Our tulips have been up for a while, and the willows are leafing out. We expect our first trip to take place on 4/19, but we’re awful glad that we’re not rafting today, because it’s in the fifties and the wind is howling. Spring is always windy in New Mexico, and this Spring it has really been blowing, with gusts up to 50 mph over the last few days. Of course, the wind always blows upstream, which makes getting a raft downstream particularly troublesome. That’s why we always wait until the last half of April to open. Otherwise, the irrigators in Colorado are already beginning to divert water out of the Rio Grande, so the river is now low and will remain so until the melt starts up in the headwaters. This year our snowpack is at 80% of average, which will shorten our Taos Box season. Our other trips (Rio Grande Gorge, Racecourse, Float) will, as always, run all summer. Hope to see you soon!

Our tulips have been up for a week or so.

NWR owner Kathy Miller got the Holiday spirit and decorated the NWR headquarters like never before. Here’s wishing you all peace and goodwill.

Season's Greeting!

We have added a handsome deck to our visitor reception area and put up a new sign that makes it much easier to spot us from Hwy 68. The deck was mostly built by guide Ben Rainchild, with help from Operations Manager Britt Huggins and guide Jesse Mogler. The sign was done by Creative Edge, in Taos.

Our new deck and "Open" sign.

We've planted a grape and clematis vine that we'll train up to the trellises

Here's a view of our headquarters

Our new sign, more visible to drivers passing by on Hwy 68. We're at Mile 21.

New Wave Rafting Co. enjoys an enviable riverside location. Our picnic area is shaded by colossal cottonwood trees, and bordered by willows. Songbirds serenade us from the branches above, while the mighty Rio Grande rolls on by. You couldn’t ask for a nicer spot to eat a hearty chuckwagon lunch, which included barbecued steak, baked potatoes, cole slaw, beans, biscuits, and peach cobbler. The cobbler and other items were cooked in dutch ovens, over charcoal. The lunch was catered by Hawkins Chuckwagon, of Santa Fe, and was part of an outing arranged by our partners, Santa Fe Mountain Adventures. After lunch, the 28 guests floated through the Orilla Verde Recreation Area with New Wave. The weather was perfect, of course.

Carl Hawkins converses with guests

Peach cobbler baked in a dutch oven

Carl Hawkins, biscuit in hand, and his chuckwagon lunch

Yellow warbler, photographed at the New Wave Rafting Co. headquarters, on the Rio Grande river, near Taos, New Mexico

Flocks of songbirds are migrating up the Rio Grande corridor in numbers we’ve never seen before. We have yellow warblers, yellow-rumped (Audubon’s) warblers and Western Tanagers around right now. It’s a birders’ delight!

We at New Wave want to do what we can to mitigate the impact of our activities on the environment that we hold so dear. Living, as we do, right on the Rio Grande makes us that much more motivated to preserve this gorgeous place. We’ve been recycling our cans and bottles for sometime now, and this year our Operations Manager, Britt Huggins, built a composting outhouse for the use of the staff that lives here. The composting process turns out what is called  “Humanure”. The Humanure outhouse is a whole lot nicer than a portable toilet! We have also installed drip irrigation for our orchard and other trees, and will devote an additional post to that.

New Wave Rafting Co. President, Kathy Miller, on her way to the recycling center with a load of bottles and cans

Front view of the Humanure privy

Back view, with hatch for the removal of the compost

Side view, with our warehouse beyond

The Rules

Interior view

The Book

Kathy Miller, President of New Wave Rafting Co., on her trusty Kubota mini-tractor, looking after her peach trees. Last year we had a bumper crop of peaches, and wouldn’t we like to see the same again. Boy, were they ever juicy and tasty.

Kathy Miller, on her Kubota

Just a short drive from Taos, ten minutes from New Wave Rafting World Headquarters and about an hour from Santa Fe lies a very nice hike, a visit to the world of mines, a step back in time and a look at some brilliantly colored rock, The Harding Pegmatite Mine. Myself, not being a geologist, will not attempt to describe the mineralogy of the site. I’m leaving that up to those with interest enough to search out information from the link at the end of this post.

The view east, Jicarita Peak at 12,835 feet, in the distance, and the road to the mine, in the foreground.

After about a mile of "winter" four wheel drive we were greeted with this sign. We could have parked in the pull-off on Highway 75 and then hiked the Pinon/Juniper Forest to the site.

It is important that if you plan to visit this historic site you must first acquire permission and sign a release from the University of New Mexico, but all of this can easily be done on line.

CJ checks out the abandoned site. (There are photographs on the web showing this as a very busy place in days gone by.)

Know that you assume all responsibility for your progress into the mine.

The first of several entrances.

The beauty of the minerals can only be fully appreciated upon close inspection.

Entrance into the mine, according to the web site, is not allowed.

The Pegmatite colors.

The snow covered mine tailings of days gone by. Golden colors of a Scrub Oak.

The view/hike west from the site takes one to the Embudo River (in the far distance).

Artifacts from the miner days can be found in the surrounding landscape.

For more information on The Harding Mine visit: http://epswww.unm.edu/harding/harding_.htm

Roasted chile

It was mentioned in an earlier post that our friend Martha and friends were visiting, for the purpose of obtaining and processing New Mexico chile for her Mexican restaurant in Haines, Alaska. Peeling chile is a very labor-intensive activity, and it testifies to how well-regarded Martha is, that she has so many folks willing to help.They hope to finish up today (before it snows).

Deena dumps a pile of chile on the table. The peeling crew consists of, clockwise from the left: Jesse, Zahava, Martha and Sara

Many more family and friends (than seen here) attended, including Martha’s 94-year old father-in-law. Martha and company produced some wonderful riverside cuisine, and we all enjoyed sitting around the fire in the evening. It was quite a shindig, and we are already looking forward to next October.