Cedar Creek and Fitness Trails in Ruidoso, New Mexico - Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Starting Thursday evening, the Sun Country Striders Volkssport Club (of Las Cruces, NM) hosts a walking weekend with four traditional event walks and three year-round events. It's not too late to join us! You can start walking the Cedar Creek Recreation Trails as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, May 30. 

Today, Susan Medlin and I marked the trails. Here is a preview of what you can expect, as well as a bonus 5k walk around Ruidoso's shops and a neighborhood, complete with elk and deer!

After breakfast this morning, we headed to Smokey Bear Ranger District office where Susan Medlin spoke with the rangers to okay placement of our trail marking signs. It was confirmed that our trail markers could be used.

Sculpture of Smokey Bear as a cub

Click photo to enlarge

I snooped around in the Smokey Bear visitor center and found the five rules for campfires, bird identification display cases, and retail items such as T-shirts and caps.

Our next stop was the trailhead for Cedar Creek Recreation Trail. We loaded up our backpacks with the markings: laminated arrows, AVA streamers on clothespins (to attach to branches or bushes), shrink wrap, heavy-duty tape, and wire stakes. Then we set off. I marked the 5k route with pink markers, Susan Medlin marked the 11k route with orange markers.

I wore long jeans today because I thought the morning temperature would be cool enough. Wrong! Shortly after Susan and I split up to mark the different trail lengths, I was sweating and very hot. The trail was only partially in shade. Even though the temperature was 64 degrees, the sunny portions of the trail felt much warmer. 

I wish all trails had a "Muddy Meter"!

Pink arrows for 5k, orange for 11k

Cedar Creek 5k trail

I love mountain views!

Beautiful day with long-range vistas

Cacti at 7,500' or so

I believe this is lamb's ear.

By the time I finished 1.4 miles, I was ready a short break. At the car, I refilled my water bottle and had a snack-size bag of Chili Cheese Fritos. Then I was ready for the cool ranger station. I walked about 1/8 mile back to use the facilities and hang out in the air-conditioned room before I marked the Fitness portion of the walk.

At the ranger station, I had a conversation with the ranger that went something like this:

Me: "Could you identify the tree in this photo on my phone? The bark looks like an alligator." [I showed her the photo below.]

Ranger Claudia: "Oh, that's an alligator juniper."

Me: "Well, that makes sense." [We had a good laugh.]

Alligator juniper bark

New pine cone formation

After the ranger station, I walked back to do the Fitness Trail portion of the 5k. The Fitness Trail had an outer and an inner loop and I was stumped when I started marking the trail as to how to make it clear to people which way to go first. The written instructions said to do the outer loop first, so that's how I marked it. I made it real clear where they should go to start the walk. When I finished up on the outer loop, I had them make a U-turn and walk the inner loop in the reverse direction. Hopefully, it is not confusing to anyone. (By the way, it's called the Fitness Loop because the inner loop has some exercise stations; however, the stations are in varying degrees of decay and I would not recommend anyone work out at those stations!)

The Fitness Loop walk...

The Fitness Loop walk was quite easy.

Mostly flat trail

"I found a peanut just now."

Was anyone in scouts? I used to be a Cub Scout den mother and trainer of leaders. Do you remember a song about finding a peanut? When I saw a couple of peanuts on the trail, that song just came flooding back into my head after 30 years of not even thinking about that song. 

Some uphill, but not much

Towering pines and a very blue sky

With my trail marking duties complete, I went back to the car. As soon as I took off my backpack, my cell phone rang. It was my brother calling from Oregon to chat. He told me he and his wife, Gina, went to visit Mom at her apartment, but she wasn't there. They found her in the activity room where they were having bunny therapy. The staff have people bring in bunny rabbits and let the residents cuddle with them. Nice!

I made another trip to the ranger station since those were the closest restrooms. When I returned to the car, Susan was there waiting to get in. For lunch, we ate at La Hacienda Restaurant. We both had chicken avocado burrito lunch plates with beans and rice. Derrill, the organizer of the Ruidoso walking weekend, joined us for lunch. Our meals were so big we had to take half of our burritos back to the room. Thankfully, our rooms have a refrigerator and microwave. 

After lunch, Susan and I went back to our rooms to shower and put on fresh clothes, and then we met Derrill at the movie theater to see "Solo: A Star Wars Story." Susan and I enjoyed it again as we had seen it before. Derrill was so-so on the movie.

But, our day wasn't over yet. Susan and I wanted to do the 5k Ruidoso city walk this evening. We went back to the motel to change into walking attire. 

Susan Medlin with the La Quinta bear

At 6:15 p.m., after eating freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in the La Quinta lobby, we went to do the walk. The walk box is located at the Ruidoso Chamber of Commerce. We signed in and picked up our directions. There was a short drive to the start point at Wingfield Park.

Carving outside Chamber of Commerce

The stream behind the chamber of commerce building

Oh, hello, what have we here? As I looked up into the park, there were two female elk!

This one may be pregnant.

From the park, we walked down the hill and onto the main street in Ruidoso. It was fun to look at the different businesses and window shop. Here are my impressions of downtown Ruidoso...

The "school" bus in the photo below is deceptive. We walked past it. It seems to be called The Smoking Bus, as in smoking allowed on this bus. It also seems to take people to bars. It was still parked there when we walked by on that side of the street.

View of downtown Ruidoso

Handmade soap store sign

Love this door!

Unique flowers. I don't know what they are.

We then came to a carving store. It was fun to look at all the wood carvings. Here are my favorites.

Owl family

Raccoon family

A more formal type of yard art

Some interesting things in here.

From the downtown main drag, we hiked up Center Street past the park where we started. It was deer- and elk-o'clock. We saw a number of elk in the neighborhood. Seems some people feed them in their front yards.

Hi there. We gave them some room. 

Ruidoso mural

The temperature in late afternoon/early evening was 78 degrees with a slight breeze. After the sun went down, it was so pleasant outside! Our walk finished up back at Wingfield Park.

After a short detour to Walmart for Off! Deep Woods and some Moscato wine, we headed back to the motel to have our left-overs. Susan ate her pizza from last night and I had the other half of my burrito from lunch. We each had a plastic cup of Moscato with some Boom-Chick-A-Pop popcorn for dessert. It was a busy, fun, lovely day. 

I even had time to blog but must get to sleep now for an early start tomorrow. We will be driving to Cloudcroft to mark the trails there. I will mark the 5k and Susan Medlin will mark the 14k. Susan said there are some steep portions toward the end of the 5k. It will be at 8,500' feet elevation. I'll be taking it slow and easy as I was huffing and puffing on trails at 7,500' elevation today.  

Evening sky from Walmart parking lot

 Good night, all.

I'm Retired! - Monday, May 28, 2018

Yes, you heard me right, I'm retired from working as of April 26, 2018. The first thing I did was spend 2-1/2 weeks in Oregon with my mom. She was in an acute rehab center and we needed to find an apartment for her to move into for assisted living. She has moved into a one-bedroom apartment at Marquis Assisted Living in Tualatin. It's a beautiful place with activities, medication management, pain management, laundry service, housekeeping once per week, and other benefits.

My Mom, sister, brother, and I have been going through Mom's house to remove items she (or we) want to keep. The remaining items will be sold in an estate sale June 16-17. Once the house is empty, we will put it on the market. 

I was home from Oregon for two weeks. During that time, I did a number of Volksmarches and spent time with Bob and friends. 

The main thing I wanted to accomplish was to sign up for Social Security benefits, which I did. My first check will be in June. I am so happy that after all the years of work, I can finally collect the money that I've been putting away.

Today, my friend Susan and I drove from San Antonio, Texas, to Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico. We are here for a Volksmarching weekend which starts on Thursday. 

Walking weekend brochure

Tomorrow, Susan and I will be out on the trails marking one of the walks. I will mark the 5k walk and she will mark the 14k walk. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will mark the other trails. 

Any time May 30 to June 3, attendees can walk the Cedar Creek Recreation Trails which start behind the Smokey Bear Ranger Station. Altitude: 7,500' (so temperatures will be lovely as we walk through the pine forests).

Thursday night, May 31, there will be a Meet-n-Greet in the hotel lobby. 

Friday, June 1, the walk is in Cloudcroft on a Rails to Trails path which passes through pine forest and meadows, and Friday night we will go to a chuckwagon dinner with entertainment. Altitude: 8,500'.

Saturday, June 2, we will do the Mescalero Fitness Path on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. The trail has hills and wooded areas. Altitude: 7,000'. Saturday night we will have dinner at the Cattle Baron Restaurant. 

Sunday will be another walk at Ft. Stanton State Monument. Trails are on a sparsely wooded area of rolling hills. The Fort is one of the most intact historic posts in New Mexico, and served for over 150 years, including its being a POW camp during WW II. Altitude: 6,500'.

After the walks, Susan and I will pick up all the markings we placed on the trails, except Ft. Stanton. Someone else will pick those up so we can drive home on Monday, June 4.

I will be home until June 6, then Bob and I fly to Portland. Bob will be in Portland until Saturday afternoon. I will stay in Portland until June 20. 

Whoever said retirement meant staying home and cogitating? So far, that has not been my experience. My life has been non-stop, going hither and yon taking care of things. 

More trips are planned this summer. We'll be on a cruise to Alaska in August, and a West Texas Volksmarch walking weekend in early October. Stay tuned!