Well actually it was just a very little walk in the woods. There’s a tradition where I live to do a First Day Hike across the over 110 year old Elephant Butte dam wall. It is closed to the public the other 364 and five sixths days of the year and, since it’s only open three hours of January 1, this is a noisy, crowded, people, dogs and feral kids event. I’ve done it previously. I don’t feel deprived if I do other things some years. I am lucky enough to be able to celebrate playing outside in some form or another most days of a year.
I highly recommend doing something outside in a natural setting regularly as an antidote to the mundanity which is too much with us.
For a while now I’ve been wanting to see for myself what was going on at Forest Service Road 40E (FS40E)in the Gila National Forest, near the little ghost town of Kingston, about 40 miles from me as one wends one’s way up into the Black Range/Sierra Diablo. As an aside: I always seem to live where there are often several names for a place or geographical feature : either because of multilingualism or multiculturalism (aren’t those the same thing?)
Since 2022, FS40E has been in the news after new owners of a small parcel of land which the road crosses, installed a locked gate preventing public access to a trail which has been used for decades to access the Aldo Leopold Wilderness. After a couple of years of drama: petitioning, legal wrangling, voiceforous protests, billboards and testimony, a local citizens association and the New Mexico Wildlife Federation managed to get the gate reopened in December 2024. Notably the US Forest Service declined to enter into the legal affray centered on public access to public lands. How dignified of them to shirk their duty of care.
It was a beautiful sunny midwinter day. As usual I had no map of where I was going, just a vague idea that I was looking for “the dirt road out of Kingston”. The forest was loud with birds, smelling of juniper and warm earth as I parked (was this even a legitimate place to leave Red Pony?) and walked across a cattle grid where someone has laid planks - to help dogs cross, maybe.
I also noticed a pile of metal to one side of the cattle grid. These could have been barriers but they looked old, not removed less than a month ago.
The dusty road I was walking on seemed well used.
Various motorized vehicles, a multiplicity of human boots, horses, some even moving at a pace. It seemed public-ish so far.
Dogs. Of course.
Human installed signs.
Reflecting the oh! so western USA standoff.
I am sure it’s only coincidence that that piece of metal roofing off-cut looks remarkably like some that I donated to a community recycling yard sale in the not too distant past.
More gates removed and an Airstream trailer for sale. Huge tyres and newly installed gate posts.
Complete with game camera. Things were starting to get spooky now.
It’s always hunting season here. My skin prickled the way you do when you are being watched by something with bad intentions. I do read a lot of true crime.
I wasn’t having fun anymore. I wasn’t even sure I was in the right place so when I came to a locked gate just after the game camera I turned around.
Back at the first cattle grid I noticed a fairly well worn path alongside Percha Creek and heard human voices. Happy hiker kind of sounds.
Soothed by the sound of running water I relaxed and began to enjoy being in the forest again.
Winter’s rusty, soft colour palette was all around.
Exquisite greys and greens from faded to evergreen in leaf, bark, lichen and rock.
It’s only in midwinter here, and in the forest, that the midday light lends itself to magic. Other times of the year I find it can be too strong, harsh or flat.
I lay back against a rock and breathed on the earth, under a canopy of leafless branches.
Owl faced walnut shells told me some of those bare trees are black walnut.
All was right with the world, briefly.
I ate my picnic lunch of lentil and rice stuffed sweet peppers at a table in Percha Creek Park in Hillsboro, under the watchful gaze of the bluebird of happiness (Western Bluebird - Sialia Mexicana).
Background music to my yesterday’s leftovers meal was provided by a pair of either Ladderback - Dryobates scalaris or Nuttals Woodpeckers - Dryobates nuttallii knock knock knocking on heaven’s door.
Though I saw him, I only managed to capture Lady Woodpecker on camera. His Lordship with the red head colouring, flitted and flirted and hid amongst the branches and berries too quick for me to focus on his finery.
I still don’t know whether I was actually at any time on the real forest service road 40E which rumor has is washed out (impassable therefore by vehicular traffic) and remains unrepaired by Forest Service. It was a lovely, restorative interlude anyway, blessed by beautiful colors, textures and birds who cancelled out that brief encounter of (maybe) something wicked in the woods.
Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore
It's gettin' dark, too dark to see
I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Recommended Reading
Former park ranger and law enforcement officer Andrea Lankford’s 2023 Trail of the Lost: the relentless search to bring home the missing hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail is a compelling true crime adventure which I listened to in one session. Unputdownable defined.
From the author’s website “On the TRAIL OF THE LOST, you may not find what you are looking for, but you will certainly find more than you seek.”
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