I'm going to have to listen to this one a few times! I loved hearing about your hardest and most logistically hardest hikes. There are a few peaks that I want to bag for the sake of lists, but don't have the gumption to do them because I know they will be miserable. In particular I'm thinking about Caballo Mountain near Los Alamos and Mount Phillips (I'd be accessing from the north). Sierra Mosca and 11,281' are especially scary. I have been hoping to do Lake Fork, Vallecito, 12,429, and South Fork as one long thru hike from Taos Ski Valley, and that looks like it shaves off quite a bit of net elevation gain and even distance.
I have been looking at doing 12,014', which looks like it is about a half mile into Taos Pueblo land, and last time I was at Old Mike Peak in 2020 there were no legible signs about trespassing. Per New Mexico law, private property must be posted (I think every 200 yards). I have read your trip report many times, and that ranger had no right to shoot in your direction. He was lucky you didn't press charges. Anyway, like you said, all those peaks are on the boundary of USFS and Taos Pueblo, so he did not even have the right to tell you not to hike those peaks.
I'm going to have to listen to this one a few times! I loved hearing about your hardest and most logistically hardest hikes. There are a few peaks that I want to bag for the sake of lists, but don't have the gumption to do them because I know they will be miserable. In particular I'm thinking about Caballo Mountain near Los Alamos and Mount Phillips (I'd be accessing from the north). Sierra Mosca and 11,281' are especially scary. I have been hoping to do Lake Fork, Vallecito, 12,429, and South Fork as one long thru hike from Taos Ski Valley, and that looks like it shaves off quite a bit of net elevation gain and even distance.
I have been looking at doing 12,014', which looks like it is about a half mile into Taos Pueblo land, and last time I was at Old Mike Peak in 2020 there were no legible signs about trespassing. Per New Mexico law, private property must be posted (I think every 200 yards). I have read your trip report many times, and that ranger had no right to shoot in your direction. He was lucky you didn't press charges. Anyway, like you said, all those peaks are on the boundary of USFS and Taos Pueblo, so he did not even have the right to tell you not to hike those peaks.