Our first outing!

I’ve really been missing being out in the woods. I’ve always loved pine trees in the summer time. We’re lucky to have two big pines in our own yard. John put up our camping hammock for me, so I could pretend I was camping right here in my backyard!

The pines have been making an incredible amount of pollen. Last week whenever the wind gusted, you could see the pollen coming off the trees in a cloud. It looked like smoke! It landed everywhere, and coated our entire backyard.

This is pollen all over my outdoor coffee table.

It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the pollen is a light greenish-yellowish color. It reminded me of living in Washington state, where the same thing happened, except in Washington the pollen would coat the mud puddles and leave yellow streaks on the wet, black pavement as it washed down the streets.

I’ve been wanting to go hiking, or at least get out into the trees. Everything aligned just right on Sunday. I was feeling fairly well because the previous week was my recovery week with no chemo pills. We figured I was feeling as well as I was going to feel for awhile, because chemo was starting again the next day. Our weather here has been warm but exceedingly windy. On Sunday the wind died down briefly in the afternoon and we grabbed our chance.

We decided we’d drive up to the north side of the Sandias, which is only about half hour away. The trails up there get less use, because they are farther away than the many trails we have right here along the east side of Albuquerque. And we knew of one trail in particular that rarely gets much use at all. It’s off a back road, unnamed, unmarked, and doesn’t actually go anywhere.

Another good thing about this particular trail is it doesn’t climb very steeply (that being correlated with the fact that it doesn’t actually go anywhere). Most of the local trails make their way up to the crest eventually, which is a long, hard climb. But this one just meanders slowly up a low lying wash.

We took the camper van so I could rest in the van if needed. I didn’t want to get out there and have to turn right around and drive home if I wasn’t feeling well. We figured if I wasn’t up for hiking, we could hang out in the van with the side door wide open and enjoy the forest from there. We brought food and magazines.

I hiked very slowly, but to my surprise, I walked for almost 40 minutes out, and 40 minutes back, which is vastly farther than I’ve walked since my surgery. It was only a month or so ago that I was barely managing to walk one block. It was really wonderful to be out hiking again.

Yay trees! I’m all covered up because the meds make me sensitive to the sun.

And mountains in the distance. I was very happy.

On our way down I heard talking up ahead, so I assumed we were coming upon a small group of hikers. But when I rounded the bend, I saw just one man, sprawled out in the sand, talking to himself.

I stopped, confused, trying to assess the threat level. He was laying on his stomach with his head in the sand, his knees pulled up under himself. Was he hurt? Did he need help? Was he crazy? Dangerous?

He was speaking in a soothing voice and didn’t appear threatening. Then I saw it – his phone propped up facing him. And in one brief instant I realized he was in a yoga pose – he was a yoga instructor, filming himself leading an online yoga class.

I stood there, not sure what to do. I didn’t want to photo bomb his yoga class! John came up behind me and said, “We can just go around.” I whispered back, “He’s filming.”

Just then the yoga instructor looked up and smiled, and motioned us to go ahead and walk through. I didn’t look toward the camera. I’d like to imagine that hikers quietly walking by increased the already excellent ambiance of his socially-distanced yoga class. It almost made me wish I knew who he was so I could join his class. Except I don’t like yoga, despite knowing a couple of instructors and having several friends who love it. It was a great place to have a class though! Just don’t lay down on any cactus.

After we got back to the van we hung out for awhile and enjoyed the view before driving home.