The weather is warm and I can resume my walks/running near my neighborhood in Rio Rancho. I came across this grafiti “Free Adam” and “Fuck the pigs”. Who is Adam why does he need to be freed?
Who Is Adam?
The Last Pack Trip Into The Pecos Wilderness
On Friday 7 September 2012 4 friends and I rode horses into the Pecos along with 2 pack horses and 1 one guide. We rode about 8 miles up to East Pecos Baldy. The horses were provided by Tererro General Store and Riding Stables at a cost of approximately $1250 (not including tip). The pack horses carried each of our back packs at about 30-40lbs each and 70lbs of food (with an undermined but significant amount of that weight in alcohol). Since the Pecos Wilderness is a Wilderness, no motorized vehicles are allowed.
The Tererro General Store typically takes hunting parties into the Pecos but we not interested in hunting, just a way to get into the mountain without having to carry 40lbs plus packs 8 miles in. However we were hiking out, all downhill and theoretically with less pack weight. What could go wrong?
Which brings me to the title of the article. Apparently there has been an overall reduction of horse packing business for the Tererro General store and insurance is not only becoming more expensive but harder to get as insurance companies don’t want to cover horse packing. Therefore this will be their last year of providing these trips and they plan to sell off the stables and horses. We weren’t the last trip up for the horses as they had a few more hunting parties going up but we were near to being the last trip.
This is the first time I have rode a horse since I went to the Philmont Scout Ranch over 20 years ago. I was a little nervous that the horse I was going to be riding would take one look at me and decide to ignore all my commands. There was nothing to be nervous about. The horses, mine was name Sampson, has been on this trip many time and knew the way better than I did and was used to newbies trying to drive. There was very little for me to do except keep him from running into the other horses when they suddenly stopped and from taking any shortcuts that we might get stuck in (they aren’t all that smart sometimes).
We start the trip about 10am New Mexico time and arrived at our destination 8 miles up the mountain about 12:30pm. The 8 mile ride took us through some forest, then to a large clearing with some grazing cattle.
We were back in forest when getting to our final destination.
It mostly rained the whole time so we had to come up with covered communal area where we could sit around the fire and not get soaked. There also wasn’t a lot of firewood, the area had been picked pretty clean. What little firewood we found was wet.
We spent time exploring the area near East Pecos Baldy. There are supposed to be big horned sheep in the area but all we came across was cattle and a few bow hunters on horseback also looking for sheep.
We were lucky to have a day of no rain where we were able to hike to the top of Ease Pecos Baldy.
Finally, we hiked out on 10 September 2012. While we ate and drank our way through most of our supplies we still managed to have quite a bit of weight on us on our way out. Making us wonder why we didn’t rent horse to take us out.
The enitire photoset can be viewed on the Flickr set “2012-09-07 Pecos Pack Trip“.
US89 In Arizona Closed Due To Geological Event
A 500-700 foot section of US89 in Northern Arizona has crumbled according to the Arizona Depart of Transportation “US 89 to remain closed as ADOT assesses damage“. ADOT has also posted some video on youtube “US 89 Pavement Buckle (February 20, 2013)” showing how impressive the damage is.
While the Arizona Department of Transportation is still trying to determine what exactly happened to cause the ground to shift beneath US 89 Wednesday morning (Feb. 20) the agency continues to assess the significant damage to the highway. Geotechnical engineers are currently evaluating the stability of the mountain slope, approximately 25 miles south of Page.
“This area encompasses close to 500 feet of damaged pavement, but we had the opportunity in the plane to circle the area twice and it looks like the settlement could be a lot larger,” said Robert Samour, ADOT senior deputy state engineer of operations. “The area over the guardrail drops off a couple hundred feet; we saw some cracking in the soil down the slope, so I would say that this is probably a 500- to 700-foot section that we’re going to have to take a good look at for settlement.”
US 89 will remain closed for an extended period of time. There is no timetable to reopen the highway, which has over 150 feet of pavement that buckled approximately four to six feet.
45 Foot Fall From Santa Fe Ski Lift
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/0zioMFv2_pk
From the Santa Fe NewMexican Teen who fell from lift to gain national TV audience after video goes viral
An Albuquerque teenager who was virtually unscathed after falling about 45 feet from a chairlift at Ski Santa Fe earlier this month said he was terrified he would die if he fell, but he couldn’t hang on any longer.
Sheppard said the teen was transported via helicopter to University Hospital in Albuquerque as a precaution because patrollers didn’t know the extent of his internal injuries.
The youth suffered a lacerated liver and tears in both lungs, as well as a hairline skull fracture and a gash on his forehead that required 16 stitches. He spent three days in the intensive care unit, but was released without the need for any surgery and without a single broken bone.
The teen said he’s mostly healed now, but he is still waiting for doctors to clear him to play baseball because of concerns his liver might start to bleed again.
Wrong Items Donated To Rio Rancho Goodwill
From the Rio Rancho Observer “Bullets, pipe donated to Goodwill“
Someone donated bullets and a duffle bag holding smoking paraphernalia to Goodwill last week.
According to a Rio Rancho Police report, an officer went to Goodwill at Southern and Unser about 10:45 a.m. Feb. 12 after employees sorting through anonymous donations found a glass pipe in a black Adidas bag and various calibers of ammunition in other property. There were 50 .22-caliber rounds, three 12-gauge shotgun rounds, a .410-shotgun round and what appeared to be one .22-caliber rifle round.
The items were entered into evidence at RRPD.
About 3 p.m. the same day, the officer went back to Goodwill after dispatch was told a man claiming to own the Adidas bag was at the store. The man told the officer he’d just gotten out of the hospital and a friend told him his property had been dropped off at the store.
The store manager said there was no way to verify who left the bag in the donation trailer, and the officer couldn’t charge the man claiming to own the bag because he couldn’t verify the owner of the pipe, according to the release.
The Verge Visits The Trinity Site And The VLA
Jesse Hicks of The Verge presumably visited the Trinity Site and the Very Large Array in a single day. An a article titled “Prometheus in the desert: from atom bombs to radio astronomy, New Mexico’s scientific legacy” he compares the destruction of the trinity site with the more peaceful achievement of the Very Large Array.
The VLA captures the imagination in much the same way as Trinity, but without the latter’s dubious legacy. If Trinity represents an omega point of applied science — the almost inevitable outcome of work hypothesized by Fermi and Szilard, warned of by Einstein, and executed by Oppenheimer and his fellows — the Very Large Array epitomizes pure science, motivated only by inexhaustible curiosity. Yet that curiosity, that yearning to better know the world around us, produced a scientific apparatus unique in the world.
It’s not a good introduction for those not from New Mexico. It reminds me that I need to try to visit the Trinity site during one of it’s next open houses and the next time I drive by the VLA I need to actually stop and visit.
Where Is The Village At Rio Rancho?
According to a Albuquerque Business First Article “Unser corridor bursting with retail, office activity” the Village at Rio Rancho was support to start “This Summer”. Since the article was written in May 2012 that would make it last summer. Currently all we have is a lot of cleared desert that will turn into atmospheric dust come this spring. The City of Rio Rancho only mentions this special tax deal from 2009.
Meanwhile down the road in Albuquerque “Construction starts on new Westside ABQ plaza“.
Filmed In New Mexico: The Lost Room
I saw the Lost Room expecting it to be some cheesy SciFi channel B movie. Instead I found the mini series has a good story, good acting and I couldn’t stop watching until I found out what happened at the end. From Wikipedia:
The series revolves around the titular room and some of the everyday items from that room which possess unusual powers. The show’s protagonist, Joe Miller, is searching for these objects to rescue his daughter, Anna, who has disappeared inside the Room. Once a typical room at a 1960s motel along U.S. Route 66, the Lost Room has existed outside of normal time and space since 1961, when what is only referred to as “the Event” took place.
It was completely filmed in New Mexico. In one scene that was supposed to take place in Las Vegas, NV a Albuquerque city bus drives by.
Lost Dutchman Mine Searcher Remains Found In Superstitions Mountains
People die looking for the Lost Dutchman gold mine in the Superstitions Mountains, including Jesse Capen from Denver. He apparently fell to his death on his first day of searching. From the Denver Post “Denver man’s search for Lost Dutchman mine likely ended in fall“:
At the end of November 2012, a day pack containing Jesse’s GPS equipment, his mother’s camera and his identification was found at the bottom of a 180-foot cliff on the same mountain. Searchers spotted a boot in steeper terrain above the day pack.
“All of a sudden — out of the blue — they found him,” David Capen said.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department sent a helicopter to the side of the cliff, and deputies rapelled down to a skeleton, which was retrieved in a wire basket.
CD Piracy In Rio Rancho
From KOB “Large scale CD piracy operation suspected in Rio Rancho“:
Rio Rancho Police arrested Wands on Dec. 19, in what they call a large scale CD piracy operation.
Police suspect Wands copied CDs and then sold the music at area flea markets.
According to a criminal complaint Wands sold undercover investigators 4,000 bootleg CDs for $1,300.
He got a warning from the RIAA he was being investigated and he didn’t know it was illegal.
Doesn't Fit In 