Hikes and Haikus

About 4 miles from our house sits A mountain, kinda like a chubby middle-schooler.  Relatively small compared to some of the other peaks in the region, but it's close and offers a pretty cool view of Las Cruces.  The hike up is actually fairly strenuous: a lot of scrambling and steep pitches.  Near the top I'm usually breathing heavily. 1,000 feet increase in elevation, leveling off at around 5,100. Not much to look at along the path. Mostly rock, some scrub, a few desert rodents darting away, too swift for me to recognize or name (The squirrels down here are light brown and remarkably camouflaged). I like to ride my bike to either of the two trail heads, hike up -- which usually takes about 20 to 30 minutes -- and watch the sun set. On most days the view reaches way, way out, particularly to the north and west.  And sometimes close to dusk the desert looks steely blue. The sky's rarely blanketed with cloud cover so there's almost always a spectacular display of colors, reddening in the west, purples tracing the Organ Mountains to the east, sometimes black above if a storm cloud is passing through. What I appreciate most about these moments, looking out into the desert -- streaks of red, sunburst orange, and the kind of blue that makes me think of the deep ocean's bug-eyed, piranha-toothed, and spider-limbed creepy crawlers; fierce looking -- the evening darkening quiets everything. Out here in the desert nightfall brings me a sense of peace.

About 12 miles from our house is a beautiful hike that meanders 30 miles or so toward White Sands. It's "maintained" by the Bureau of Land Management, though the upkeep seems to be the work of locals who simply walk the path. The rock formations, vegetation -- there's a surprising abundance of green cloaking the Organs in the eastern parts of the range -- creek beds, and shadow-play cast by the rolling clouds. Just holding these images in my mind now I'm so grateful we live so close to such stunning natural beauty, that within a 15 minute drive and a mile or so of hiking we're in the wild. And wild it is!  There are mountain lions, bears, scorpions, all manner of spiders, rattlesnakes, and my personal favorite, vinegaroons! It's not that common, I hear, to see this sort of wildlife unless you're camping. We hope to camp in the Organs next weekend.

I recently connected with a local sangha in the Soto school of Zen Buddhism. The roshi, or teacher/priest, is a kind, insightful, and gracious man. I really admire him. I sat with the community this morning -- a small group, maybe 8. I felt at home. The sangha practices what some call Engaged Buddhism, which emphasizes social justice and service in the wider community. After this morning's service I came home and wrote a Haiku about my fondness for rattlesnakes:

Shedding snake, hiding
Tail rattler, no-legged drifter
Will you be my friend?

Have I mentioned that one of my housemates recently gave me a rattlesnake skin?  And that I've been writing at least one Haiku each day?  I exercise some flexibility with the syllable count.

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Tucker