On the morning of Saturday October 3, 2009, I left the house at 4:45 AM with my 29-year-old son Garret to hike peaks in the Latir Wilderness area in northern New Mexico. We had plan A and plan B. We attempted to go into private land, the Rio Costilla Coop Livestock Association, and camp and hike for a fee, yet we were too late in the year. This opportunity is only available in the summer. We went for plan B which was to camp at Cabresto Lake NE of Questa, New Mexico. The final road into the lake is a 3 or 4-mile, 4-wheel drive road. We usually backpack, but this time we decided to do drive-in-camping. We brought a big tent and lots of big equipment. It felt funny after ultralight backpacking. We set up camp and hiked around the beautiful lake. Garret forgot his fishing equipment so he improvised with some string and hooks he found. He fished, got some bites, but did not catch anything. We had a little chipmunk visitor around camp. For dinner Garret cooked a roast and veggies, in a Dutch oven, over the coals, then a cherry cobbler dessert in the same Dutch Oven. Wow, it was excellent!
The morning of the October 4th we set out, thinking we would hike 4, at most, maybe 6 peaks. I had a 12-pound pack including 4 pounds of water, food and emergency gear. Our starting elevation was 9200 feet. The temperature was about 40 degrees. The aspen in the area were turning golden. The day before it was perfectly clear, as we hiked, we could see that the mountain peaks were covered with clouds. We left camp at 8:00 AM after having just coffee and followed the canyon that fed the lake. After a short distance we entered the Latir Peak Wilderness area. Several miles up, we turned onto Bull Creak trail and headed to the ridgeline. It was a fairly easy assent and we reached the ridgeline at about noon after hiking 4.6 miles. A month ago, all the high alpine grasses would have been green and loaded with alpine wildflowers, now being so late in the season, the grasses were golden. I took a beautiful picture of a blue bird with full wing spread. The clouds had now mostly cleared out. The first peak that we planned to hike was Venado peak. I decided to hike the ridgeline and do Peak 12,550. This is listed as an unmarked peak in the book “Mountains of New Mexico,” by Mike Butterfield. I then did another unlisted peak very close by. It was a 12,500’ small rock peak that you had to scramble to the top. I then headed towards Venado peak and arrived there at 1:45 after traveling 7 miles. The elevation of Venado peak was 12,734. The views were beautiful. We debated doing Virsylvia peak but decided to do that another time. We descended the mountain and headed towards Cabresto peak. It was a fairly easy hike and we arrived there at 3:20 after hiking 8.9 total miles. The elevation was 12,448. We took pictures, admired the views, make a few phone calls to loved ones. (The phones only work on the mountain tops.) I decided to hustle ahead of Garret and try to get in an extra peak. Garret’s knees were bothering him so he planned to do just one more. I headed towards Bull Creak peak. I was full of energy until it came to this peak. It was a real strain going down, then going up, then going down, then going up to catch Garret. I really felt it, burning legs and all. As I hiked up to Bull Creak Peak, I saw 4 big horn sheep. I got some pictures of them. I arrived at Bull Creek at 4:20 after hiking 10 miles. The elevation was 12,170. By the time I caught up with Garret, at the top of Peak 12,456, Cabresto Sur Este, it was 5:10 and I had hiked 11 miles. We had scouted a “short cut” back to the lake. We planned to follow the ridgeline, mostly due south, to the lake. Our GPS said that it was 1.7 miles as the crow flies. The plan was to follow this ridgeline to the lake and our camp. It was a very rocky jagged ridgeline. It was not dangerous but difficult to cross. We had to maneuver along loose rocks and a difficult ridge. When we made it back to the tree line it was no less easy, with logs to cross and twisting in and out of the woods as it was getting progressively darker. We saw what looked like a possible bear hibernating cave but we sure didn’t want to go in to check it out. We knew that we were going to get caught coming back to camp in the dark. With all the logs and twisting and turning in the twilight it was very hard on Garret’s knees. Towards the end of our hike, as the almost full moon was coming up, we pulled out our flashlights and made it the rest of the way to camp. Part of my emergency gear were little flashlights. When we left in the morning, we had no idea we would be coming back in the dark. The older I get the more my old Boy Scout motto means to me, “Be Prepared.” It would have been extremely difficult if we did not have the flashlights and this was the first time we were caught in the dark. We had hiked about 12 miles in 11 hours and 45 minutes. Our total up-down elevation gain was over a mile, 5783 feet. I was tired, but had to hike down to the lake to pump water. When I returned Garret had a campfire going. We got the coals red hot and cooked T-bone steaks. The next morning, we packed up early, had sausage and eggs, and left camp at 8:30 AM for a 3-and-a-half-hour drive home.

YouTube video hiking peaks: Venado, Peak 12,550, Cabresto, Bull Creek, and Cabresto Sur Este. At the end a 360° view of peaks in the area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdGSVX6OofA

See pictures of highest peaks in New Mexico: 1 of 62 of highest 184 NM peaks. Part 1 YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjCsjbhYMw
See pictures of highest peaks in New Mexico: 63 of 124 of highest 184 NM peaks. Part 2 YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrFMjoB9zNY

List of highest 184 peaks in New Mexico (Now 190) A very inclusive list!
https://peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=-925606&cid=1477