LenDawg
New member
My stepbrother, Andris, fresh out of Marine bootcamp and in good shape, and I decided to hike Shaggy Peak and Mt. Baldy Glorietta for a nice day hike. We left Apache Canyon fairly early in the AM down a four-wheeler trail headed first toward Shaggy Peak, a steep rocky peak, typical of the New Mexican terrain. The weather was sunny and the temperature was in the mid-50's. The thin, dry air was a big contrast to the New England hiking. We started the hike at an elevation of about 7,000 feet above sea level. The wide four-wheeler trail quickly turned into a bush whack of sorts as there were no trails heading to either mountain from our start point. The Santa Fe National Forest was quite dry as many of the trees were dead and brittle. Andris and I encountered some small "leafy" cactus plants on the hike over to Shaggy.
We got to the base of Shaggy in a couple hours and decided to proceed with the rock climb. It reminded me a lot of a steep Adams, or perhaps a "big bouldered" rock slide. The one drawback was you had to watch where you put your hand because there were several small cactus plants on the rocks. We got to the top of Shaggy and had an amazing view of Santa Fe, Alburquerque in the distance, and some beautiful nearby mountains. Northern NM is an amazing place to visit. From Shaggy, we saw the observation tower on Baldy.
We proceeded down Shaggy and decided to continue on our bush whack to Glorieta Baldy, a 10,000 plus elevation mountain that overlooks NM to the south and CO to the north. Despite the strong pace at which we were moving, it took us a long time to cross to the base of Baldy. There were several up and downs we did, all of which were steep ups that required us to suck up as much air as possible, and steep downs in loose ground. Basically, the ground was either pine needles or a sand of sorts, which slid.
We finally found ourselves heading up Mt. Glorieta Baldy, the final approach. We made it to the first peak of Glorietta Baldy and enjoyed our lunch (about 10,000 feet elev.). However, we had reached the time we set for turning back and could not go the rest of the way to the observation tower of the main peak. It was unfortunate, but certainly the right decision. Neither of us were experienced in this area, we did not have overnight supplies (we had emergency supplies: flashlight, matches, etc.) and did not want to be out past sunset, especially doing a bushwack.
So, we headed down the peak and came to a dried up river bed which we followed for a few miles. Everything was dry. We then decided to leave the river bed and do the ups and downs trying to cut accross toward Apache Canyon. We found ourselves sliding down sand slides literally surfing them on our back ends. That was fun.
We made one slight misturn as we passed what we have been told is Red Mountain (?) to the wrong side which put us out on a main road about four miles off from our start point at Apache Canyon. We did the last four miles at a strong pace up the main road and finished just after sunset.
All in all, it was a great hike. The few breaks we took and the strong pace we moved, combined with the high elevation and lack of oxygen really kicked my butt, but in a good way. Anyone who gets out to Santa Fe should consider this hike! And anytime that Andris wants to hike with me back in NH, he is more than welcome.
I have pictures... I will include the link when I get back to NH. Thanks to the VFTT community on places to go in NM.
We got to the base of Shaggy in a couple hours and decided to proceed with the rock climb. It reminded me a lot of a steep Adams, or perhaps a "big bouldered" rock slide. The one drawback was you had to watch where you put your hand because there were several small cactus plants on the rocks. We got to the top of Shaggy and had an amazing view of Santa Fe, Alburquerque in the distance, and some beautiful nearby mountains. Northern NM is an amazing place to visit. From Shaggy, we saw the observation tower on Baldy.
We proceeded down Shaggy and decided to continue on our bush whack to Glorieta Baldy, a 10,000 plus elevation mountain that overlooks NM to the south and CO to the north. Despite the strong pace at which we were moving, it took us a long time to cross to the base of Baldy. There were several up and downs we did, all of which were steep ups that required us to suck up as much air as possible, and steep downs in loose ground. Basically, the ground was either pine needles or a sand of sorts, which slid.
We finally found ourselves heading up Mt. Glorieta Baldy, the final approach. We made it to the first peak of Glorietta Baldy and enjoyed our lunch (about 10,000 feet elev.). However, we had reached the time we set for turning back and could not go the rest of the way to the observation tower of the main peak. It was unfortunate, but certainly the right decision. Neither of us were experienced in this area, we did not have overnight supplies (we had emergency supplies: flashlight, matches, etc.) and did not want to be out past sunset, especially doing a bushwack.
So, we headed down the peak and came to a dried up river bed which we followed for a few miles. Everything was dry. We then decided to leave the river bed and do the ups and downs trying to cut accross toward Apache Canyon. We found ourselves sliding down sand slides literally surfing them on our back ends. That was fun.
We made one slight misturn as we passed what we have been told is Red Mountain (?) to the wrong side which put us out on a main road about four miles off from our start point at Apache Canyon. We did the last four miles at a strong pace up the main road and finished just after sunset.
All in all, it was a great hike. The few breaks we took and the strong pace we moved, combined with the high elevation and lack of oxygen really kicked my butt, but in a good way. Anyone who gets out to Santa Fe should consider this hike! And anytime that Andris wants to hike with me back in NH, he is more than welcome.
I have pictures... I will include the link when I get back to NH. Thanks to the VFTT community on places to go in NM.
