Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Hello there, and thanks so much for joining us here! You are probably wondering what this podcast is all about? In this podcast, we will talk about all sorts of outdoor adventures, but primarily, for now, we will focus on hiking and backpacking. No other outdoor adventure is so accessible to so many people! So please join us as we talk about how to hike/backpack and learn how to hike any length trail from your local neighborhood parks to those long trails such as the Appalachian and others worldwide! Remember... "in every walk with nature; one receives far more than he seeks... - John Muir " See you on the trail!
Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Surviving and Thriving in New Mexico's Alien Landscape
Ever wondered what it's like to hike through a landscape that seems plucked straight from a science fiction novel? Join me, Craig, the Natural Medic, as I recount my thrilling adventure through the surreal Bisti Badlands of San Juan County, New Mexico. In this episode, I navigate bizarre rock formations like hoodoos and discover fascinating sites such as the "egg hatchery" and the "rock garden." Despite the obstacles of unmarked trails, a minor injury, and the scorching midday sun, I share invaluable tips for future explorers on how to safely and fully enjoy this breathtaking wilderness by starting early in the morning.
In the second part of the episode, I'm joined by my friends David and another companion for an unforgettable trip, filled with laughter and camaraderie. Reflecting on our journey, I discuss the lessons learned, like the importance of carrying sufficient water and getting an early start. I also invite listeners who have ventured to this unique location to share their own stories and insights. Don't miss out on the opportunity to enjoy the natural wonders of the San Juan Wilderness with us, and be sure to like, subscribe, and stay tuned for more exciting adventures on the trail!
Hey, what's up? It's Craig the Natural Medic and I'm out here in San Juan County, new Mexico, on BLM land outside of Farmington, new Mexico, so let's go check it out. Okay, so I've walked out about almost a mile. I'm out here in the Badlands part. Let's take a look around. Look at this right here, the backside of a hoodoo, four hoodoos Otherworldly landscape for sure. Way back behind me maybe you could see a little white tent that's like the pavilion at the parking area. But let's just spin around here. Take a look at everything. So crazy looking, so crazy looking. Not much vegetation and not much to block the wind, so it's pretty windy out here. Yeah, so I'm about a mile in to the from the main gate into the wilderness here. Let's take a look, see what we can see. Wow, lots of weird, otherworldly looking terrain. For sure, lots of hoodoos and road banks and that kind of stuff. Isn't that cool. I would say, yes, it's totally cool.
Speaker 1:Hey, don't forget to give this video a thumbs up if you're liking the content so far. Helps me get it out to YouTube so other people can see it. Thanks, yeah, and remember what I said about no designated trails. Yeah, that's accurate. That is accurate If you want to look here, you just have to figure out the point of least resistance, not total least resistance, because you don't want to fall.
Speaker 1:There's many places that you could go down into. These little canyons and stuff Like this one to me looks pretty good to walk out of if I go down here. So let me try to go down here and I'll see you in a minute. And I know I use a lot of pop culture references in my videos, but this muddy-looking crust on top of all the formations reminds me of that Groot skin on Guardians of the Galaxy. I know he's wood, but it looks like that. So if you look closer over here, yeah, it's bumpy, barky, looking. Look at these cool hoodoos. It's a whole bunch of hoodoos right here just doing the hoodoo thing here, just doing the hoodoo thing. I'm gonna walk over this way. There's several formations that are named over that way, so go check those out. Very cool, I did not go down the way that I intended, but I did get down and it didn't bust my butt. Yeah, I think there's many things you could interpret from all these different shapes out here in the Badlands, but I think this one is really unique. If you look at it, it looks to me like maybe a baby bird escaping from the egg, maybe a gargoyle, maybe a gargoyle, maybe a gargoyle, maybe. What do you think it looks like? I definitely apologize for the wind, but if you look over here, there's some really cool formations straight over this red topped hill. Here they call it the egg hatchery. So we're gonna head there.
Speaker 1:Next the beginning of the trail, or over there, way over there, where you see that white top, if you can see that at all. That's where the trail started. One thing I do want to point out is the tread of the ground. You can see me walking here. This stuff is pretty, pretty soft in places and a little slippery. So if you're out here, watch your step and make sure that you know that this stuff could give away at any time. That is all came to the end of that little crevice or crevasse, or whatever you want to call it, between those hills, and I fell because I I have a little blood right there. I'm going to continue this way and see if I can get to that egg garden. Okay, I just came from straight in front of me over here and I can get down here and I need to figure out a way to do that easily. Yeah, that could be interesting. We'll see. We'll see.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think I've overstayed my welcome today. This was just supposed to be an exploratory trip to the wilderness and I've definitely enjoyed it, but I did hurt myself. I'm a little hungry. I'm a little thirsty. I do have more water to drink. I'm going to drink after I finish filming this and then I'm going to go back to the house and I can come back another day. It's only 45 minutes from Farmington. I do have more water to drink. I'm going to drink after I finish filming this and then I'm going to go back to the house and I can come back another day. It's only 45 minutes from Farmington.
Speaker 1:If you do come out, make sure that you use good sense for your navigation, use some kind of hard point to navigate. Printed map would be good. You could download the all trails map, but the trail really is not marked. It really doesn't help you that much. But I want to show you this. You can see this behind me there's a bunch of egg-shaped rock formations these this is called the egg hatchery, and you can see clearly now how tall that little bluff there was that I was on. But this is the egg hatchery. There's all, all kinds of eggs, egg looking rocks here. How cool is that. But I'm tired, I'm thirsty, I'm going to walk back to the truck and we'll explore this another day.
Speaker 1:Good idea to come out here would be to come out at sunup and see some beautiful sunrise, instead of being out here in the middle of the day when it's the hottest. Another cool feature right here is called the rock garden, obviously because of all the rocks, duh. But that's, I think, three of the named features I've showed you on this visit to the wilderness. Pretty cool on this. On this visit to the wilderness, pretty cool. So we're going to keep walking this way towards the cell phone antenna, whatever kind of antenna that is to get out of here.
Speaker 1:Anyway, if you're coming out to a remote area like this, doesn't matter if it's a badlands, a forest, what, whatever it is a national park. If you're out in the backcountry of a national park or wherever you are, we need to have certain things in place to make sure you're being safe. If you're coming out to a wild place like this, I'm 45 minutes to an hour from town, like from any town. There's a couple of things in between here in Farmington, but just not a lot. But if you're going to come out here to a place like this, make sure you tell somebody where you're going number one. Number two make sure that you have adequate supplies. I brought two liters of water out here. I've been wandering around for almost three hours and it may not be enough. I've got about a half liter left. Luckily I'm not that far from going back to the truck, but that's good.
Speaker 1:I did fall down and hit my wrist. I have a first aid kit. Matter of fact, I have two of them. I have a little compact one that I got for a dollar and whatever it is nowadays a dollar tree. It's got some band aids and some swabs. I usually use that one, so I don't break into my other one. But I haven't cleaned that wound yet. It's only a small little wound, it just bled a lot. I guess this is the way I fell on my wrist. It cut it just right and it bled a little bit. Anyway, not back to the truck yet. Give you a finalized summary of things once I get back to the truck. But overall it's pretty cool out here.
Speaker 1:Just if you come out to a place like this or any place that you're not very familiar with. Make sure you have your ten essentials. I've gone over those in a previous video. I'll link it below so you can review it. And actually you can hear the wind over there too. Off my right shoulder is the boundary for the wilderness area, so there's a fence there, so I was a little bit too far north to come back on the trail. It's a good thing. I looked at my all trails but what I was going to say, you're a long way from help out here. Some of the guys and gals that I know that work the ambulance in San Juan County good folks but most of them are stationed quite a ways north of here. It's going to be a while before you get some response and even if they send a helicopter, it's still going to be 15 while before you get some response. And even if they send a helicopter, it's still going to be 15-20 minutes probably before they get here.
Speaker 1:So good idea to have a garmin device. We talked about that before in videos. It's. It's very useful or something similar. Doesn't really matter exactly if you have that one, but something similar. Doesn't really matter exactly if you have that one, but something similar in case you run into some issues, because it's definitely possible and if you're like me and you're by yourself a lot, you need one Save your pennies for some type of satellite beacon communicator, rescue device or combination thereof. I'm testing a new one here pretty soon. Stay tuned for that one.
Speaker 1:Okay, I safely made it back to the parking lot. I know you were probably worried. I haven't cleaned up my arm yet, but I feel good. There was some Chinese Americans and some Chinese people that were at the beginning of the trail and they were like, how far did you go? And I said, oh, about five miles. And they said, how long did you take? I said it took about three and a half hours, and they said, oh, my gosh, let's take a picture with American Hero.
Speaker 1:So funny, such nice people, though. So if you're watching this, guys David and I didn't get the other guy's name, hi. Anyway, overall, not a bad trip. Probably should have started about three hours earlier and taken probably another couple liters of water just to be safe, but if you've ever been here before, I'd love to know that. If you like this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up. Think about subscribing to the channel if you want to see more content like this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up. Think about subscribing to the channel if you want to see more content like this. Until next time, I will see you on the trail. Bye-bye.
