Can we hike only using a map?

We have been hiking all over North America for the last eight and a half years, so we feel like we are some pretty experienced hikers. But some times we forget how much we depend on technology to find our way on some remote trails. This morning we left early, and completely forgot to download the hike directions for a trail in Lincoln National Forest. Once we got to the trail head, we didn't have any phone signal to download the information. Can we hike old school--only using a map?

Denisa had snapped a picture of the trail system that starts at the Argentina and Bonito Trailhead. Our plan was to take a loop hike that started at trail #36, continued on to trail #37, veering onto trail #25 across to catch trail #39. That's supposed to be around six miles. But if we miss any of those turns, we could have a very much longer hike, and end up lost in the forest. If we had downloaded the Alltrails version of this loop, it would alert us if we missed a turn. Or if the trail got faint, we could always check our progress to see if we were heading the right direction. Or sometimes, we have used the Alltrails app to connect different trails that we didn't even know about. But today we have only a picture of some trail numbers, and we won't have that GPS dot on the screen that tells us exactly where we are on that trail. We're a little concerned about our abilities to not get lost out here.

The other way that Alltrails helps is to show the topography and water crossings. Because of all the snow melting out of the mountains from this winter's generous snow cover, the little creek on this hike was swollen. A trickle that usually only requires a step across, now is 15-feet across. No bridges are needed most of the year, so we struggled to find enough rocks and logs to form a footpath across. We made a couple extra water crossings because we got on the wrong trail and didn't have Alltrails to keep us on the right path.

We ended up with 14 creek crossings before the day was over! While Mark dances across on the least amount of support, getting Denisa across that much water isn't always pretty.

We certainly didn't want to fall in and get our feet wet this early in the day. It's miserable hiking all day in wet boots, and this water was ice cold. You can see the icicles hanging from the log near the water because it was icy cold.

Other parts of the trail were still covered by snow. That's another time when it would be nice to have Alltrail's guidance because we couldn't even see the trail.

We got to a major trail intersection, and were glad to see a sign with the many different trails that split off in different directions. We need that guidance today.

The only problem was that the sign was laying on the ground, and we had no idea which way it was pointing for those different trails. We had to use our best map skills to make a decision, and we hoped it was the right one.

The trail turned upward, and we started seeing snowy mountain peaks about the time we stopped for lunch. This was our view for our picnic meal.

At this higher elevation, we suddenly had a phone signal. It was good enough to get a face-time call from our grandchildren! What a beautiful place to be able to stay in touch with loved ones!

This little falcon was interested in our conversation, as it sat in the dead tree beside us and listened.

Even without technology to guide us, we wandered into another of God's wonders today!

The trail skirted around the base of Argentina Peak, so we had to scramble up the last steep slope to get the views from the top. From here we saw other peaks in Lincoln National Forest that would make good hiking destinations.

As we started our descent, we could look to the west to see a wide band of black in the valley where Mark was pointing. While we saw the white sands from view-points several days ago, we can see the black lava fields this day.

That sea of black lava is Valley of Fires BLM Recreation Area that we will visit in a few days.

Now we just hope we are on the correct trail through the mountains to complete the loop back to our pickup. 

Again we found some wooden signs that gave us some assistance in navigating our way. That's when we learned that during the little while that we had a good phone signal at the top of Argentina Peak, our Alltrails app had finished downloading our route. We no longer had to depend on just using a map to get us back! Whew!

While we didn't see any wildlife on this hike, we did see evidence that feral pigs were in the area. This hog trap was open and ready to relocate these invasive nuisances.

While we counted the number of water crossings on this hike at 14, we wished we would have counted the number of fallen log crossings we made. 

Over and over we found fresh trees that had recently fallen over the trail, slowing our progress. While we only saw a handful of people on the trail today, two of them were working to clear those trees off the trail. The two guys were part of the New Mexico Conservation Corp camped in the national forest below us. They were training new corp members, and were camped in this area a couple days ago when the awful winds kept us inside the motor home all day. From their camp site they could hear trees falling from the strong winds all over the forest.

The two guys we met going up the trail were looking for a tool that the team had left behind. Knowing that information, we weren't surprised to find this heavy metal hammer along the trail, past the place that they had already walked.

We were planning to return it to their campground, but we met up with them again on the trail. They were glad to see that hammer!

By the time we got back to the trail head, we had hiked 6.2 miles, and gained 1,280 feet in elevation. We're pretty proud that we hiked over half of that using our own map skills, and not just depending on technology to guide us. This trail head was at the very end of the red road on the map below. We drove it to get to the hike, but we were also looking for places to camp in the motor home.

We were driving the pickup this day, looking for national forest roads that were smooth enough and wide enough for the motor home. It really was a lovely area with healthy trees and some great boondocking sites that were open to the public.

We took pictures as we explored, and this was one of our favorite spots. It was a Thursday, and RVs were already sifting into the national forest to secure places for the weekend.

While it looked like we could have lots of neighbors by the weekend, we also liked that some of our neighbors were wild horses.

In the end, we decided that we had hiked the best trail in the area, so we really didn't need to drive the motor home the 18 miles out of the way on the forest service roads to boondock for just a night or two. We've changed our plans again, like we often do. But we had fun exploring this section of the Lincoln National Forest west of Ruidoso, New Mexico. We also can answer the question, "Can we hike only using a map?" with a shaky "Yes"--(at least half-way until we can download the trail app at the top of the mountain).