daily cardio, IP Zatarains gumbo mix

daily cardio: Los Alamos overlook

Dog and I headed off to toward the eastern edge of the hilltop to see what we could see. I’d seen some two track going farther in that direction but it looked impassible to normal vehicles.

Good thing I brought a walking stick, because it was quite rough, rutted, and very soft in places where silt had washed in during rains. Rocks the size of basketballs that stuck out in places.

end of the road

After about a half-hour of slow going we came to the end of the trail. There is a roomy campsie with a nice view of Los Alamos below and ~13k foot tall mountains in the distance.

When I moved toward the dropoff to take the 2nd pic I heard a crashing sound and for a second I though maybe I’d dislodged a boulder. Turns out I had startled a mule deer doe and her offspring.

On the way back out I was thinking it was a great spot but would take 4wd and some skill to get there in the dry. I think even a UTV would struggle during monsoon.

meeting a truck camper

Just after I had that thought I saw somehing light-colored up the trail. Turns out it was a 4wd pickup with a slide-in truck camper in it, the kind with a low roof that telescopes up. He was picking his way very gingerly and we stopped to talk to him a bit as we passed. He commented that his progress on the trail was slower in the truck than I was walking. True; it was challenging driving. I told him about the spot at the end.

On the way back up I stopped to take this pano of another lovely spot. It’s a 180deg shot looking north (west to the left, east to the right).

intrepid Class A

In the category of people who are braver than me, there is a Class A in the center of the above pic. The two-track from his spot to the entrance is rough but passable when dry. After the rains start he might not be going anywhere. Or maybe he’s planning to hide there all summer and emerge after it dries out again.

a semi-successful Instant Pot experiment - Zatarain’s Gumbo Mix

While we were walking the Instant Pot was putting the sun to good use.

I had a half-pound of beef sausage left over from a kielbasa und sauerkraut meal the other day (info) and wanted to use it up. I dug out a box of Zatarain’s Gumbo mix to make for dinner tonight.

Good flavor but cleanup was messy since the page I was following suggested quick release. This can cause foaming into the lid for foodstuffs so inclinded. The gumbo was inclined.

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