Sangres Crossing

Background: some friends of my sister-in-law own a cabin in Cowles. Cowles is a small... settlement I guess is the best word... tucked up into the Pecos River Valley. Every year we go there for a weekend, usually in the fall. This year that happened to be in mid-September. The cabin is about a two-hour drive from our house, mainly because one has to circumnavigate the southern tip of the Sangre de Christo mountains at Glorieta Pass and then drive up windy two lane roads in to the canyon:


View Larger Map

Why is this relevant? Mid-September happens to be when I needed to do my peak mileage leading up to the Duke City Marathon. The distance from Tesuque to Cowles by trail also happens to be right around 22-25 miles depending on the exact route. So all in all a perfect opportunity for a beautiful mountain run (of course if I was really hard-core I'd also run from my house to the trailhead, but I guess I'm only soft-core). The route essentially constitutes a west-to-east crossing of the Sangres - hence the title of the post, although thankfully it was not literally a blood(y) crossing.

The plan was pretty simple: help the wife pack up the car, and then have her drop me off at the Chamisa Trail parking lot about 4-5 hours before her and everyone else planned to arrive at the cabin. Starting from a touch under 8,000 feet elevation, the Chamisa trail climbs about 400 feet over a mile or so, and then drops back down the same amount to the Winsor Trail. From there, the Winsor Trail  climbs about 2800 feet over 6.5-7 miles up to the Pecos Wilderness Boundary (passing Ski Santa Fe along the way) at about 10,800 feet, before descending into the Rio Nambe drainage. The trail climbs up again about 500 feet over two miles into Puerto Nambe which would be the high point of my route at a touch over 11,000 feet. The rest of the way into Cowles is all downhill, with a final elevation at around 8,300 feet:




(My route across the Sangres)

A few variations on the route are possible, all with a distance generally between 22-25 miles. My particular route looked to be right around 24 (the map above seems to be missing a mile on the portion up to the Ski Basin). At various times I have hiked or run just about the entire route, but never all at once. I figured it would take me somewhere between 4 and 6 hours.

The Chamisa trail is a run I do fairly regularly, so the first section over to Winsor was pretty routine and I took my time walking lazily up the two steep sections. After that was another section of rather routine trail, the portion of Winsor between its intersections with the Chamisa and Borrego Trails. This roughly two mile section climbs gently along the creek, and serves as a good warm up (both mental and physical) before the real climbing begins on the upper portion of the Winsor Trail. About the only excitement was a neat little (2" long or so) horny toad we saw:



(This little guy was out for a walk too)

A beautiful meadow sits at the latter intersection and we stopped there for a few minutes since we wouldn't hit water again until the Ski Basin:



(Meadow at the bottom of the Borrego Trail)

From here, the climb up to the Ski Basin begins in earnest. After a mile or two of moderate climbing the Borrego and Winsor trails split, and shortly after that is the junction with the Big Tesuque Trail. It was around here that I started to notice a distinct sluggishness in my legs. I certainly wasn't shy about walking some of the steeper sections, but I was walking portions of the climb that I normally run. I figured I was feeling the effects of the last few weeks of training, so instead of stressing about it I just told myself to enjoy the day and I mentally started to plan for around 6 hours on my feet rather than 4 or 5. I think I finally made it up to the Ski Basin parking lot in around 2:15, slower than I had hoped but not bad considering all the walking I did.



(Beautiful day at the ski basin)

The next leg of my route took me from the Ski Basin over to Puerto Nambe, where my route would diverge from some of my previous runs. Instead of taking the Skyline Trail - which leads to both Lake Katherine and Santa Fe Baldy - I continued along the Winsor Trail toward the Pecos watershed. This portion of the trail is mostly rolling through forest and is just a joy to hike or run:



(Winsor Trail en route to the Pecos watershed)

About a mile past Puerto Nambe I finally reached the high point of my run and started the final descent. This reenergized me a bit and I made pretty good time to Spirit Lake and then down some rather technical switchbacks to another fork with the Skyline Trail.



(Finally, time to start going downhill in earnest; the trail from Penitente Peak comes in from the right)



(Spirit Lake in the late afternoon)



(Intersection with Skyline Trail at the bottom of some rough switchbacks)

Once I made it down to this point I headed southeast toward Holy Ghost. This was another fun and relatively fast section of trail that eventually arrives at a beautiful meadow at the intersection with the Holy Ghost Trail.



(Meadow along Winsor Trail above Holy Ghost)

The Holy Ghost Trail comes up from the far side of the meadow. I have seen lots of elk sign in this meadow but never any elk. The hike up from Holy Ghost is a beautiful hike we have done many times. The Winsor Trail descends gently through some beautiful Aspen forest for a mile or two, and then the real descent down into Cowles begins.



(Single track through the Aspen groves)



(More single track as the trail starts to turn downward again)

The single track through here was just phenomenal and I repeatedly caught myself zoning out in the peacefulness of the forest. And given that this was a Friday afternoon the trail was deserted: I saw one younger couple on the descent down from Spirit Lake and then another couple with a child on horseback on the descent and that was it over the last 10 miles or so. However, despite the scenery, as the descent got steeper and the pounding built up I started to become more and more impatient. I wasn't feeling bad, but mentally my energy had hit a low and I was just ready for a burrito and something cold to drink. After what seemed like an eternity we finally hit the bottom of the hill and from there it was just a short half mile or so to the trailhead.



(Finally, the bottom of the hill)



(Looking back at the trailhead)

The paved surface was actually a little refreshing after 23 miles on trail. I had another mile or so of road at a gentle grade before I hit the main road after almost exactly six hours. Then another few hundred yards of scrambling up the hill before I arrived at the cabin where my starting-to-get-anxious wife, son, sister-in-law, and the rest of the dogs were enjoying the evening.

In hindsight, despite my sluggish legs on the climbs, I think I generally felt better than I thought I would. I didn't have any lingering joint or muscle pain the day after; just a general sense of fatigue and stiffness, which is to be expected. And my feet, let me tell you about my feet. I wore for the first time ever on this run a pair of Dry-Max socks, specifically the "Trail Lite" model. Yes I know wearing a pair of socks for the very first time on a six hour run probably isn't the smartest thing. But it worked out, because by the end my feet felt fantastic. No hot spots, no blisters, not even the slightest bit of tenderness. This despite sweating profusely during the first two hours of climbing and subsequently immersing my feet on multiple occasions. I seriously don't think I will ever buy another brand of socks again. Period.

Unfortunately this was probably my last long backcountry run of the season. With my October race schedule followed by deer hunting season and shortly after that the rapidly cooling temperatures and increasing precipitation of November, I'll be lucky to get in another adventure like this one. On the other hand, the end of high country running season also means that snowboarding season is imminent, so there's definitely a bright side!