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| no partners | | Ventured into New Mexico for the third straight weekend. This time the main focus was to watch July 4th fireworks in Socorro. The show was decent, but not as good as in Alamogordo, where I had watched them the previous 5 years. I found the camp of a group of Take a Hike folks from Phoenix and spent the first night (Friday) with them east of Mogollon. Next morning it was a long drive over past Snow Lake to Winston, where I stopped for gas before heading north. This was the most dramatic part of the trip weatherwise, as the remnants of Alex were putting down some heavy rain. I was a little concerned about crossing Alamosa Creek near the Monticello Box, but made it through alright. From there it was up into the San Mateo Mountains where I stopped at two fire lookouts (Withington and Grassy). Camped the second night on the ridge near the Grassy Lookout at around 9800 feet. A strong northwest wind with an overnight low of 45 degrees made it a bit uncomfortable, plus it signified the moisture was being pushed away. Sure enough, Sunday and Monday were practically cloud free. Sunday morning after an extensive visit with the fire watch at Grassy, I headed to Magdalena and on to Socorro to my motel room. After a good dinner at Socorro Springs Brewery I watched the fireworks show over at NM Tech, then finished the evening by hanging out at the Capitol Bar until closing time. Monday morning it was a fantastic green chile cheeseburger for breakfast at the famous Owl Bar in San Antonio, then headed home via the very scenic drive over Emory Pass to Silver City, then catching I-10 at Lordsburg and on to Tucson. I noticed there was still a smoke visible over the Chiricahuas as I drove past.
The two guys manning the fire towers were very friendly and informative. I think I talked with them for about 3 hours. Joe at Withington grew up in the area and his father was a lookout before him at Grassy. He remembers that as a boy he and his father would stay at a FS cabin down in Pigeon Canyon and then go up to Grassy Peak to look for fires. There was no lookout then, just an Osborne Fire Finder mounted on a tree platform. Richard at Grassy has set up his tower to have many comforts of home. When I strolled in, there was classical music playing and his dog Abbe was napping peacefully. He is keenly interested in the history of the area, especially Native American topics. In fact he was married at the Jemez Pueblo to his wife Tessa, who is from there. Richard is also a storm spotter for the weather service, so we had a good discussion on the weather phenomena he has observed there. |
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