Near the Border to Chama

We got up early and were hiking by 6:15 to try and hike while the snow was hard and crusty. It worked for a bit and within a half hour we had found the other guys camp spot. They weren't far ahead and if we had kept going for a bit more last night we woulda joined them with water and a campfire. We all agreed we had made the right choice though since Memphis was visibly tired and beat up and needed to rest. He was much better off in the morning with pants and using a stick to help him on the snow. It would have been nice to have had that fire last night though.

We kept on hiking but by 8:30 the snow was no longer supporting us and we were back postholing. We had about 2.5 miles of snow before we got low enough that we got back to the mud/snow mix which was easier to hike on but made for cold feet.

After 3 miles we made it to the Colorado border. The Maine Man and I had a gentlemans bet going on whether there would be a sign saying we had reached the border. Since we both thought there would be no sign there was nothing put on the line. We were right of course. The only indication we were in a new state was the sign saying we were entering the Rio Grande Forest.

Colorado was much nicer to us then that last stretch of NM had been. There was still a few snow patches we had to hike through but they were all on the north faces of the mountain we were hiking down and were this slushy powder so we had a very easy time hiking down them. Our final stretch to the Cumbres pass where we'd hitch into Chama had a sweet ridge walk where we could see down the valley with the snow capped mountains of our future in the background. It took an hour or so to get a ride to Chama but we managed to talk some folks who had come up to the pass to see the train that runs over the pass, very cool old steam engine, to give all of us, there was 9 hikers at that point, a ride back down.

Rio San Anton to 3 miles short of border

Even though the Rio San Anton was smaller than most of the streams we had seen up here, there was no good place to cross. So for the second day in a row I had to start my day out with wading, this time ankle deep, through water with very cold wet socks and shoes.

The hike out of that valley made me quickly forget about that. Unlike yesterday this valley was basically unforested and we were up on a steep cliff so we could see the entire thing clearly. About halfway up the valley we heard a bunch of coyotes singing. Shortly after that Chimie and I saw a dog like shape go running by just barely 20 yards below us. There is some argument amongst us as to whether it was a coyote or a wolf. The Maine Man said that wolves run with their tails sticking straight out while coyote's always have their tail tucked in. The animal we saw defiantly had its tail sticking out so as far as I'm concerned I saw a wolf. When we got up on the ridge overlooking the valley we could see a coyote on the other side of the valley, there is no question it was a coyote as Sanjay was able to get a good picture of it. The coyote was fully exposed and moving at about the same pace as us so we were able to watch it for a while. Right when it disappeared into a forested area we saw 4 elks on the other side of the forest. So we watched them, while continuing to hike, for a bit waiting for the elk to notice the coyote. They eventually did and took off at a quick jog to the nearest tree line. About 200 yards after that we notice another group of 3 elk grazing in the bottom of the valley so the whole time we were walking the valley ledge we had wildlife to watch. These elk decided to run up the side of the valley we were on and Memphis and Dutch were able to get a really good view of them.

We were feeling good and went up over our first 11k+ mountain and through its snow field without much trouble by lunch time. We hit our goal for the day of 18 miles by 3pm and made a mistake there. The reason we had planned to stop there was the next stretch of trail was reportedly very snowy. So we had planned on stopping and hiking it early in the morning when the snow was more firm. We were all feeling good and hiking well and didn't really discuss it so we just kept going. Unfortunately that didn't last. The snow that late in the day was very mushy and we were postholing like crazy. Half the guys were walking around in shorts and quickly had their shins a bloody mess from the icy layer on the snow and hidden trees below. By 6:30 we had gotten over the peak but Memphis was completely worn out. He didn't have any snow gear it was showing how much difference the gaiters and trecking poles with snow baskets I had made. We had only covered 4 miles in the 3 hours of snow hiking, which really is pretty good for the conditions, and were now trying to find a dry place to setup camp for the night. Dutch and Chimie had taken the lead and had been out of sight for over 30 minutes when we kinda made Memphis call it a night. We had found a dry spot on a road with a few other spots near by. The Maine Man and I camped with him while Chilton and Sanjay went ahead to find the other guy. The only issue I had with that camp spot was I was down to .25 liters of water and had to melt snow for dinner.

Rio Vallecitos to Rio San Anton

I was last out of camp but we managed to get all 7 of us up and hiking by 7:15. First up for our day was the river crossing. It was flowing as well as expected, if the Gila had been flowing like this there would have been no way I would have gone that route. As it was it was about mid-upper thigh on me with a pretty strong force. Oh and it was cold. This was water coming straight off the tops of these 10k+ mountains snow. Since it was early in the morning it was slightly lower flow but it was really cold. In the time it took me to walk across the river my legs got numb and tingly. The crossing wasn't bad, I actually had to employ the river crossing skills I picked up in Maine and cross properly for the first time since then. I did have a moment where I almost went down due to the rock I was bracing against moving but I had both my hiking poles firmly planted and was able to get my other foot secured and stable before I lost my footing. Fortunately we were at the bottom of a valley and had to hike up out of it so we quickly warmed up.

I don't recall much of that day but we covered about 23 miles with lots of beautiful mountain medows, pine and aspen forests everywhere, little to no mud(it was all bogs instead of mud), and we were able to walk at just the right pace to have the storms always raining ahead or behind us which was nice. We ended up camping at the next "River" in a really nice valley.

Harris Bear Spring to Rio Vallecitos

We got up at the usual time and were hiking by 7. I definatly am enjoying hiking with these guys then bigfoot and his guys. Bigfoot and them liked to do big days followed by zeros in towns, we were covering the same mileage but its not my style. These guys I'm hiking with now do between 20-25 which is a nice day with several long breaks. I'm not a fan of the breaks but I'm hiking slower then them so the breaks aren't that long for me. Then when they get town they don't usually take zeros.

I don't remember much about the morning hike except it was very muddy. We ended up getting off train and went west around a mountain instead of east. When we came out we had another hiker named Dutch hike with us a bit before he went zooming off. I know I was supposed to be hiking on the roads but was almost never on them due to the mud. When we stopped for our lunch break we were on this nice mountain top meadow near a stream with this one solitary pine tree. I had just gotten my lunch out and had my pack completely spread out when we got ambushed by a snow thunderstorm. It was a pretty nasty one that had 25+ mph winds and pea sized frozen rain/hail that stung when it hit bare skin. I managed to get my pack back together and throw on some rain gear but had to sacrifice my tortillas to do it. Ah well cold, wet, soggy tortillas aren't that bad... We quickly got moving since we didn't want to be by the one tall spot in a storm that had lightning, we didn't see any but could hear thunder. In my hurry I didn't put on any pants as it was a nice day and I was hiking in shorts and t-shirt until we got ambushed. I had my snow gaiters and though that would be enough. It wasn't. The wind and hail had my knees and exposed legs getting very cold and sore quickly. I found a small stand of trees and put on my windbreaker pants, but by the time I got hiking again the storm had basically blown over and it was just a light snow. Ah well I'll know for next time to not even try hiking without covering all my skin.

Towards the end of the day there was a Ley alternate that had us cutting off 2.2 miles of muddy road for a .7 mile cross country bushwhack. When we came out of the bushwhack there was Dutch who had been hiking much faster than us but with his getting turned around a few times and our shortcut we had covered basically the same distance. The rest of the day was uneventful but annoying. The mud slowed us down and had us scraping it off our shoes and constant temperature changes due to the weather going from rain/hail/sun had us constantly stopping to add or remove layers. We ended up camping .5 miles from the Rio Vallecitos which was supposedly flowing very well and would not be a pleasant river to cross right before bed.

Ghost Ranch to 1 mile past Harris Bear Spring

I had a relatively late start getting out of Ghost Ranch. I wanted to get out after breakfast but it was cold and raining. After looking at the weather forecast I saw that it was going to stop by noon so I just hung out until then.

The hike out of Ghost Ranch was nice. I hiked out with the guys I camped with last night, Chimichanga, Chilton, Memphis, and we were joined by Sanjay(pronounced Sunjay). We went up the box canyon located behind the ranch so we had some really nice views of it the whole way up. About halfway up the canyon the guys took a wrong turn and ended up taking an alternate. I was slightly behind them since I was going slow to keep control of my cough so I ended up losing them for a few miles while I was on the trail and they were on the alternate. I'm not sure who got the better end of it since I had a really nice view from the top of the canyon but they had much less mud. Yes it was very muddy, that nasty New Mexican mud that just sticks to your shoes and makes them heavy and slippery. I met up with them again up at the first water source after the ranch, they went a bit farther but were able to go faster without the mud. Right before I met up with them I ran into the Maine Man again. I had run into him outside of pie town where he had developed shin splints and gave him some of my KT tape. I hadn't seen him since, the tape seemed to have really helped. He had taken the same alternate as the guys and was turned around at the top of the mountain and I straightened him out. He decided to hike with us since he just had a map and compass and it was much easier to use the phones and gps.

The rest of the day was basically more of the same, trudging through the mud and getting a few showers here and there. When we got to the Harris Bear Spring it was a flowing great from a pipe into a cow trough but the water was slightly brown. I have never seen brown spring water so I treated it. The Maine Man camped there while the rest of us went on a bit more to find a nice dry spot. We found a great spot on the top of a hill in an aspen grove. It had an amazing sunset that I took a bunch of pictures of.

Blog Got Eaten

So my phone ate all 4 posts I made for the hike from Ghost Ranch to Chama. I'll try replicate it as much as I can but I've lost details in the time between then and now, I know its 4 days but lots happened in those 4 days.

Mile 680 to ghost ranch

I slept in. I didn't get up and moving until 7. I must have been more tired yesterday than I thought. The hike was easy. A 5 mile trail along the little stream to a bridge over the river Chama. Good thing the was one cause that was flowing big time. Go go snow melt. Then a 11 mile road walk to ghost ranch. The usual crew of hikers were there and I decided to split a room with 4 others rather than camp. It would have been 28 to camp and breakfast but was 25 for the split room. It would have been nice if they had mentioned how small the rooms were but we made due.

San Pedro peak to mile 680

It snowed until midnight putting down about 3 inches. I was alright but another hiker had his tent break on him. The hike in the morning was cold. The boggy water had a nice ice layer on it and combined with the snow I didn't have to walk through it like yesterday. But when my feet did get wet from a stream crossing or something they froze. I'm probably going to have to find another pair of socks that are a bit warmer if the hiking is going to be like that in the future.

It took us until lunch time to cover the 10 miles off the hill. There was a lot of downed trees and navigation slowed us town. Once we got below the snow line things sped up. The hike was beautiful as northern New Mexico has been. We even found a perfect spring gushing out gallons of water a minute.

Water wasn't an issue but I was packing less than I should have. There was one point where we had planned to get water from a seasonal stream, we figured with all the rain it would be good, but it was dry. So we had to hike an extra 3 miles with all of us out of water. There was water around, in the road tire tracks icky,  if we really needed it but we were all well hydrated and it was only 3 extra downhill miles. Which we made with ease.

I decided to camp there instead of hiking on the additional 5 miles I planned. My legs were tired from dodging all the trees, snow, and climbs. I thought I was in hiking shape but Colorado is looking more intimidating by the minute. I have 15 miles to hike in the morning to get to ghost ranch. They serve breakfast and lunch which I won't make but that means I can take my time and stroll in for dinner.

Mesa Portales to Cuba

What a storm. It was booming and lighting up the tent all night. I was kept awake until 1045 by it. I eventually managed to get to sleep and slept whole night.

In the morning the storm had passed but left mud in it's wake. It wasn't the mud I was used to. Most mud is slippery but doesn't stick to things. This stuff just caked on. It got so bad that when I tried to bang the mud of my trekking poles it wouldn't come off since the mud was absorbing the impact. I remember thinking when hiking some of these trails and roads that they are great dry but when it rains it would be hell. I was right. It didn't help that my shoes were worn out, not that they had traction to begin with but this was a bit crazy. I was slipping so much that there was a 20 yard slope that I skid down on my shoes. The rest of the walk into town was more of the same mud, Mesas, and rain.

When I got to town I grabbed a quick bite to eat at the local restaurant. Then headed over to the local motel where all the hikers were hanging. I stayed there until 530 when Nectar showed up and took me and Bigfoot to Albuquerque.

The next day was a zero in Albuquerque where I got new shoes, gaiters, and resupply.

Cuba to San Pedro peak

I took my time getting out of town. I wanted to do 20 miles but was behind on my blog and some town chores. I finally headed out around 10. First up was an 8 mile road walk.

Around lunch time Nightcrawler caught up to me and we had lunch in a field with a pair of horses. Nightcrawler made friends with the horses.

When I finished the road walk I ended up with a few hot spots from the new shoes. It was unfortunate cause I don't remember getting them from the shoes last time I wore them. They slowed me down a bunch. I was also slowed down by the water. It was very Maine ish with water flowing down the trail and a bog on the top of the hill making everything cold and wet. I kept hiking until it started to snow on me. I had a difficult time finding a dry spot to camp but eventually found one near the top of the mountain.

Near Mesa at 603 to Mesa Portales mile 630

What an odd day. We have cellphone signal from the Mesas and could see the weather forecast showing thunderstorms coming our way tomorrow, or tonight. But until about 4 pm it was sunny and hot. The entire day consisted of going up a Mesa walking a few miles on it, going down the Mesa, walking to the next one and repeat. It was nice. The climbs up the Mesas wasn't too bad and the trail was well marked. I still lost it a few time but nobody else did. Thankfully the phones GPS and maps made getting back on trail quick and painless.

The day started out nice and cool and we got up and moving early to try get as far as we could before it got warm. We had planned the day before to hit a water source 3 miles from where we camped but it was dry. The sign at the water from the blm said the next source was 20 miles away. I was worried. I only had a liter and it was going to be sunny with no shade. The maps said there was a water source in 8 more miles but there were some conflicting reports as to its location. The next 8 miles wasn't difficult but we went up a Mesa and could see these huge cow ponds down below and I was bitching and moaning about the trails design and poor water choices. It was obvious that the cow ponds were in private land and I probably wouldn't have drank from them but the fact that I was low on water and there was so much around but out of reach bothered me. Thankfully the maps were right and it was 8 miles away. I was worried when I got close since there was a big cow pond right by the water source and the map said it was a piped spring. But the GPS said I had .2 miles to go to get there. I decided to hike the .2 and backtrack if needed since the cow water looked nasty. It was a nice piped well fed by the spring. I had 15 miles to the next water. Supposidly there shouldn't be anymore water concerns until Wyoming. I'll believe it when I see it.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was uneventful and beautiful hiking. There was almost no road walking with great views from the Mesas. Around 4 pm the thunderstorms started to roll in but they were hitting the mountains still and leaving us alone on the Mesas. When we got to the next water source around 5, another nice spring that was labeled polluted on the map but nobody knows why, we debated what to do next. The storms were getting closer and were getting nastier looking. I wanted to do 2 more miles and camp since that would be a marathon for me. Focus wanted to do 5 more and camp up on the Mesa. The rest didn't think that was a great idea in the storm. Sure we'd be below tree line but we'd also be 400 ft higher and the ground up there isn't great for staking down tents.  We ended up doing 2.5 and camping below the Mesa and boy were we glad we did. Those were some nasty thunderstorms which lit up the Mesa with lightning. I found out in town there was a hiker up on the Mesa who made it just fine but it looked sketchy to me. I found out that the three little holes in my tent do need to be patched after all since they do leak in a big rainstorm. After getting woken up by a drop of water on my face I threw my rain jacket up there to redirect the water away from me and slept through the storm til morning.

Mt Taylor to laguna de cosme

Ugh. That about sums up today. When I got up it was a nice cold morning. As soon as I got my bag and tent packed up it started snowing/hailing/whateverthiswhitecrapiscalled hard. By that point it was too late to get back in bed so I finished packing and started hiking.

It wasn't bad at first since the ground was cold and the snow hadn't started accumulating yet. Then I got about a mile up the "low" route, it took me over 9600 ft. At that point it started to snow in ernest and was sticking. The entire rest of the morning I was hiking in 3 inches of snow. That wasn't so bad. In the afternoon I was hiking in a half inch of snow mixed with a half inch of mud. That was unpleasant. A bit later I was hiking in mud. Cold mud.  That sucked.

I should have stayed in my tent and waited. The snow and mud did a number on my shin splints. Normally I hike in a way that minimizes the strain on the muscle while slowly increasing my use of it throughout the day. With all the slipping and sliding I did in the snow and mud it got stressed pretty bad and started hurting like our did when I restated hiking. I'm worried I just wasted 2 weeks of recovery due to snow and mud. I'll see how it feels in the morning. I was hoping it'd be better by the time I hit Colorado, less than 2 weeks away now.

Once I got lower in altitude the snow and mud went away and the Jeep tracks came back. I know I was bitching about the forest rangers yesterday but whoever did the stretch of CDT I hiked today did a great job. It was better signed and marked than the AT. The tread was in good shape and I didn't get lost once, even with the snow and mud.

One other thing, for those of you tracking my hike via the spot I used it's 10 minute interval thing today. So you can see exactly where I hiked, how slow I hiked, and how few stops I made (it was too cold for breaks).

Grants to Mt Taylor rd.

After dithering for a bit I finally decided not to take a zero. I have a few minor issues that another zero should take care of. I decided against it since I was going to take a zero at cuba to visit with nectar again. Get her all psyched up to get back on trail and away from that good paying office job. Then there is the ghost ranch right after that where I'd like to take another zero just to soak in the beauty that inspired Georgia O'Keeffe. That plus the zeros I've already taken seemed to many. Then there was the weather. There is supposed to be a big storm this afternoon and into tomorrow. I know if that storm was still going I take another zero. Unfortunately the storm is going to dump a bunch of snow and ice on Mount Taylor so I probably won't be able to summit it.

I got rolling around 1030 hit the post office to send some stuff I wasn't using home. On my way there I saw the local chamber of commerce/mining history museum had a sign welcoming hikers to town. I figured I'd they were going to change the sign for us I should stop by. It was interesting. They had the downstairs setup to be like a real uranium mine. I realized I probably couldn't become a miner since I had some very minor anxiety attacks in the places that looked like a real mine. I quickly was able to overcome them by thinking about where I was. I'm not sure if I was in a real mine I'd be able to do it. I've not had any issues with caves in the past so it was kinda weird.

Anyway I got hiking around noon and did 4 miles to the ranger station. There were a few hikers there, a mix of the guys from the Gila and the toaster house. The station let's us fill up on water for the next stretch. The Rangers were as clueless as ever. They weren't helpful at all to figuring out how much water we would need to carry through their forest. I understand they have other duties and are busy but for only a month a year you are going to get every hiker come into your office and ask about the water. You should have a better answer than the springs are all dry, they aren't, there are no wells for 40 miles, there is one in 27, don't drink the rain water from the pools because then the animals can't, to be fair that's a valid argument but it's going to be raining the whole time I'm in the forest.

The hike was nice. I had 4 more miles on asphalt after leaving the ranger station and walked right past a women's jail. Then I hit the trail again, finally if I had taken the official route that would have been 30 miles of asphalt to get here. Of course the trail went up the side of a mountain. We gained 2000 ft. over the next 11 miles. It was a nice hike a good mix of climbing with Mesa plateaus. Then there was the rain which got colder and colder until it turned into ice. The storm broke for a few minutes which was nice as the sun came out and I was able to warm up. I made it to the forest service road that goes to the top of Mount Taylor and got my tent setup just before the storm started again. I didn't get dinner cooked before then however.

Laguna de cosme to Mesa near mile 603

Today totally makes up for yesterday. It was warm, but not hot, plenty of water, amazing views everywhere, and my shin splints felt as good as ever. I guess the strain I put on them yesterday didn't effect them.

The hike started out pretty but boring with more road walking. After a few miles we came upon some water pools from yesterday's storm. I thought these were 10 miles behind me so I was pretty happy to see them. I was expecting another 7 miles or so on my one liter of water. The water was nice and cold. We had to break a thin layer of ice to get it. I filtered it but Focus drank it straight from the pools. The water was fresh but who knows what's in the rock pools before the water hit there.

The next bit was more road walking before we went up a Mesa. Which was beautiful and easy. When we got to the end of the Mesa there was a great view of the surrounding area as well as where we'd be hiking for the next few days. It was just Mesa and valleys for miles then a small mountain range with some big snow capped mountains peaking out from behind it. Hello Colorado. Down in the valley were some really neat weathered peaks that looked like giant blobs of clay being shaped on a pottery wheel.

At the bottom of the Mesa was a spring to grab our next bit of water. The spring had an interesting note about it in the Ley maps. The note said there was quick sand in the area but that we'd have to find it ourselves since it'd be more fun that way. It wasn't hard to find. The spring was surrounded by it. There was one way in to it with dry sand so we could fill up with some fresh super silty spring water.

From the we hiked a few more miles to the next Mesa where we almost lost the trail. Right before we called it a day I saw this nice little Mesa which had a great view of the valley and I said jokingly that we should just hike up there and call it a day. Little did we know the trail branched and went straight up it. Luckily for us the hikers in front of us had missed the turn and were backtracking to find it. When we got up to I said I was going to camp there since it was such a nice spot. Bigfoot, Focus, and Mountainspice joined me but Nightcrawler and Moist decided to hike on. They wanted to get to town in 2 days instead of 2.5. The camp spot was fantastic.