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.
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