Lodge.

We headed home by lunch on Sunday after cleaning the cabin and very carefully winterizing everything.  We'll see if that upstairs water is frozen next time!  Reports are that town and the ski area received 30"+ of snow the weekend after Christmas just from one storm, and it's snowed several times since.  The ski resort opened on Dec. 28th, and we got an email on Tuesday asking us not to come up this weekend because the roads in the subdivision are so bad, and there's at least 2 feet of snow on the ground.  Not sure when the next trip will be.

Lots of snow when we arrived at the cabin on Friday morning--we didn't dare drive the Camry in the driveway until the snow had been shoveled.

Rick shovels a path while I get a fire going.  The thermometer said 14.8 degrees INSIDE the cabin when we arrived.  This was likely inaccurate, but it took 2 hours to get the temp up to 50 degrees and the upstairs water was frozen for a while despite winterizing and blowing water out of all of the lines before we left last time.

We decided to try some snow mountain biking on Friday afternoon while waiting for JD & Jill.  We left from the end of the paved road on 16 Springs Canyon road.  This pic is up the trail a couple of miles where the large tree fell across the road last winter and where people gather firewood, just before "Walker Hill", looking toward the south.

Same area, looking south

Same area, looking back to the east on the trail we just rode up.

A little farther up the trail at the bottom of "Walker Hill" where the road cuts back sharply to the right.  This is the site of many photo ops.  Note the tracks headed up the hill where a deer or elk dragged their feet in deep snow.  We saw a large female elk a little farther down the trail and had never actually seen elk in this area before--just elk signs.

Rick took the short cut to get to "Walker Hill".  This doesn't look it but is very steep.

Top of "Walker Hill" looking toward the north, where it ties into another forest road, and the site where we meet up with our guests who chose to avoid the steep climbs and start at the top.

Top of "Walker Hill" looking more toward the east down the forest road

Top of "Walker Hill" looking back to the south on the road we just came up

Headed back east from "Walker Hill"

Top of "Walker Hill" looking back to the west where the forest road joins.

Top of "Walker Hill" road looking back to the south (minus me).

Rick spotted a small herd of wild mustangs just west of the forest road.

The mustang herd crossing the road just in front of us.

Snowy forest roads in the James Ridge area

Headed back in deep snow just before everything started freezing back and getting really treacherous.  Once Rick started crashing, we didn't take any more pictures!

This was what we saw when we walked outside The Western Bar on Friday night!  We stood there for a while and they didn't move.

Tourist shot at Mexican Canyon trestle

Mexican Canyon Trestle a few miles west of Cloudcroft

Looking back to the west toward High Rolls, Alamogordo, and White Sands