This is another trip that came to have significant meaning to myself.  I waited for snow to melt and logistics to work.  I waited months for this trip…  The best adventures come from the most trying and patient waits.  This time, we are going to the Manzano Mountain Wilderness in New Mexico’s Cibola National Forest!  I had wanted to climb Mosca Peak and was trying to figure out when I could pull it off.  I managed to squeeze it in between trips to California for Jessica and I to visit Family and other adventures we had going.  Jessica and I were living in Grand Canyon Arizona and this winter was specifically heavy with snow.  We saw the twice the average of the South Rim in snow fall and I spent many weekend days helping Trail Maintenance shovel paths, roads, and clean compost toilets within the Grand Canyon corridor trail network.  This of course was Overtime as at the time I was working at the South Entrance Station during the week.  Needless to say, it was a busy winter and Jess and I went everywhere from Snowboarding outside of Las Vegas to experiencing a Catholic Church service overlooking the red rocks in Sedona Arizona.  Also right before this adventure we both were fortunate enough to attend the 2023 National Park Service PSAR (Preventative Search and Rescue Symposium).  My now wife Jessica did a Public Safety Dispatching presentation at the Symposium and I am proud of her to this day!  Our friend Nick visited from Yosemite National Park in California and joined us in attendance as well.   

After we had concluded the Symposium, the work week, and the Church service, we drove to We Cook Pizza and Pasta in Tusayan, Arizona, for a post-service meal and fellowship.  Nick joined us, and we all said goodbye to him as he was about to start his move from Yosemite National Park in California to Glacier National Park in Montana.  This would be his second time working in Glacier and he was very excited!  After lunch, Jessica and I drove back home, and it was time for me to head out on an adventure.  I said “I love you” to Jess and started driving.  My drive would take around eight hours or so from Grand Canyon Village.  I ended up driving up a dirt road with views of Albuquerque, New Mexico, below close to midnight.  The faraway city lights…a reminder of how peaceful it is to not be amongst civilization.  I soon parked next to the Trail Head high above the desert floor and fell asleep inside my Jeep. The next morning, after sending Jess a good morning message, I was off, but not before coming into contact with the only other person I would see all trip.

A retirement-age gentleman from the UK.  He had fallen in love with the American South West and began his Pilgrimage to thru-hike multiple trails within its grandeur.  Once on the trail, we leap-frogged back and forth, one in front of the other.  Until we ended up talking.  He shared his part of his story, and he wanted to take the tram down the Sandia Mountains to finish his adventure before flying home.  He had walked over Sky Islands from Southern Arizona to New Mexico en route to completing the Grand Enchantment Loop Trail.  The hiker also shared with me that he was recording moments of his trip for his grandchildren.  When he found out I was a Park Ranger in the Grand Canyon, he asked to take a selfie with me for his Grandchildren.  After a bit of conversation, we were both off on our own walks again.  Before I knew it I was it was time for me to go off trail.  The Manzano Crest Trail runs the Ridgeline of the Manzano Mountain Range, and for many moments of this trek, I could see Mosca Peak looming in the distance next to Guadalupe Peak.  If you look at a map of the Cibola National Forest, one will see that Mosca Peak is just about on the boundary line of the federal boundary, and then an individual would be on Tribal Land.  Once off the Manzano Crest Trail, I walked through what later would remind me in its own unique way of a Mangrove Swamp I had seen in Florida on a Bear Grills episode once.  I had never pushed through such thick shrubbery.  Slowly, I climbed to the summit, taking many breaks along the way, my entire being swallowed by the magnificents of God’s creation!  With another step, I was on top; I was home for the night at last.  I ate dinner and photographed the sunset.  The clouds on the horizon looking on the verge of bringing a monsoon my way.  Singing the Summit Register was emotional, for it read many entries of folks who considered the mountain special or scared.  The federal protection of this beautiful land that I had fallen in love with and that God has used in my life so many times…has a flipside and a dark history.  A greed and selfishness that that still harms people’s perception of these places to this day, I hope that one day. Humanity can resolve its feelings of pain and betrayal in all fashions, not just when it comes to the wild.  I cannot change the past but I will strive to protect these places with my life.

-Sky