Hiking: Going green to the Sandia Foothills

I live a short walk from the Rio Grande, so I'm close to the Paseo del Bosque trail and a network of flatland valley trails called acequias in Albuquerque's North Valley. But the mountains are more my thing. Fortunately, the Sandia Mountains lie just about 10 miles due east, but there's a long and steady elevation gain of approximately 1,000 feet between the river and the mountains, so the best way for me to get there is by some sort of motorized transport - at least until I've built up enough stamina and lung capacity to bike to that altitude.

That-a-way to the Eye!

Since I'm trying to live more green these days, unless I can carpool I'd rather not drive to my hikes, so I'll likely be relying on the decent Albuquerque bus system whenever I want to hit the trails. ABQ Ride's services are limited on Saturdays, though, and they're severely limited if not non-existent to many areas on Sundays. So as I set out on my first trip to the foothills by bus today, I'll need to plan accordingly.

The most convenient access to the foothills is at Copper Avenue, between Central and Lomas just east of Tramway Boulevard. The Copper trail head is served by the frequent-running 11 bus and has direct access to the Albuquerque Open Space Foothills Trail System, which in turn has access to many U.S. Forest Service trails that lead into the Sandia Wilderness.

A few other buses make it up to different points along Tramway as well, but the benefit of Copper is that it has a great network of mountain bike trails, too, and my favorite hike so far - to Eye of the Sandias - is accessible there.

Eye of the Sandias

Today will be my third trip to Eye of the Sandias. This unofficial "user" trail that starts in Albuquerque Open Space and ends in Sandia Wilderness, and it is mysteriously maintained by an entity other than the forest service or the City of Albuquerque. Adding to the mystery is the painted eye, full of tears and glimmering with the Zuni symbol for direction and the sun. No one knows who painted it there more than 40 years ago, but urban legend has it that it's a symbol of sadness for the encroachment of city development onto the mountain.

The moderate to difficult Eye of the Sandias trail is a four-mile out-and-back inverted lollipop loop, which takes about 3 hours of steady hiking to complete, and it will take me about an hour and a half to reach the trail head.

I have the option of two buses in my North Valley neighborhood that will connect me to the 11 bus farther up in the Heights. I can take the 36 bus from Griegos and Rio Grande to connect with the 11 at the Alvarado Transportation Center downtown, or take the more frequent 157 bus from Montaño and Rio Grande to connect with the 11 at Lomas and Louisiana. Today I'll take the 157.

Certainly public transit is a bit more complicated than just hopping in a car and driving to the trail head, but it's a worthwhile challenge. The benefits of hiking for me are just too great to be sacrificed for the sake of convenience, and at the end of the day, reducing my carbon footprint makes me feel all that much better!