Magnus in New Mexico, Day 3

 
Wednesday, 20 Mar
Another day at Davis Mountains. Ed and I drove around in the jeep, up to the "Skyline Drive" scenic overlook.  Then we went to town to pick up sour cream at the Lowes Market. For reasons not well understood, our sour cream had turned into watery sour milk. La crema va a la leche, adios!

On the way back to camp I had Ed drop me off at the other bird blind so I could get some dog-free viewing time. Just the usual birds again, but it was a very nice blind. They had a great water feature--I really need to get busy and build my own. Soon. 

In the afternoon Molly got her long walk. Consulting the trail map, I chose a trail that went right up the hill in front of camp. It was rugged, steep and difficult and I wished I'd worn boots instead of my hiking sandals. They're good, but not as idiot-proof as the boots -- with sandals in cactus country, I have to watch where I'm putting my feet.

Once we got out of site of the road, the trail became hard to find; after a couple of head-scratching moments, I finally chose the right path and quickly came to a marker. My worry was over, but all the hard work of going uphill had worn out my will to climb and I was ready to go back to more reasonable terrain.  So when the trail forked, with one route going to the CCC Lodge (either .4 or 1.4 miles; I couldn't read the map) and the other to the campground, I chose campground.  It didn't say "which" campground, but all of them were on the same road so it was close enough for me.

I'd taken Molly's collapsible water dish along with me for a change, so I got her a drink out of an empty camp site's water spigot and then went on to the Skyline trail again. This time I was hoping to make it to the top, but we didn't. We kept going up switchback after switchback but never seeming to get anywhere, then at last the clock told us it was time to head back.  Oh, well. I'd just been at the top that morning.  There were plenty of scenic views on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birds seen: Scrub Jay, Acorn Woodpecker, Canyon Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, doves all over the freaking place, House Finch, Pyrrhyloxia and Cardinals both, Pine Siskin at the bird blind, one hawk on the trail yesterday but I didn't get a good look at it.

If I write a review of this place, I need to mention two things: (1) they need to trim the trees. A tiny bit of tree scrape was fine in the old Mammoth Motorhome, but Magnus' owner is finicky. And (2) there was absolutely no AT&T signal anywhere in the park.  Occasionally a bit of signal would bounce off a mountain and reach my phone, but nothing one could count on. Our Starlink worked fine, though.

It rained in the night. When I tried to take a detour across the wash to the dump station, for our pre-bedtime walk, Molly saw or smelled something and reacted with an impulsive pull.  In the dark on the uncertain footing, I fell gracefully onto my butt. On river rocks. Ouch.

But no damage was sustained. On our way back by the dump station, we saw three Javelina or wild hogs lurking around in the grass.