Semi-urban hike

This is a semi-urban hike, NM style. It's on the edge of the Pecos
valley and there is a lot of empty country out there, bUt still it is very close to the Santa Fe city limits. My friend and I started out from the Santa Fe ski basin at about 9AM on Saturday April 8. Our plan was to do the Ski BAsin-Lake Peak-Penitente-Puerto Nambe-Ski Basin loop, possibly summiting Baldy. I've lost track of the number of times I've climbed Lake Peak by Raven's Ridge trail so we decided to go up under the new "millenium" ski lift on the Santa Fe ski hill. We were at the bottom of the new lift at 9:15AM. The best foot trail quickly veered left (north?) of the lift. There were places where the snow was deep enough that you'd notice it, several feet. The trail was far enough away from the lift that it was almost possible to harbor the illusion that we were in the wild rather than on an urban ski hill. We'd left our snow shoes in the car. We had crampons but didn't use them. It took an hour to climb the 1,500 feet to the top of the lift which is a few hundred feet below the summit of Lake Peak. We went on up to the ridge and scrambled across to the summit. As usual the summit was cold and windy. I put the legs back on my convertible pants/shorts and put my gators on. From the summit we followed the connecting ridge over to Penitente in knee deep snow. By 12:30 we had summited Penitente and were down on the northern slope eating lunch. At about 12:50, we set out for Puerto Nambe and immediately lost the trail to snow. We studied the map a bit and decided to head straight down hill in the thigh deep snow until we got to the bottom of the steep part. Anyway, we eventually noticed that we were on the trail again because of the sawed logs where we were walking. There were no tracks. I don't think anyone had done the Lake Peak-Penitente-Puerto Nambe route since the last snowfall. We arrived at Puerto Nambe at about 2:15 PM. We discussed whether we'd like to spend the next 3 hours summiting Baldy or in a hot tub at 10,000 waves. The tub won. I couldn't get phone reception (Verizon) there in Puerto Nambe although I had done so other times. As we headed down I continually tried to call 10K waves finally getting through at around 2:40 PM. They told me that they didn't have any private tubs available. By then it was too late to turn around and summit Baldy. We got to the car at 3:45 or 4. The 4.25 mile trail from Puerto Nambe to the parking lot was icy but had no deep snow. Stopping for a soak at 10,000 waves is a nice way to end a hike on this route. THere are public tubs that cost $15 for unlimited time. We wanted a private one but those were all taken. This presents a bit of a conundrum if you want to hike these peaks and end the day in a private tub at 10K wavZ. You can't be sure how long it will take so reservations are a bit dicey. I think the best thing to do is make a reservation the day before and call from the trail to cancel if need be. If you're thinking of doing this, you should confirm their cancellation policy. Cell connection is spotty along the trails but it is there.

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