2009-10-15 33 -107

Location

On a ridge southwest of the San Mateo Mountains, approached by a drive on 4WD roads.

Participants

Redaragorn and 3 yr old son

Plans

We'd been planning a camping trip to the Magdalena or San Mateo mountains, and when I saw that the hash was on Cibola National Forest land close to the mountains I knew just where we were going to head. I didn't really think about it at the time because I was intending to head for the Magdalena graticule, but it was actually kind of cool to be shooting for a spot in the Truth or Consequences graticule. If I'd connected that a little better, I probably could have come up with something cool to tie in the history of the town's name.

Expedition

We made a side trip to the Los Lunas hash on the way down, but after that made straight to the hinterlands. The approach to the 4WD roads was straightforward enough, and I was only slightly put off when I saw that I still had 15 mi to go once I got onto the really bumpy road. I had plenty of day ahead of me still, and the boy was in good spirits. I got a little more worried when I saw how slow I was going to have to go to make it through safely...and realized how long this was going to take. I had to go down in and back up out of canyon after canyon, it seemed. The views of the San Mateos were neat, and the weather was incredible, but it was taking longer than I expected. When we finally bumped up the last ridge and came to the hairpin turn where we pulled out to amble the quarter mile to the hash, I was pretty glad. We went down the hill to celebrate at the hash, then got back into the car, determined NOT to go back the way we came in. About a mile further down the road, we found a "Road Closed" sign--facing the opposite direction. Apparently, the road I just drove across was closed for some reason. Go figure.