Back from a trip to the Homeland

I have recently returned home from a two week trip to New Mexico where I was born and raised sandwiched in between the beautiful Jemez and the Sangre de Cristo mountain ranges. While in New Mexico I met up with a good friend of mine Robert and did some backpacking and climbed some peaks on a nine day trip into the Sangres. We started with a couple of days in the Pecos Baldy Lake area where we visited the summit of East Pecos Baldy at 12,529 feet. The fishing in the lake was below average and we made a break for the Truchas Lakes area via Trail Rider's Wall. Trail Rider's Wall was ridiculously windy probably blowing 40+ with a temperature around the freezing mark which made for an uncomfortable hike for 3 miles of total exposure at 12,000 feet. Once a camp was established at Truchas Lakes we were able to make it over to the summit of North Truchas Peak via a chute on the NW side of the peak. North Truchas Peak is at 13,024 feet. The next day we decided not to go up the ridge to the three other peaks due to the weather so we went over for a quick run up Chimayosos Peak at 12,841 feet. The following day we decided that we had to get up the ridgeline to Truchas Peak even though the weather was still not favorable. We made it up unscathed and stood on the second highest point in NM at 13,102 before we proceeded over to Middle Truchas Peak at 13,066 then to an unnamed peak along the same ridgeline that stands just over 13,000 feet before we dropped off the ridge just before dark to head back to camp. The rest of the trip was just taking a very long way back to the truck to make a loop out of the hike where we fished a bit and did some general sightseeing on the Santa Barbara Divide which is an outstanding piece of country that the Skyline Trail traverses all above 12,000 feet. The lack of snow this year and the lighting due to the time of day made this area glow with bright gold due to all of the grass still remaining which explain the abundance of bighorn sheep that we saw. My trip finished with a visit to the family for Thanksgiving which was great to see everyone and to get to play with my nieces for a couple of days. Due to not having my camera charged with me I do not have any photos from after backpacking. I returned to Flagstaff to get to celebrate Thanksgiving again with Anne's parents which was also a lot of fun and food. (The top photo above is taken from East Pecos Baldy of the Truchas Peaks and the second picture is of Robert and me on top of Middle Truchas Peak. Sorry about the fact that part of my head is missing but the second photo I took to correct this was blurry)