Jeff and Juliette were kind enough to let Chris Payton and I use their cabin for a second time in four years, so we jumped on the opportunity and drove up to Cowles this weekend, which is about 20 miles north of Pecos.

The home of two small fishing ponds, several trailheads, a guest ranch house compound up on the hill called Los Pinos, Chris and I turned west at the Cowles juntion and after unlocking the access gate, we took the private road along the string of cabins to our left until we found their cabin. At the cabin, we ate well, and we spent much of our time in the cabin wondering why we couldn’t get warm, trying to figure out why we weren’t warm, or trying to forget we couldn’t get warm, despite some pretty raging fires we stoked in the fireplace. We did get a nice hike in on Saturday, where Chris heard, and then pointed out, a band of a dozen or so elk passing us at one point on a path in the trees higher up our hillside. And we watched a handful of favorite Seinfeld episodes. And we slept well.

One of my favorite experiences from the trip was a chance visit with a stranger passing through.

On Saturday morning, my need to empty my bladder came early, and so a little after the sun rose, I found myself out in front of the cabin, and seeing pinks in the sky, I decided to take my camera and walk down the road to see if I could get some nice morning photos. The magical sunlight was soon gone, but my walk led me down to the Cowles turnoff from the state road, where the Pecos river ran by the road, the two ponds sat asleep covered with ice, and the Parks service had a trail access point.

While toodling by the river after checking out the ponds, I heard a vehicle nearing the junction, and soon a white Toyota pickup emerged from behind trees and then made a U-turn at the intersection and pulled off the road and parked. The unique camper shell caught my eye, so while the driver quickly looked at the two ponds, I walked toward his truck to check it out.

In a short time, he returned to the vehicle, and I asked him about the unique camper. We ended up talking together for probably 45 minutes.

His name was Scott, and he does forestry work here and there. It’s not the only thing he does, because he works with his hands, and does all kinds of creative work. When he is in the field though, he told me he could live out of his truck for several weeks to a month. He had built the insulated and thermal-friendly camper out of recycled materials. He is not unfamiliar with building things from recycled and collected materials. A resident of the Taos area, Scott also built a nice mountain cabin up on a piece of land he owns, largely using wood and stone from his property. And like his cabin project which leans heavily on renewable energy and resources, Scott similarly created his camper.

He opened it up and let me look inside, to see how he designed it for functionality. His living space sits on top of storage and kitchen supply compartments accessed at the rear of the bed. In the back of the shell on the driver’s side is a stove which he uses for warmth and cooking. He says in winter stays, he’s see the inside of the shell go from 20 below to 80 degree in just 5 minutes. The added heighth of his camper gives him vertical space to move around within it; the rising front part over the truck cab is storage; the skylights provide natural light and can be opened for venting; and he has wired the camper to draw electrical power from batteries he replenishes daily with solar power, when necessary.

I enjoyed the chance meeting with Scott. He asked what I did, and I explained my web development job, and he told me he would be lost in that world. I told him I would be lost in his, but we then did talk some about New Mexico and it’s history and the land, it’s beauty, and enjoying the wealth of stuff there is in the state to see and do outdoors, and a little more about his neat camper.

He gave me his info and told me to look him up if I was ever up in his area. He also makes birdhouses, he says, when other work is slow. Sells ’em for $50 a pop, and people are always wanting them. He told me his not online at all, though, so people come to discover his creations by chance. Seemingly also the way they come to discover him.

I told him I’d like to come up and see some of those birdhouses sometime here soon.

And I can pass on his phone number if you are interested in his birdhouses as well.

Soctt’s custom logo for the grill on his Toyota.