Pecos Wilderness Rendevous

“I'm not a fan of aggie bonfires, but 6 ft in diameter seems reasonable. I'm expecting the nights & mornings to be mighty chilly. There shouldn't be a lot of other people gathering fire wood.”

“It's an inside joke, toejam, not about you or anyone on TT. Your fire was very reasonable, but I had forgotten about it when I wrote the other comment.”

“Hey TJ, Pathman is referring to an individual that insisted on building and leaving a huge firering where none was before. I faked being slow to pack the next morning so I could break up the firering to keep from...shall we say upsetting someone.

Pathman, what is the chance of me flying into ABQ friday night and spending the evening with you? Airline prices are good right now and I want to book asap. If this is a no I will probably drive out.”

“Consider it covered. We could either stay in town overnight or head partway towards the trailhead and get a another cushy car camp bag night.”

“Where are you coming from, sticks?”

“I live in NKY in just across the river from Cincinnati. Expect me to be slow, I live at about 800' elevation...that puffin' noise you will hear behind you will not be a train.”

“sticks may be slow, but like stumped, he always gets to camp.”

“I can now officially say, less than two months away!”

“Sticks, did you get a flight booked?

FYI, I found on the traihead website that there is a $2.00 trailhead fee, and $5.00 a night camping.

Also know that I have had my vehicle broken into at the trailhead many years ago. I think it was illegal immigrants working their way north in the mountains where there is water and cover. They took a bag of extra clothes, extra food and a pair of old cowboy boots. They didn't touch a bunch of cassette tapes right next to the other stuff.

sticks, getagrip is concerned about the altitude. It'll be a higher than the Sandias at the end, but about the same early on. Water is much more plentiful, even to being a nuisance in the form of precip or stream/river crossings.

If we get weather, it should be in the form of cold fronts, just like we had in the Sandias, but we will be a higher and farther north, so could get more snow than the sprinkling we had.”

“How 'bout you maybes?

I've met some of you, know some of you well online, and a couple I know very little about. This will be a blast. Can we nudge you towards a "yes".”

“I am screwing down loose ends this weekend. Question? What is your return plans so I know when to book the return flight.

I had planned on bringing winter gear and was expecting to deal with some snow. So the gortex will travel...and the fleece...and the thermax...and,and,and...

Both of my tents are Moss and will take on anything short of an avalanche.

Just tell getagrip we can huff and puff together and to remember it is their hike too. I stopped trying to keep up with others a long time ago when it comes to going to altitude from the Ohio River Valley. I just make the goal to get to camp while enjoying the scenery.

Speaking of making it to camp...what about maps? I have a GPS now, though I found it almost useless here in the east because of tree cover I am going to bring it.

I will only bring my gear and a change of clothes for the return trip.”

“Can you get to a high quality large format printer? The map I posted is pretty high res and might print well on large format. I'll mess around and see if I can make section maps.

There is also a Pecos Wilderness map put out the the USFS.


If needed. I have a great resource now, "Maps and Geographic Information Center" at UNM. I can make large format copies of anything in the collection. I have some of both. I was thinking of getting some copies of aerial photos that cover the area.

As far as coming out, I would drive back to ABQ Saturday afternoon/evening after the last day on the trail, and plan on a big dinner in Santa Fe on the way. You could overnight in ABQ, leave on Sunday 10/3.”

“When I open that in netscape, I can zoom and scroll nicely.”

“messed up

Day 2, Horsethief Meadow to Rio Medio”

“Day 3, Rio Medio to Jose Vigil Lake short but steep, two night stay at Jose Vigil with excellent peak bagging available.”

“space in the wrong place

Day 3”

“I need breakfast, I'm going to quit there for now. these are also on the trip page”

“so, day one and two are short, not as much climbing, lower altitude for acclimation. Day 3 is a climber and the lake is pretty high. If the weather goes bad, we hunker down at the best elevation in the river valley. After the lake, we stay have some ups and downs at a fairly high altitude.”

“Okay, I am to arrive at ABQ 1:59p.m. on Friday.

Say we hit the road and stay in the campground.”

“no sense in staying in the city.”

“So I'm thinking I should be buying some down jacket, boots, etc. for this potential winter excursion?”

“will look something like this.

rain jacket, serves as additional winter layer

rain pants, serve as additional winter layer

poly pro long underwear
poly t
cordura pants
poly pullover sweater
down or fleece jacket
wool socks
fleece gloves
fleece hat

don't forget sunglasses and sunscreen."”

“I have found that having several layers is more functionable than having a down jacket or such. If I was going 800 meter or such yes take it. As my list goes now I have a marmot primaloft jacket in the maybe column. Past experience has shown it to be too much even in sub-zero hiking so it probably will not make the cut.

I am packing very similar to Pathman.”

“my down packs smaller and is lighter than my fleece jacket. Nice and toasty at night.”

“time is getting short!”

“The cold camping sounds good. I just got back from canoing and camping in Arkansas. The tent was warm!

The altitude shouldn't be a deal for anybody in good hiking shape. The climb is gradual. If anybody gets wiped out on this trip it probably would have happened at a lower elevation too.

I'll be keeping my eyes open for a thin down jacket...”

“I like my down jacket. Packs smaller and ligher than fleece, feels so good at night.”

“Pecos Wilderness Rendevous

Dates: 9/25 - 10/2/04
Trip Organizer: Pathman
Location: Pecos Wilderness

Number of Attendees:
3 yes
6 maybe


This is getting close!!! My fall is looking pretty awesome, starting with this trip.

Anybody need more details on the route, plans, clothing etc?

Looks like the Toejam, Sticks and Pathman are solid. Still waiting on the others. Still hitting the 80-90's in ABQ, about 6 weeks away from the trip. Pecos is 10 degrees cooler.


Santa Fe data for our trip dates:

Average High Temperature is 78 F
historical range 60 F to 87 F
Average Low Temperature is 45 F
historical range 28 F to 55 F


Santa Fe is 6342 ft, we will be hiking up to 11,000ft. So knock off another 10 degrees from those temps and you have Pecos Wilderness high altitudes expectations.

Aspens should be in great color, maybe on the wax, but not peak.

If you want to escape summer in September, never been to the Pecos, this would be a great treat!”

“I hope to stop by the Ranger office in Pecos and get one of the new maps I've been reading about on the other site.

I've had all the information I needed in the past carrying the Forest Service wilderness map and a bunch of pages printed from Topozone.com of the USGS quads.

The Pecos Wilderness has so many large landmarks it's not easy to get lost. I've hiked there for a week and never looked at a compass. A GPS could be handy when looking for trail intersections.”

“The Public Lands Info office in Santa Fe might also have the map, but you might be not be coming into Santa Fe with your drive. I hadn't heard about the new map. The old one was very, very old.”

“I ordered a warmer jacket from REI, but being cheap had it shipped to the store so I don't have to pay for it. Should check out the map, I can probably have one sent here from the PLIC in Santa Fe. Starting to need this trip badly!”

“I have access to the UNM Map and Geographic Information Center collection. They have USGS topos, some satellite and aerial photo maps and a large format copy machine.

Anybody want USGS topos or satellite/aerial if I find good ones?”

“If you can get a good price on the USGS Topo's, the real paper ones, I'd like coverage for the trip. I think they are $4.50 each plus shipping from the EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls. I can print them from TOPO software, but I do like the maps.”

“I don't think they sell the maps, but sell copies from high quality, large format copier.

Copy Services

MAGIC has a full-sized (36” wide) map copier that can be used to make copies of any of the maps in our collection. It is not a color copier, but the black and white images are sufficient for most uses. The cost of copies is $.75 per square foot of the map being copied. We are able to mail copies if you are not in the Albuquerque area, with a $4.00 shipping/handling fee. E-mail or call us with any questions or requests.

For color prints, we have a high-resolution scanner that can be used in conjunction with an edge-to-edge color printer. Scanning is free. Costs for color copies are:
o 8.5” x 11” -- $ 1.00
o 11” x 17” -- $ 1.50
o 13” x 19” -- $ 2.50
For larger jobs, we have a 44” wide color printer. Printouts are $5.00 per square foot.
”

“I would like to come but i dont ahve all the gear i need for bpacking and + i dont know my colege schedule yet so takin a whole week off might be near impossible which totally sucks.

Where are u gonna be and when maybe i can meet up with u on the weekend!!”

“If you are at UNM, check out the Outdoor shop at Johnson gym. They rent pretty good gear, and also do bicycle maintence/repair.

Pecos Trip Page”

“I am going to call the NF office this week...since they did not reply to my email...and order the map if it is the new print.

Since I work at UC now I might have access to their map base, I am going to check that out.

Getting a little more pumped about this trip each day...by the time I fly out I will be like Roger Rabbit!!!!”

“sticks, this will make the Sandias look like small potatoes.

broken lizard, too bad for you I intentionally put this trip after the start of school. Not to keep students off the trip, that didn't even occur to me, but to go there during a very low use time. Think about doing an overnighter into Horsethief Meadows 9/26 if you can swing Monday as a day off. sticks and I will be going to the trailhead Friday night. Plan is to camp at trailhead Sat night, hit the trail Sunday morning.”

“Just talked to the yahoos at the office in Santa Fe and they said they have been expecting the new TI map since July and expect it "any day now". Think I will go on TI's website and ask them for the scoop.”

“this is getting very close now, I've had hardly any time to even think about it.

Weather is starting to cool off. ABQ highs now in the 80's instead of 90's.

I need to make sure to work some hiking with loaded pack and boots into my workout plans.”

“Less than a month now. I'm starting to think a lot about this trip. Twice in the last 2 days someone has mentioned something they wanted me to do that week. Sorry, I'll be on vacation!”

“I haven't had much time to think about it, except that I won't be working or riding a bike. Can't wait for some training ala peak bagging. :D cool, water, color, stars........”

“When I was camped at Truchas Lakes I climbed North Truchas, but got chased off Truchas/Middle Truchas by a thunderstorm. So I've got some unfinished peak bagging to do.

I'm thinking about knocking the dust off the heavy boots tomorrow.”

“Same here about the boots. I've been in trail running and bike shoes.

I hit three Truchas peaks in one day, July 1982.

13,702 ft
13,066
13,024

Not bad for a day hike.

We found ourselves hunkered down in a depression above the tree line on the first peak, snowing and thunder just above our head. A mountain goat (or bighorn sheep?) wanted our spot very, very badly. It passed, we made the peak, followed the ridge to the others, shot down a scree slope back to the valley. Photos

I need to redo that gallery, made the photos too small.”

“Pathman, I wuzza wondering if you knew of a cheap inn close to the airport with a shuttle? My flight leaves at 6:45 a.m., I've yet to go to the library and look at the yellow pages for ABQ and make phone calls.”

“So i am going to the pecos laborday with my x-gf she is a flatlander so i dont wanna kill her what is an easy 3 day backpacking route that has a lake on it (she wants to see a mountain lake)

Pathman this one is going out exclusively to U”