1/26/2023: -20 degrees….maps, travel plans

This morning at 7am we hit an all time low temp for Alan and I since living in the Southwest. The thermometer showed minus 20. (The previous record for us was -18 in Bayfield back in 2003).

But in that odd New Mexico way, when I sit playing with the dogs on the south-facing front of the house at 10am, it’s 35 degrees and balmy, while on the north side it’s barely hitting +8 degrees and feels like the arctic.

In other news, this is the time of year Alan and I generally start planning a vacation. Most years we go somewhere in February, like many people, to get away from the drag of endless winter. While we love winter, we get as tired as anyone of the constant layering of coats and slogging through snow. (Strangely, not as tired as I get of salt and sand and bugs and humidity. I am not a person for the tropics, although I love the paucity of clothing.)

Last winter, we didn’t travel, enjoying being here at 4Fords so much we decided to tough it out. And were glad we did, as it was a marvelous season. But this year we have made plans to travel for a couple of months, and so are looking at maps and figuring out places to go.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love maps…paper maps. I have 2 crates of them upstairs. Mostly topographical Maps of various places we’ve backpacked, alphabetized by location. I keep an active account with http://www.MyTopo.com. While Apps such as OnX Hunt, Farout Guides (nee Guthooks), AllTrails, and GaiaGPS (and, of course, Google Maps) are wonderful and useful, and I carry a Garmin InReach GPS for safety, there’s nothing as satisfying as looking at the WHOLE picture that only a paper map gives you. And compasses are cool, too.

We are going to take Pippin (our 14′ camper) and a tent. The tent is for sleeping, as the bed in Pippin is too small for 2 adults and 2 dogs. We did it with Clair for 3 1/2 months, but we were packed in like sardines. Any anyway, we both like sleeping in a tent, as long as we have comfy pads and our new double quilt from Enlightened Equipment.

The plan is to leave around March 1 to check out Organ Pipe Nat’l Monument, and several places on the way, then go back to a favorite spot in the Tonto Nat’l Forest around Roosevelt Lake, where we are hoping for some serious backpacking with our granddaughter on the Arizona Trail. Next, we’ll head over to Texas (via Roswell, NM) to meet friends in Guadalupe Nat’l Park, then wind our way down to Big Bend Nat’l Park. After that, weather and whim will decide when we get home. We want to avoid the worst of the mud/snowmelt season here, but get home in time to start a garden.

What makes this trip a bit more interesting is that I am teaching 4 classes this semester, and need to have internet access at least 1-2/week. So that’s where our new Mobile Starlink setup will hopefully come in handy. Will our little solar array on Pippin be enough to power it? We’ll have a generator just in case.

That’s the plan, but, as many of you might know, Alan and I change plans frequently, so this first draft is just that. In the meantime, we dream and calculate driving distances and check out State Parks and Boondocking sites, and stay warm with gallons of tea and cocoa.