Mile 39

Far northeastern training area, Fort Bliss, New Mexico

My native hiking territory is the wooded, rolling mountains of Western Maine. When the going gets steep and it’s time to catch my breath, I’m used to resting on a rock or fallen log beside the trail and stealing a sip of water, perhaps pulling out my camera to take note the color of leaves or the sunlight coming through the treetops. There is plenty to see on a forested mountainside, but most hikers in New England reach a vista at the top of the mountain.

But here there was nothing to block the view when I stopped to catch my breath. In fact, it was around me any time I looked up from my feet, not because I could cheat and look across a clear-cut, but because the New Mexico grassland stretched past the horizon.

Fort Bliss is one of the smaller military posts in terms of unit numbers; however, it’s a top competitor in terms of square mileage. It mixes sand dune and grassland between the mountain boundaries. Today we hiked in the northeast portion near Timberon, a 50 mile drive from El Paso and Texan boarder, much of which on unpaved road washed out and repaired again from flash flooding. These foothills are the step between desert and the conifer forest of the Sacramento Mountains.

I appreciated this open grassland today because I could observe and not interrupt. Forested sight hinders distance, and the animals are usually leaving when I get to see them. Proximity wasn’t an issue today. Across the valley, we watched a small herd of mule deer graze. Distance made me another creature out here, not a threat, awarding me opportunity to sit and watch.

Mule deer near Timberon, New Mexico