My Dad, brother and I have talked for years about doing a wilderness pack trip but we've never gotten around to doing it. This year we finally did it. We spent 6 days in the Pecos wilderness in the Mora Flats area northeast of Iron Gate.
Below is the beautiful valley we camped in. We camped on the Rio Valdez just above the junction where it and the Rio Mora join up.
This trip was a great time of getting together with old friends and family and enjoying being away from all the noise of daily life. The wilderness was so peaceful and quiet.My dad and brother were there. Also friends Jim, Mac, Darren and Jared.
Mac packed a little on the heavy side. He had all the weight of his pack on his shoulders so the first 1/2 mile about killed him. After that he got his waist strap adjusted and had a much easier time. He hauled his guitar a total of 8 miles! It was fun to have it around the campfire but it got heavy.
Here's Jared getting his pack situated.
Here's Jake adjusting his new Osprey pack. It was really sweet.
Jake and Mac ready to hit the trail.
I left Honolulu on an overnight flight Friday and finally got to Albuquerque 11am the next day. We did a few things in Albuquerque, stopped by Darren's new house and made it to the trail head around 515. I'd gained about 9500ft of elevation and only got about an hour of sleep on the plane. I was still stoked and ready to go though.
Here was our first glimpse of Mora Flats on the way in. The trail skirts the east side of hamilton mesa for a long ways as it drops into Mora flats. The views are amazing.
Here's Jared taking it all in.
Jake catching some pictures.
Four miles from the trailhead we reached camp. Dad and Jim had come in the day before. They set up a temporary camp and found a campspot they liked better. They waited for us to get there before moving camp. We wound up getting in later than expected so we all slept under the tarp and put off moving camp til the next morning.
Here's "Colorado" and "Stitches", the gray in the background.
Colorado again.
Jake, Jared, Dad and Jim waiting for a big ol' pot of cowboy coffee to boil.
Our temporary tent worked fine. We had a rainless night so that made it even better. The ground was sloped a little so we kept sliding feet first downhill during the night.
It had been really wet during the weeks before we got there so it was almost impossible to find dry wood. We had alot of smokey fires.
Stitches and Colorado
The early morning that first day reminded me how much I'd missed the Rockies. This is the meadow looking south.
This is the meadow looking North.
We cooked up a big ol camp fire breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs, tortillas and of course lots of cowboy coffee.
Right out there in the meadow is "Julia", Jim's 36 year old mule. That's right, 36! She did as well as anybody on the trail and carried her weight.
We moved up the canyon a little ways to the north and set up the wall tent. Then we all relaxed for a while.
Up the canyon to the north was beautiful. The canyon started to kindof box up the further north you went.
Jake and I took a hike up the canyon the first afternoon and took lots of pictures.
The recent rains and summer sunshine had sure made everything come to life and bloom.
During the middle of the week we got to see a helicopter rescue. A group from a church in Lubbock came in and camped a 1/2 mile south of us. They had several men sponsors and about 15 boys ages 10 and 11. They brought in the gear to do a zip line for the boys. They had some kind of accident on the zip line and one of the boys got hurt. One helicopter flew over mid afternoon but couldn't land because of elevation and temperature. Then a rescue team of about 8 or 10 people came in on foot and took care of the boy. They decided he needed a helicopter instead of being carried out so they radioed another chopper. It flew in and landed in the meadow between our camps. They were quick. That chopper wasn't on the ground more than 5 min and they were off to the hospital. Never seen anything like that before in the wilderness!
The aspens were beautiful as always.
The horses had all the grass they could eat.
We ate alot ourselves. We made big breakfasts everyday and a big supper. We snack for lunch while we were out hiking and fishing.
Boy was the fishing good! We caught about 25 fish. Lots of 6 and 8 inch trout and an occasional 10 or 12 inch.
Not big fish, but they sure hit hard and fight good...and they eat good too! We cooked up a bunch of trout on night for supper in the fire.
Jared came in on Saturday and had to head out to go back to work on Monday afternoon. Darren came in on Monday afternoon and hiked back out on Wednesday. Jake, Mac and I loaded some of our stuff and hiked out with Darren so we'd have less to carry when we packed out the next day. We went into Glorietta to visit some friends who were at student week for a couple hours then hiked back in.
Finally on Thursday morning, after a great week, it was time to load up the horses and pack out. It was hard to leave after such a great week!
Here's Colorado loaded and ready to go.
We had a great camp spot. The wall tent was great too.
On the trail headed out.
A quick break to take a breather and adjust tack. The breast collars for two of the horses got left at home by accident so when we'd start uphill the saddles would try to slide back off the horses' withers a little and then start twisting to one side or the other. We won't forget the breast collars next time.
We saw quite a few blue grouse on the trail during the week.
We also found some wild raspberries to eat. Boy were they good.
Here are some mountain roses all budded out.
We were thrilled to be able to put our packs on the horses on the way out. Here's mac the traveling musician with his "rainproof" guitar.
Back at the trailer.
Jim loading up Julia. She's quite a faithful friend. We didn't have to hobble or tie her or anything at camp. She would never get more than a couple hundred yards from camp. 
Julia, Stitches and Colorado ready to head home.
I took these beautiful pictures on the way out.
