July 16th we were called to assist in searching for an overdue long distance trail runner who went for a run attempting to run around the lake. Once again we are leaving town at zero dark thirty. Our mission was to search the shore line from where a previous team left off. The terrain varied from softball size to bowling ball size rocks, knee deep mud and brush. Decidedly terrain a runner would avoid. At one point we came across an old road that we decided a runner would be more likely to follow. With Incident Base permission we split into two teams with one team following the path for as long it lasted and the rest of the team continuing along the shore line. The road eventually led us back to the other half of our team and we continued our mission as one team. After hiking all night and with morning approaching and tired after a handful of miles covered in rough terrain we decided to head back to Incident Base. We called for a ride and headed to the highway. Just as we arrived at the highway and met up with our ride we heard over the radio the runner had been found. More precisely, his wife finally managed to raise him on his mobile device and get his location. Turns out he was about 7 miles away as the crow flies from where we were searching. He had gotten himself to road 151 which is the road to Monastery of Christ in the Desert and was in good shape. Although our team didn’t find the subject it was a lovely hike.
A side note on Abiquiu lake. The dam was completed in 1963 to provide flood control. In 1976 Albuquerque petitioned the Army Corp of Engineers to allow storing water and use it for recreation. In 1986 the dam was raised 13 feet. In 1990 a 13.5 Megawatt hydroelectric plant was added and upgraded to 16.5 Megawatts in the 2009 to 2011 time frame. The power from the hydro plant provides Los Alamos County with a portion of its electricity. I can’t find any history on it on the Internet but clearly the original highway through the area was submerged when the lake formed. We came across a section of the old highway pictured here. Historically low levels at the lake have revealed long submerged sites.