A Little Hike

My first Saturday in ABQ and I was greatly looking forward to spending the entire day with my husband. He had to go into the office for a little while, so I went with him.

Fans of The Big Bang Theory, did you notice "The Board?" Yup, he has a board.

Those of you who know my wonderful husband know that he is not an outdoor person because of his allergies to all things green. This is not an issue for him here in ABQ, so he had promised me that he would go on hikes with me. I tested this promise early! When I visited in July, we found the parking lot to the Three Gun Spring Trail but weren't able to explore much of it because we didn't have water bottles and it was in the mid-90's that day. I didn't want to end up on the local news in one of those stupid tourist stories, having had to be rescued because I went into the wilderness unprepared. So this time we were armed with hats, sunscreen and water bottles. Here is proof that Stephen went outdoors:

The sign at the trail head shows many miles of connecting trails through the Sandia Mountains, with various access points. In the spring, you can see hawks by climbing the Hawk Watch Trail, which is listed as difficult and steep. Sounds good to me! There was a notice on the trail head board about the dangers of the trail, including heatstroke, dehydration, and oddly, hypothermia. That last was not an issue on this day, as it was 86 degrees with a light breeze. I was relieved to see that there were no warnings about rattlesnakes or any other critters.

Part way up the trail, I turned back to take a picture of where we had been.

When Stephen had gone far enough, we rested.

We climbed back down, and on the BACK of the trail head board, there was a small notice about BEARS. If you encounter a bear, you are supposed to stand your ground and wave your arms slowly in the air. If attacked, you should fight back aggressively. Am I the only person who thinks that notice should have been on the FRONT of the board?

We finished our lovely Saturday with a stroll on historic Route 66 downtown and dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant with a colleague of Stephen's and his wife. What a great day!