The Hike
North Mystery Hike. (Click on the above image for a full-size view.)
The trail starts with a decent grade along a wide canyon and then works its way across a series of canyons interspersed with fairly long stretches of level ground. There are some hikers who heed the thoughts of poet Longfellow….”into each life some rain must fall;” and then there are some hikers that would be just as happy if the trail stayed level the entire way. The stretches of trail that were under a shaded forest canopy on soft ground with pine needle cover were exhilarating for the speed with which we crossed them. We were moving through the forest like Chingachgook and the Mohicans…minus the moccasins of course.
There were only a few hikers returning on the way in, but naturally we ran into one of George’s neighbors and his 2 dogs. Seems like we can’t hike anywhere anymore without running into someone George knows. He’s like the Mayor of the Sandias.
Speaking of dogs, many of the hikers we saw on our return trip were hiking with their dogs, rarely on leash. The more accessible the trailheads, the more dogs we see. Most are well behaved.
Highlight
This trail will be very pleasant come fall. We will definitely put it on the list for October and November, as long as there’s no snow on the trail.
Jay here: Not sure what the mystery to the Mystery Trail is. It may be the mystery of why it took us so long to see this one on the Sandia trail maps. The trailhead is only a few miles up the Crest highway in the East mountains. It’s a little below 8,000 ft elevation but the trail works its way slowly up. It had rained the night before and the temps were thankfully a little lower (around 84 degrees down on Juan Tabo).
Statistics
Total Distance: 5.32 miles
Elevation: 7,487 start, 7,933 maximum, 7,465 minimum
Gross gain: 446 ft. Aggregate ascending 1,283 ft, descending: 1,283 ft
Maximum slope: 30% ascending, 53% descending, 25% average
Duration: 3:40
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If you haven’t explored these hiking tracks with Google Earth, I urge you to try it. With the virtual 3-dimensional presentation, achieved by panning and tilting the view, you can get a much better idea of the hikes and terrain than you can get from the screenshot above. For some ideas, check out Using Google Earth Track Files.
