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Beautiful dirt

   Good to see some dirt again. Even if that dirt is wet, which means that we'll call it mud for a while.

   It's been a long winter, but the snow is melting and the trails are clearing.

   Now we begin the step-ladder climb to higher altitudes, beginning on lowland trails and working our way up to the big peaks.

   A trip last weekend to the Utah desert, which included a hike through a snowstorm, revealed that some trails are ready to roll. Best to check with the BLM or national parks offices before you go to a specific location. Here's a quick list of Southeastern Utah offices. Visit http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/info/directory.html for more:

   Moab Field Office, (435) 259-2100.

   Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Kanab, (435) 644-4300.

   Monticello Field Office, (435) 587-1500.

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Still trailing

(even in dead of winter)

OK, I'm starting to get into the swing of this winter thing.

All those trails that I thought were dead to me until at least late spring? Maybe not.

I've rediscovered snowshoes ? those large flat fence-like things you can strap on the bottoms of your feet. With them, it's possible to hike up really steep places. So as long as you can reach the trailhead, you're pretty much good to go.

Keep in mind the avalanche danger, of course. Traversing steep slopes could be a bad idea. And keep in mind that you might get lost. A co-worker uses a GPS device to plot several waypoints along what is supposed to be the trail, and that's a good plan. Sometimes you can follow tree blazes. And sometimes you don't care where the trail is - you just want to get out and explore.

In any case, it's mid-January and I'm back on the trails. Feels good.

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Yeti alert

   So sad.

   The trails are hidden by snow.

   But enough mourning. Call off the waahmbulance. It's time to get out the skis or snowshoes or whatever and use the trails anyway.

   Here in Durango, we're blessed with cross country skiing trails at the golf course. It's close, and best of all, it's free.

   In other locales, surely you can find closed off forest roads or trails to go enjoy the winter.

   Yes, yes, it's cold. But really, once you get out there and get going, it's not that bad. And it's a great time of year to check out animal tracks. Just don't get lost. And watch out for yetis. (Hint: Those are the really large, human-shaped tracks.)

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Moonshadows

   Believe me, doing a moonlight mountain bike ride on Dec. 1 was not on my day planner a few weeks ago.

   But there's no snow around, the trails are dry except in the shadiest and coldest of spots, and we're always looking for adventure, right?

   Four of us gathered on the outskirts of Durango at about 6:30 p.m., just as the moon was cresting the hillside, and headed up Horse Gulch. We used mounted lights for about a quarter-mile, then turned them off and went au naturel. Don't get any ideas ? I'm referring to natural lighting, of course. You'd have to be fully lubed and crazy to not layer on the clothing.

   Moonlight plays tricks on the trail. Tree shadows make ruts appear where there are none, hide rocks, obscure turns in the trail. Only one of us crashed. Not bad.

   The temperature was in the 30s, and only my toes got chilled.

   With snow hopefully on its way any day now, it may be a few moons before I/we do this again. But I'm guessing there will be a next time. Say April 26 (two days before full moon). There, I just marked it on my day planner.

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Aliens and creating ruts

   In the fall, and in the spring when we're really jonesing to get out on the trails, we run (or bike) into this seasonal problem: Mud.

   And the dilemma that faces us, particularly mountain bikers and those on horseback, is this: Do we ride on wet trails, knowing that we will leave deep grooves and tracks, and that we could alter or ruin drainage patterns?

   I ran into just this scenario earlier this month. Four of us drove from Durango to northeast of Aztec, N.M., to mountain bike on the 10-mile Alien Run loop ? so-called because aliens crash-landed there in 1948. Unfortunately all 16 were killed. That's what "they" say, anyway. But I digress. It had snowed in Durango a couple days before, and we thought it'd be dry in Aztec. But it wasn't quite.

   Do we go ahead and ride, knowing that we might damage muddy sections of trail and that our bikes will need a thorough post-ride cleaning? Seeing that we'd driven nearly an hour, the decision was unanimous. Yes, we would ride.

   I think, I hope, we made the right decision.