Sixteen Miles . . . and What Do You Get?

Good old Tennessee Ernie Ford.  You may not remember the song 16 Tons, but it seems to fit our next hike.  Sixteen tons, what do you get?  Another day older and deeper in debt . . .

Well, for us it was Sixteen Miles, and what do you get?  Another sore toe and a little more wet . . .

This was not my smartest idea, but I am sure glad I was able to convince some people to go with me.

Because some people wanted to ride horses, and others wanted to walk, we had some logistics to take care of.  I will write about that tomorrow . . . it, in and of itself, was an interesting challenge.  But as it turned out, most of the walkers stayed in Santa Fe so that we could get to the ski area bright and early.

5:20 a.m. Bart was at our door, and amazingly, we were ready.  We met Travis at McDonald's, got our breakfast, and headed up the mountain.  Jerri dropped us at the ski lift at 6:45 a.m. and we began the long climb to Lake Katherine.  The first .8 of a mile is pretty arduous, so we took this picture when we topped out at the Wilderness Line.  (I see four really cool people and one in a dorky hat.  Oh well, no one consulted the fashion police on this one!)

The day was wonderfully cool and cloudy, so we were able to make good time.  Bart was shocked that we were able to cover in 2.5 hours what took us 4 hours the last time we did it.  I guess those stadium stairs worked!  When we arrived at Puerto Nambe, we had to decide whether to continue or not.  The clouds were gathering, but we decided we could go on.  Climb, climb, climb . . . the Little Engine that Could and her friends kept going up and up.  Once we reached the saddle near the top of Santa Fe Baldy, we began a treacherous downward descent.  I kept my eye looking toward the hill rather than down, as it was a sheer avalanche hill with numerous large glacial rocks.  "I think I can, I think I can," I kept saying, since heights are not my favorite.

The minute we arrived at the lake, it began to pour.  We ate our lunches . . . though some of our lunches were in the saddle bags that were coming up on the horses.  We kept trying to take pictures, but it was so cloudy, we couldn't take very many good ones.  Bart got this nice shot, but the steep cliffs leading to the lake hid behind the clouds.

After an hour of off and on rain, we decided to go ahead down because we couldn't wait much longer for the horses.  Just as we were leaving, the sun came out long enough to take this picture of two REI models and their friends.

We met the horses about 10 minutes from the lake - too far to go back and retrieve lunches.  The horses' riders managed to get a look at the lake before the sun hid behind the clouds.

We continued down the trail, some of us hungry, and within minutes, the heavens opened up.  It rained, sometimes very hard, for about three hours.  Once the rain quit and the sun came out, we were able to shed most of our rain gear.  We slogged along through the mud, arriving in the Cowles parking lot about 10 minutes before the horses.  Emily took this picture before the riders dismounted . . . she knew once they were off the horses, there would be no getting them back on.

The walkers went 16.2 miles; the riders rode 18.1.  We were all sore, but happy that we were able to see the beautiful Lake Katherine, even in the clouds!