The climbing trip to the bootheel was a total wash. When I left Las Cruces that morning, it was raining and about 33°F. The rain only got worse as we drove west. The 23 mile dirt road approach to the trailhead was really not looking appealing. James and I met Ken at the point where we leave the pavement; Ken had flown in to Tucson in order to do this hike. His rental SUV was not up to the rapidly worsening task presented by the mudbog roads. It was as cold as it could possibly be and still rain, and the rain was getting harder. The forecast was the the weather to worsen throughout the day. We bailed. So I put about 1000 miles on the truck with basically nothing to show for it, but at least I didn't fly all the way from Seattle with nothing to do... I took a good picture of an incredibly snowy section of I-25 near Las Cruces.

Desert highway, beware of tumbleweed.

In other news, Final Fantasy XII has consumed my life. I know that, by putting it on my Amazon wish list, I asked for this, but... damn. I might as well have asked for and received a 20kg brick of crack cocaine because it would have been about as addictive. I suppose, when you look at it this way, my sister made the financially sound decision; FFXII is considerably cheaper than a 20kg brick of crack, and you can get free shipping. Plus, it improves one's hand-eye coordination, or so I hear. Thanks, Jen.