Seems to me that should be “Windsor” Trail, but nope, the “d” is missing from this’n and it really is “Winsor.”

If you look at the Lake Peak page on the blog, near the end you’ll see a picture of Nambé Lake…….waaaayyy down there to the north. The high country - including Santa Fe - is getting cold now, and it snowed on the high peaks a couple of days ago. Season’s about over and I’ve been told that Nambé Lake is a great destination and not too much altitude gain. I wanted to get there while I could. You go around the back of Raven Ridge that leads to Lake Peak, rather than up over it. Starting up the Hyde Park road, leading to Aspen Ridge, there are still colorful leaves on the Aspen trees. Farther up, the trees are already bare. The morning sun, just clearing the mountains really made these shine……………..

When you get to the ski area, go north from the parking lot, rather than east as for Lake Peak. Ol’ Lar goofed - of course - and thought the trail started from the bathrooms in the ski area. Couldn’t find the bathrooms, let alone a trail, so found a game trail and bushwhacked on up north and some west, seeing on the map that the main trail went over the saddle east of Aspen Peak. The parking lot is at 10,300 ft, and at about 10,600 ft I ran across a pole shelter that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to build. Out in the middle of nowhere - no clear trail, no nothing………….

Finally, tho’, I did hit the main Winsor Trail - turns out it starts at the bathrooms all right - the ones at the west end of the parking area, ¼ mile from where I’d parked at the east end. It’s a fairly stiff climb up over the saddle at 10,950 ft., but only about 600 ft elevation gain over about ½ mile, so it was over fairly soon and it’s a fairly good trail. This was in the sun on the south face, and I was well warmed up by then, and now dropped over to the north face for the 2 mile traverse to Nambé Creek. It were cold, folks, and I was glad of the flannel shirt, earmuffs and gloves I’d brought. Fleece pullover was tied to the Camelback, just in case. This trail is un-remarkable and fairly dark. Timber is small, as expected at 10,600 ft, but very thick and there was still a little snow left here and there…………

I had the Bear spray with me, and was watching to the rear and uphill periodically just in case, when I saw something move up ahead. UH OH. Nope - just a little birdie, but almost tame. This bird - a Gray Jay (also known as Whiskey Jacks and Camp Robbers) - came almost up to me, and jumped from limb to limb looking me over………….

Here’s a crop of that shot. Perty little thang. It was quite dark in the trees on the north slope, so I used flash fill for these shots…………..

About that time, around ½ way to the creek and the trail up to the lake, it suddenly darkened and got coooold. Looked up and it was clouding over and the wind was rising. I’d been cautioned that a front was moving in, and this would be no place to be in a snowstorm. Thought it over for a bit and decided discretion was the better part of valor, and turned around. There had been just 2 other hikers the whole way, but now it was after 11:00 AM and behind me, heading in, were hordes of hikers. Late arrivals, and I thought about turning around and continuing on in, but decided to stick to my guns and call it a day. Strange thing - most of these hikers - almost all - were older women in their 50’s & 60’s, in groups of 2 to 5 and chugging right along. Almost no men at all, and those few mostly younger and with their ladies - and their dogs. Ugh. I hate seeing dogs in the wilderness ! ! ! Hunting dogs, under their human’s control are one thing, but these mutts running loose…..Aaaargh ! ! !

When I got to the parking lot, I headed uphill toward the truck, but right away several small birds started flitting around me. Wow ! ! ! Usually these little guys are very quick and very shy and almost impossible to photograph. I did get 1 shot of 1 leaving which is usually all you see……………

Then, unbelievably, one of them - a Mountain Chickadee - landed right in front of me and posed - pretty as a picture. This is a first. (still with flash fill)……………

I think these birds are about ½ tame, considering the behavior of this one and the ones up on the trail. Then, another first - a Steller’s Blue Jay flew in front of me and landed….almost….in sight. These birds are usually very shy and will hide in branches and around the backs of trees if you try to follow them. This one stayed fairly much in sight for a few seconds to give me these shots…………..

I’ll bet people have been feeding these birds, and have them at least partially over their fear of humans, so when I go up there next I’ll take a handful of piñon nuts, which are a natural food for this area. Maybe I can get one to land on my hand……..?? Maybe I can get a better shot of a Steller’s’ Blue Jay ??

Here’s the GPS track of the day. That “Lake 1″ is a quirk of the little eTrex Legend. It should be between Lake 0 and Lake 2. Dunno………?? The “Nm 475″ is a quirk, too. (that’s 2 on the same page) Hwy 475 ends in the parking lot at Lake 0/Win1, and a dirt service road - closed to the public - goes on from there. I’m about fed up with Garmin - their MapSource database is very poor, and very out of date, and the Topo maps are no better. Their proprietary jealousy makes any use other than straight navigation very awkward, if not impossible. To put this track on this page I had to print the cropped map, scan it back into my computer, then crop & edit it into the file for the day’s pictures. I’m looking hard now at a new product - the Magellan Triton, which will allow use of the very superior National Geographic Topo maps and, I’m told, allows more inter-action with the database. We’ll see, but after 2 Garmins in the last 5 years - a GPS Map 196 and the eTrex, there won’t be a 3rd. That spike going diagonally down to the left from Lake 0 doesn’t exist in real life either. 3 boo-boos on 1 page. Phooey.

Posted: October 20th, 2007 under 07-10-20 Winsor Trail, 08 New Mexico.
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