Last Saturday I hiked up Chicoma Peak and told the story on this blog. Look in the menu on the left side of the page. Also whined and cried some about leaving my Slick 600 monopod up there. I know, I could’ve gone back up on Sunday but figured, “Aw, it’s just a monopod, it’ll be gone anyway, I can buy another one.” Chicoma isn’t all that exciting a hike and I was feeling lazy, and……and….. Later in the week I regretted it and tried to take time off work to go after it before someone else found it. Chicoma is very remote and not a popular hike, and especially not this late in the season……….but ya never know. I was slammed at work all week and couldn’t get away.

Meanwhile, I had been reading about a new Tamron 18-250 zoom lens that’s been getting rave reviews, so I ordered one from B&H and had it overnighted from NY. Initial experiments around home showed that it just might be very good. My Nikon 18-70 and 70-300VR are about as good of lenses as you’re going to find without getting silly with price, but the weight of the big 70-300 on hikes and the awkwardness of trying to change them on the go meant that the big lens was hardly getting used and I was missing a lot of shots for want of it. The 18-250 is very compact (about the size of the 18-70) and fairly light, so sounded perfect, but I wasn’t willing to compromise quality. I’ve had a huge, heavy old Tamron 90-210mm zoom for years that I used with my old Nikon F2 film camera, (still have the whole system) and it’s a wonderful lens, so I had a belief in Tamron to begin with. A return hike up Chicoma would be an ideal test hike for the new lens.

Today, Sat. Nov. 10 started out a little cloudy with worse forecast, (it actually cleared up later) so after my blueberry pancakes at Dominic’s I hit the road, this time towing Der Bug behind the Diesel Dodge. Hate pounding the big truck on those awful roads, and that’s why I’ve got Der Bug, eh ?? I dropped the truck in a supermarket parking lot in Española and hit the gravel road in Der Bug. It took just over an hour to go the 25 miles to the base of the climb. Once again, started the hike and got up into the timber, and it’s just as much a mess as last week. This is a low zoom shot of about 50 - 70mm and very slow shutter speed…………….

Actually that shot makes it look worse than it really is. Obviously, there are messes like this to scramble thru, plenty of ‘em, but most of it is more open and I kind of zig-zagged thru it, always aiming up. Today I knocked about 10 minutes off last week’s ascent time and covered the 1+ mile distance/800 ft elevation climb in just over 30 minutes. Puffing some, but not excessive and the legs felt fine…………ol’ Lar’s in very good shape these days.

When I reached the summit, I approached the big rock cairn and felt my heart sink. No ‘pod. Walked farther up and started around the cairn, and there where I had laid it while setting up the tripod for the shots of me on the summit last week was my lost monopod. How’s this for lucky, eh ??……………….

Hah ! ! ! Grinned so hard it almost hurt my jaws. It was like finding an old friend - that thing and I have been thru a lot together.

Now let’s play with the 18-250 lens a bit. I’ve already seen that the depth of field is very critical. This next shot is a low to medium zoom looking down the face of the mountain slightly to the East of Los Alamos. That slope is very steep and very rocky under the grass, and I wouldn’t like to hafta climb it…………..

Now, low zoom again looking SouthEast/East toward Santa Fe in the center left. Doesn’t look too bad from here, tho’ there’s still a lot of haze………….

OK, let’s get more serious, if not precisely scientific. Here’s old favorite Pedernal at a low zoom setting. Shoulda wrote the numbers down……………..

>From here, Pedernal’s about 10-12 miles away, as the crow flies. The haze doesn’t help, but I think the lens did quite well, for hand-held on a monopod. Now, here’s a very strong crop of the above shot - over 100%……………..

I dunno. I’m undecided on this. Haze, shaky hands (monopod isn’t a tripod) or just plain fuzzy ?? What do you think ?? Now, here’s a full 250mm shot of Pedernal from the same location…………..

Again, I’m undecided. After the shots the other night I’m inclined to think haze. Here’s an over 100% crop of the above…………….

I think we can do better than that. Coming down the mountain, I took a shot of Der Bug waiting patiently. This is at about 30 - 50mm………….

Once again, a HUge crop of the above shot…………

Hand held at about 100 ft away. Didn’t bother with the monopod. (after all I went thru to get it back) A little fuzzy, but……………. What’s your opinion ?? All in all, for the day’s work I’m pretty pleased with the new toy. Seems to me that if I hold it steady it’ll do the job, and what a joy to use. Now, after all this expense and effort I’m almost back to where I was with the great little 8800. Hmmmm……………….??

Posted: November 10th, 2007 under 07-11-11 Chicoma Peak 2, 08 New Mexico.
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