February 25, 2016
by David Ryan
4 Comments

Preparing for a Long Walk on the Camino

For those of you who live in Albuquerque, I will be giving a talk on the Camino de Santiago at the Albuquerque REI on Tuesday, March 15 at 7:00pm. (Click here for information on reserving a spot.)

For me walking the Camino was a magical experience from the moment I reached St. Jean Pied-de-Port until I finished at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela five hundred miles later. There are several posts about the Camino in this blog. (Just enter Camino in the “search block” or click on the category of “Camino de Santiago.”)

Inside the wall in St. Jean Pied de Port

St. Jean Pied-de-Port!

Made it to Santiago. Yes!!

Santiago!

Since walking the Camino, I have been asked about necessary gear and how to prepare for walking the Camino. As a regular walker and hiker, I really did not do much in the area of preparation and already had the gear I needed. But I have attempted to cover preparation and what you might need in this blog post. Continue Reading →

January 28, 2016
by David Ryan
2 Comments

Wandering Around the Tierra Amarilla Anticline

The previous post in this blog described the world class natural area of White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico. This post describes another amazing geologic feature only forty miles or so northwest of Albuquerque – the Tierra Amarilla anticline. (It is also called the San Ysidro anticline.)

An anticline is where the earth’s crust has been pushed into an upward pointing fold. It is very much like an upside down “V”. When you add in tens of millions of years of erosion you get an amazing array of formations and exposed rock layers. As a result, the anticline is a great place to wander and explore.

With most of the anticline being on public land and its proximity to Albuquerque, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has built several miles of trails on top of the anticline that are very popular with mountain bikers. A full description of the trails can be found on page 247 of the 3rd edition of  60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Albuquerque by David Ryan and Stephen Ausherman.

This is the heart of the anticline, that has been eroded away, where the bike trails begin. The upward slope comes up from both the left and the right. The top of the anticline would have been somewhere in front of us.

This is the heart of the anticline and where the bike trails begin. Upward pointing slopes come up from both the left and the right. If the heart of the anticline had not been eroded away, the top of the anticline would have been in front of us.

Continue Reading →

January 6, 2016
by David Ryan
4 Comments

Wandering in White Sands National Monument

To open 2016, the dogs and I drove down to White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico. With its miles and miles of uninterrupted white gypsum sand dunes, it is one of the great places of the world. There is no other place like it. White Sands is right up there with the Grand Canyon as a place that will not disappoint you.

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Gypsum sand is different than normal beach sand. Gypsum sand is soft and compacts well, so it is great for walking. It also doesn’t absorb heat like regular sand. If you have walked barefoot across a sandy beach in the summer, you know that it is an ouch, ouch, ouch moment. If you were to walk across White Sands on a day just as hot, the gypsum sand will be cool to your feet.

Because the gypsum sand does not hold heat, the temperature drops like a rock as soon as the sun goes down. One time, on a late October day, my daughter Jennifer and I camped out at White Sands on a full moon night. When we reached the National Monument at 4:00PM the outside temperature was 82 degrees. The next morning, when we woke up, there was a layer of ice in our water bottles. Continue Reading →