- NNML 2026 Day 14, July 1, Wednesday
- Start S4 mile 4 along Beaver Creek
- End S4 mile 31 just inside Grande del Norte National Monument
- Miles walked: 27
More elk send high-pitched alerts as I pass by. I head up the drainage of Diablo Creek, exit the lovely wild wilderness, and then go down Cañon Largo (long canyon) using cow trails.
Soon the Rio San Antonio joins the canyon. Miles are hiked.
Near a private inholding beaver dams hold water and wet the meadows.
Horses wait at a ranch. But as I pass by, trucks pull up and excited kids pile out, headed for their horsie friends.
After not much elevation change, the surrounding hillsides are brown and treeless.
More beaver dams are cited at my last chance to get water for a while. The water is silty– wish I had gotten water upstream.
Plenty of cattle are about. The beavers prove they can hold their engineering structures together even with beef tramping about.
The route climbs out of the drainage to a rim with scattered lava rock. It turns out the Rio San Antonio looks like a river valley from below, but a greenish slash or rift from above.
The route climbs down from the rim at a spot that is not so steep.
Last chance for pools of murky water from the San Antonio River. Now the ascent of San Antonio Mountain begins.
As I am climbing up 2-track, I can see a forest fire on a ridge to the south, perhaps ten miles away. Later I smell smoke.
Part way up San Antonio Mountain is a well-constructed trail with switchbacks, not on any map. Perhaps it was used by sheep herders in the past?
Finally I get over the peak, with a preview of the plains below.
I have to do some final cross-country to avoid private land.
After a long day, I reach BLM land and pitch a tent.
Finished audiobook The Secret of Father Brown, by G K Chesterton.