Notes and observations from the first weekend in 2015:
My wife and I watched the entire Back To The Future trilogy on Blu-Ray. Seems appropriate, given the fictional future year of 2015 depicted in the story.
Unfortunately, at present we still need roads where we're going, and aside from some very specialized equipment, hoverboards are still a pipe dream. Fortunately, the goofy futuristic clothes from that timeline are indeed fictional as well.
Saturday, we embarked on a trip up US Highway 191 to Alpine to get out of the house, play in the snow, and test our new tubes Santa brought us for Christmas. For those who are unaware, US 191 between Morenci and Alpine is known as the Coronado Trail, or simply "The Trail," and perhaps more famously as the "Devil's highway," owing the latter nickname partially to its former designation as US 666, as well as the approximately 400 tight curves within a 50 mile span, the majority of which are posted at 15 mph or less, and lacking in guardrails. It's a white-knuckle drive in the best of conditions, and can be downright stressful in snowy ones, but the views are spectacular.
If we had skyways and flying cars, I imagine the mountain would have been much busier than it was. Aside from a few hunters and a couple game wardens, we pretty much had the entire hill to ourselves. We also saw where a Game & Fish truck had slid off the roadway in a bad curve a couple days prior. It was resting against a stout pine tree about 5-10 feet down the embankment
My preferred method of sliding down snowy slopes still involves tubing, though the hobby has since evolved from truck tubes to these fancy canvas cased, purpose-built PVC christmas gift doodads I mentioned earlier... We managed to find a spot about 30 miles south of Alpine where I got to take my tube on its maiden voyage. The fun lasted all of 10 minutes until I fell off and bruised my thigh on a rock... ouch. I hobbled back to the truck, lashed the tubes down, and we continued north.
Dinner in Alpine could be considered an incentive to do the trail instead of Mt. Graham, as well as a much needed chance to let the blood return to my knuckles. We ate at Bear Wallow, where almost exactly six months prior, we rubbed elbows with the large crowds of people in town for the Independence Day festivities. Upon reflection, I believe we owe the relative solitude of this particular trip to my own bravery/stupidity in attempting such a drive.
We opted to return home via US 180 through New Mexico, which turned out to be a much safer option. Though the roads were clear, the surrounding landscape was blanketed in snow. The moonlight cast a faint glow across the white hills flanking the highway, a sight that was simply breathtaking, even if I was only able to behold it out of the corner of my eye, for fractions of a second at a time... Something about not having to navigate patches of ice 2 feet away from what seemed like an endless drop into the canyon below, made the New Mexico route much more pleasant than its Arizona counterpart, especially after dark.
We pulled into the Leopold Vista rest area near Glenwood after dark to find the facilities locked up, and a NMSP Officer stationed near the entrance. He never said anything to us, and I supposed he might have been catching up on reports or simply taking a much needed break after a busy day or two when the snow was still fresh. Nevertheless, we journeyed onward and made it home incident-free. Unfortunately, I have little in the way of pictures to document the weekend, but will say it was an awesome start to what's going to be an awesome year.
We pulled into the Leopold Vista rest area near Glenwood after dark to find the facilities locked up, and a NMSP Officer stationed near the entrance. He never said anything to us, and I supposed he might have been catching up on reports or simply taking a much needed break after a busy day or two when the snow was still fresh. Nevertheless, we journeyed onward and made it home incident-free. Unfortunately, I have little in the way of pictures to document the weekend, but will say it was an awesome start to what's going to be an awesome year.
