Trail Rider – Cedar Crest, New Mexico
During the prehistoric and dark ages when I went to school, we were taught a song called “The Bear Went Over The Mountain.” When that wandering ursus got to the other side of the mountain, all he could see was the other side of the mountain. Ostensibly, this song recalls a bear’s fruitless journey to see what lies beyond. It symbolizes the endless nature of life’s constant undertakings, the continuous, sometimes futile, effort in life to find something beyond the current experience. Now, that’s the allegorical meaning of the song. In literal terms, a bear (or anyone of us) going over the Sandia Mountains won’t see the same sights or have the same experiences we have in the Albuquerque side of the mountain. I joked with Joe, the extraordinary baker at Trail Rider, that most of the people who live on the morning side of the mountain (eastern slope) are old hippies. “Except for us,” he clarified, noting my recent Opie Taylor haircut and his own closely shorn coiffure. Having grown up within easy walking distance of “The Hog Farm,” a hippie commune in Llano, New Mexico, I know a lot of old hippies. It’s always amused me how many…