I look at the Manzano Mountain Range everyday including the peak called Manzano Mountain, elevation 7,610. I am not interested in lower elevation mountains, but needed some elevation gain for the year and thought it would be nice to climb a peak that I see all the time. I have driven 10 hours round trip to hike a New Mexico peak. It was so nice to be at the parking area in less than 10 minutes. I took a personal day off work to hike this peak. I drove 2 ½ miles south of the village of Tijeras, on highway 337, parking west of the road at Tunnel Canyon Trailhead. I started hiking at almost 8:00 AM on a cool November 29, 2018 morning. My starting elevation was 6580 feet. The hike was a forested hike with mostly pinion pine, cedar and juniper. This is a high desert hike so there were a number of cactus along the way. There are 2 trails at the start, the second is called Birdhouse Ridge Trail. It does not show up on any map that I have seen. Tunnel Canyon Trail is a very nice trail to hike. I hiked a mile up the trail then headed straight up, bushwhacking towards the western ridge. To my surprise a short way up the hill I intersected Birdhouse Ridge Trail. This would have been the best trail to take, but it makes for a nice hike taking both trails. The quickest way would have been to continue straight up the ridge, but I was curious where this trail led, so I followed it south. When the trail began to hook to the east, I left the trail and headed up to the top of the southern ridge. I followed the ridge west, then north, then west again to the peak. The map shows the entire hike within the national forest but I believe I crossed onto the far southern land that is owned by a cement plant. The peak is not on the cement plant property. I would have had to go much further to the south to avoid this. The cement plant uses the fossil rich limestone, that I saw so much of along the hike, to make cement. The entire hike is somewhat difficult because of the low-to-the-ground forest. I was constantly being “grabbed” by low branches and poked by a few yucca plants, yet it was not too much. I was able to follow a few remnants of old roads. I arrived at the top after hiking 3 hours and 15 minutes and hiking 5.2 miles. The elevation gain to the peak was 1800 feet. The top, and also the entire ridge, is tree covered but I was able to adjust myself to see wonderful views. There were nice views of Albuquerque to the east, the Sandia Mountains to the north, and other distant mountains in each direction. I followed the ridge back to the east to a parallel peak bump, then bushwhacked straight down the mountain connecting with Birdhouse Ridge Trail. I followed this trail back to my SUV. I hiked 9 total miles and it took about 6 hours of nonstop hiking. The total up-down elevation gain was 2347 feet.

That finishes my hiking for the year, 20 peaks, 114 tough peakbagging miles and 29,557 elevation gain. I am really only interested in 11 more peaks. I have 165 of the highest 176 ranked and unranked peaks in New Mexico. The top 102 peaks with all the minors in-between. We’ll see what next year brings. (See the list ……. http://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=-925606&cid=1477 )