We just went to Taos this weekend to commemorate eight whole months since RL's incident with the rock. The main point was for RL to talk to the ski patrol who untangled him from said rock and tell them about brain injuries and to reassure them that he was doing quite well thanks to them.
We stayed with two different sets of friends, both of whom have built amazing houses down rutted out dirt roads. These people know how to build a house...it's all about captured rain water and solar maximization and wood-burning stoves and they're just so fricking cozy that you don't care that you're in the middle of nowhere (spoken by a true city girl).
We first stayed with AO and Jenny (AO's on the ski patrol), and they made us amazing chile rellenos before we tucked into our comfy bed for the night; next up was Dan* and Liza, who made delicious fajitas (actually, both the men cooked, which I made a point of mentioning to RL). Great hospitality, these folks (AO even made us freshly baked cookies and tea for our ride home on Sunday).
Aside from the welcome, the thing about Taos is that it's enchanted. Right next to town is the oldest continually inhabited community in North America (Taos Pueblo), and I'm pretty sure there's something to be said for that. One of the weird enchanty things is the Taos Hum, which I read about last time we went down there. It's supposedly a low, vibrating noise that only like 2% of the population can hear. Liza said she hears it all the time (they call her a "hearer"); Dan said it's gotta be one of the mining operations in the valley; AO was insistent that people who hear it are just tripping. All of them got really revved up when I mentioned it, though! The speculation abounds, and still no one knows what it is.
The other enchanted story we heard was about a piece of pottery that was found in the Taos Ski Valley (actually, on Kachina Peak, where RL's rock is). It was apparently put there years ago by the Taos Puebloans as an appeasement to the gods of snow. When it was found in 1996, the owner of TSV took it and placed it into his private collection. That year was the worst snow year on record for years, and the drought continued until 2003 or so, when the owner finally decided enough was enough. The owner took the pot, along with some Puebloan elders, back to its rightful place, and voila: snow that year. I'm sure local legend goes a long way in encouraging these stories, but I really like the idea that history is present in Taos (what do we know about the people that lived in our community hundreds of years ago?)
Anyway, another important part of the weekend was a hike up to Kachina to pay our respects to the rock that took a little piece of RL's brain. We were totally unprepared for there to be snow already, so it's a good thing AO lent us some poles and pants for our trek. Our first stop was at Honey's Huck, which we've so named because it's the biggest rock I've ever skiied off of. We took lots of pictures and marveled at its grandeur (and later I casually mentioned to AO that they might want to name it after me).
After Honey's Huck, and a lot more hiking, we got to the bottom of Kachina. It's impossible to see in pictures how steep this thing is, and I was a little hesitant when RL suggested traversing across the steepness that was covered in snow. After some falling and cursing, we finally made it to the bottom of his rock. He went on by himself, chisel in hand, to give the rock the old what-for (as I said, that rock's had eight months to think about what it did). It was good closure for him, I think, and AO said the ski patrol is going to name it after him (suggestions?).
After our hike we went and checked out the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, which spans the 650-foot drop into the tiny Rio Grande below. What's shocking is how long this river has been flowing to have created such a ravine (similar to the Colorado, I guess). As a side note, the gorge bridge, which still features graffiti from the 1970s, was awarded some Best Steel Construction award in 1966. That's it's claim to fame. We're hoping that even though they haven't cleaned up graffiti in 30 years, they've done some other preventative maintenance).
Taos is cool, and it helps if you've got locals to hang out with. We went to breakfast at this amazing place called Gutiz, which had a dish called Taoseno that I could eat for the rest of my life (scrambled eggs, pinto beans, rice, green and red chile). We're excited to go back and check out the other good stuff!
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*Interesting side note: Dan's a musician, and he often practices when he's on the road. One time he was actually pulled over for playing a harmonica and a mandolin while driving.
