The campground was pretty full. Daniel, one of the rangers, greeted us on our arrival. I had talked to him on the phone the day before. The campsites with the shelters were all taken, so we drove up to an auxillary loop, called Encino, up the hill on the other side of the ponds. No shelters and no water on that loop, but we found a nice site at the tail end of the loop we decided would be nice. We dumped our stuff to claim the site and went back down to the entrance, next to the showers to pay the fee. ($10 per night.) Cyndi rode her bike down and waited for Ariel at the highway entrance. Ariel rode in, her lights on, exhausted I'm sure.
The boys and I went to a little store about a half-mile up the road. It was more like a little living room (one of the teenagers was studying), with shelves lined with ketchup bottles and other picnic goods and a freezer of ice. We bought a couple bundles of wood for the campfire and a soda. On the way back to the site, we filled the water container.
At this point, the sun had set so we set up camp in the dark. Ariel took Cyndi's bike down to shower and by the time she got back our tent was up. Ariel remarked it was a mansion. I didn't put the fly on the tent. There were millions of stars in the sky, and thankfully no sign of rain. You could see the Milky Way. Ariel set up her backpacking tent. In the middle of the night we heard the strangest sounds, like an animal distressed by a pack of coyotes, but later we figured it was some crazed bird. We heard it the next night, too. We were told a couple of times that there were bears visiting the campsites several times this summer. We even heard there was a bear sighted during that night at the ranger's station. (I had put the food in the truck overnight.)
We brought along Cyndi's and the boys' bikes. Cyndi did some loops around the park and once or twice the boys rode theirs down with her. There was a small playground along the way to the showers complex. Saturday, our only full day, we spent most of the day preparing three very full meals, beginning with coffee, hot chocolate, eggs, bacon, hasbrowns, oranges, and bagels and jam in the morning. Ariel relaxed by the fire at night and in the morning with her book, filling up with water, carbs and protein after her trip. I had some time to sit between the meals, talk, and watch the boys riding.
From our campfire, we could watch the boys take off down the road on their bikes. The mountain road was dirt, of course, dusty, with rocks and some ruts and a slight downhill from our site. They both flew down the hill, with their helmets. There was an outhouse at the bottom of that first long hill, which Cyndi made their limit, and the boys would turn around there and race back up the hill. Jackson learned to change gears on his new bike, and the whole weekend there turned them into accomplished mountain bikers as they would ride almost the whole day. Ry told me this morning that he dreamed all night about mountain biking.
When clouds came in during the afternoon, I put the fly on and put things away before an afternoon shower. We took advantage of that rain to take naps. Cyndi and Ariel took a few hikes. There was a single-track trail that lead from our site a little less than a half-mile down to the group shelter next to the creek and across from the half a dozen spots with hookups. Another trail took you higher up the canyon. The boys and I went to get more firewood and refill our water supply. That night we repeated cooking in the dark, sitting by the fire, and looking at the stars.
Ariel and the boys fashioned sticks for roasting marshmallows, and Ariel and Rylee played a few games matching dinosaur cards while Jackson was scavenging for kindling or riding or hiking with Cyndi. Both of the boys were very impressed with Ariel's headlamp and all of her gear.
In the morning there was time for more bike riding and hikes. We had breakfast and then packed the camp. That took a while but by noon we were packed. A car top carrier held a few things, a bicycle rack off the back held three of the bicycles. Ry's bike fit inside at the back of the Durango, with plenty of room for Cyndi and me, the boys and Ariel. We had showers again (the water was hot but very slow coming out) and took off for Mora. We thought of taking the road toward Sipapu and then driving the "High Road" down to Chimayo and Santa Fe. Instead, we took the same route back. We stopped in La Cueva at the Salmon Ranch raspberry farm. It was a week too early for fresh raspberries, but we had an excellent tamale and really good raspberry soft serve ice cream. The boys and Ariel, who was between them in the back seat, watched the Hannah Montana movie until it ended and the boys drifted off to sleep.
It rained when we dropped Ariel off and continued raining. There was a little rain this morning, too, as we got up. Jackson had school this morning. I imagine Ariel would sleep in this morning, and then get ready for leaving at the end of the week.
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