Hey Now   His Hankness

Over the 4th of July holiday we drove North toward Taos to get out of the heat, both natural as well as the potential for urban wildfires. We took the high road into the Carson Nat’l Forest for a quick overnight at the Trampas Lakes trailhead. At 9,000′, this is a good place to visit in early summer before the monsoon storm patterns begin moving into Northern New Mexico. A high country landscape loaded with Blue Spruce, Ponderosa pine, Fir and Aspen towering over the Rio de las Trampas drainage. The bleachers had already started filling when we arrived late in the day, and all the Holidays backpackers, horsemen, car campers, trailers and ATV’ers–not too mention the anonymous Truchas tagger who claimed the Forest boundary gate– got me thinking about concepts of wilderness. Not just the common interpretation of federally designated areas devoid of development, roads, mining, etc., but also what different users value in these places. Or maybe more precisely, what qualifies as a “wilderness experience”. William deBuys says this about it:

…the idea of Wilderness is a sociological, not an ecological concept, and the Pecos and other modern wildernesses owe their preservation to legislation rather than the environment. Essentially, wilderness is whatever people say it is: a park for dispersed, nonmechanized recreation, a biological research area, a gene preserve, a game preserve, an outdoor temple of solitude, or a museum of environmental history

Being around  or in wild areas has always been for me an aesthetic experience. The fun comes from the sensation that i was experiencing something untrammelled and untouched, without the aid of 4 wheels or other things that would sully the whole deal.  But there’s a lot of space between this ideal and the reality of management and caretaking that must exist for this place to be available for our weekend jaunt.

Taking a short dayhike with the kiddo up the Lakes Trail, we soon got above the campground and within a mile or two the growl of ATV’s and barking chihuahuas fade. Soon after the National Forest boundary gate, a Forest Service sign announces the Pecos Wilderness. The whitewater of the Trampas river is there, and stays with the track up toward its source at the Lakes. European, anglo, and hispanic families were there too, most enjoying the outing at about the same level you would a trip to the playground. A few backpackers passed, loaded for overnight stays at the Lakes or beyond.  Henry’s doing okay, he makes a heady effort to keep going under his own power and doesn’t appear bugged at all by the altitude. We hit the wilderness boundary, and the Forest Service sign there reminds me that this area is a designation, a place on the map with a set a restrictions (sometimes) enforced by law in order to ensure the preservation of the land and water for future generations.  I sort of like that those Truchas civic boosters drove all the way up there to lay their own claim on the wilderness.

Anyways, more pics of Hank and the trip in the Summer 2008 gallery, for your viewing pleasure.