Friday, May 23rd

Today is a day that I don't think I will forget for a long time. We got up this morning to discover that it had rained/snowed all night. It was cold with some snow on the ground. John and I both thought the weather would get better, so we decided to walk today. Ruth took us out to marker 62 and off we went. Before too long it started snowing. The wind wasn't blowing, so we thought it would be OK. Then it started snowing, big time. They were the big, wet type of snowflakes and before too long, the ground was covered. On we walked in thr snow and saw a herd of seven elk cross the highway ahead of us. It was getting worse and we were hoping that Ruth or Carol would come and rescue us. They didn't come and on we walked. We are in the Datil Mountains in the Cibola National Forest. We entered a little valley and saw what we thought was a deer on the right side of the highway. Later it turned out to be an elk. The elk just stayed ahead of us and was trying to get over a fence, but for some reason couldn't make it to the other side. Instead it continued just off the highway and just ahead of us. Then it came to an opening in the fence that had a cattle guard. The elk started across the cattle guard and as we watched, fell with three legs struck in the cattle guard. I thought it had broken a leg. The elk was lying on its side and John and I cautiously approached it. It couldn't move as three of its long legs were hopelessly stuck. In the meantime, Ruth had arrived to check on us. We told her to wait at the next marker which was just a few hundred yards down the highway. After the fell, I montioned for Ruth to join us as I thought there might be some rope in the car to rescue the elk. As I was signaling her to join us, a local rancher stopped. We told him that we were trying to get the "deer" out of the cattle guard. The first thing he said was, "that's an elk". The other things he said can't be repeated as he was a foul talking rancher. He looked the situation over and went back to his truck and put his gloves on. Then he grabbed the elk by the neck and I was able to free one of the legs. The rancher was still holding the elk by the neck, which at this time was struggling to get free and in about ten seconds of effort, it did get free. It walked away about ten feet and just looked at us. I think it was in shock. My hands were so cold by then, I didn't even think about taking a photo. We thanked the rancher and started back to town with Ruth. Ruth said she would have been there sooner, but got behind two snowplows. She told us that there was a lot of snow back in Pie Town, probably three or four inches. We got back and went to work in the snow, disconnecting utilities and hooking up tow cars. John had to climb on the roof of his 5th wheel and sweep the snow away before he could retract his slideouts. Finally hooked up, we were off to the Western RV Park in Magdalena. When we came to the place on the highway where the elk had fallen, we discovered that the elk was still there. We were taking photos, when John and Ruth's son, Ricky, along with his wife, Katie, and sons, Jack and Sam, pulled over onto the shoulder. They live in Las Vegas and were joining us for the weekend. We all piled back into our RVs and cars and headed for Magdalena. Ricky said he was going on to Socorro to buy some warmer clothing, but what he really did was drive to Las Cruces, New Mexico to pick up his sister and John and Ruth's daughter, Jonna, and her kids. It was a very pleasant surprise mini-reunion for John and Ruth. We walked 8 miles in the snow today. Stay tuned ...