Falling asleep surrounded by 5 pillows was heavenly (curious how I ended up with one extra, isn’t it? 😉). Unfortunately, it was so heavenly that I ended up sleeping longer than I intended. Then we had a mini-crisis when Nick couldn’t find his sunglasses- he thought he left them at Fosters. I played detective and looked back at the pictures I took of him after we had dinner that night. Since the sunglasses were on his head in the pictures, we knew they were in the room somewhere. Sure enough, we found them behind his bed.
Even though it wasn’t exactly a smooth morning, we still got out the door by 6:30. I really wanted to be hiking by 6, though - I knew today was going to be tough and I wanted to get in as many miles as possible.
Once outside the hotel room, I was met with bright sunshine and crisp, cold air. Thank goodness for sunglasses (glad Nick found his) and for my puffy gloves!
Sputnik was on the road, looking for a hitch to the trailhead. It was nice to see him and say hi but we didn’t want to chat too long - it was cold and we wanted to get moving. We saw Shredder, too - he did indeed decide to road walk and he ended up passing us both about 5 miles in. I was taking it slow, trying to decide if I was walking oddly because my ankle truly hurt or because my body still thought it did. The answer was probably in the middle somewhere - the KT tape and the time off helped a lot, but there is still some discomfort. However, I think I was walking with more of a limp than I needed to. I find it fascinating how my body refused to walk normally - it was too scared of pain, I suppose. Fascinating.
The scenery along the road was beautiful, so of course I stopped a lot to take pictures even though I hated taking my hands out of the puffy gloves.
At one point we passed a herd of sheep and I enjoyed watching the cowboy ride to get the stragglers and bring them in.
Note: Nick always laughs when he hears sheep baaing because he thinks it sounds like they are saying “Beeeth”
the cowboy going to gather the missing sheep
Every time a car passed us I wondered which hikers were being taken to the trailhead. One car full of hikers honked as they went by (I’m assuming it was Peaches and Hot Rod driving people up). Not too long after that, a lady stopped to ask if we wanted a ride (of course I had to decline but I really appreciated the offer).
I even saw my bird friends one last time - I swear they are following me! They truly are a joy to watch. And then, almost before I knew it, we were leaving New Mexico and entering Colorado.
We still had a bit of road waking to do, but it felt good to be in a new state.
It turns out the lady who stopped to ask if we wanted a ride was Joe Dirt’s Trail Angel - hours after she initially stopped, she stopped again to see if I thought I’d catch up to Joe Dirt - apparently he forgot his sunglasses. I laughed politely and said that while it’s possible I’d see him on the trail, it wasn’t probable. I do hope she is able to get them back to him somehow, sunglasses are basically an essential out there.
Hot Rod and Peaches stopped to say hi just before we got to the trailhead - they had been driving hikers to the trailhead all morning and, finally done with their good deeds, they wanted to say goodbye for now. They plan to start hiking tomorrow. I hope we see them again!
After 12 road miles, we made it back to the CDT. What a great feeling! We had been walking on a road for nearly 100 miles (4 miles to get to Cuba, 77 from Cuba to Chama, and then 12 today), so walking on an actual trail was a welcome change.
While I’m happy to be back on the trail, it’s definitely a LOT slower going, especially with all the blowdowns and the snow. Blowdowns are annoying as it takes a lot of extra time to either climb over the fallen tree or walk around it. Walking on the snow isn’t quite as bad unless you are walking at an angle on a slope - then it’s worse because you have to be careful not to slip. We stopped to put on our micro-spikes at one point when the trail seemed particularly sketchy.
the first time we put on our micro-spikes. I wish I could say it was also the last, but I cannot
To give you an idea of how slow it was with blowdowns and snow to deal with, it took us 6 hours to go 9 miles! Yikes. I was extraordinarily slow, too, as my ankle really didn’t appreciate being put in so many awkward positions. Don’t worry, I actually stopped to take a break when I felt myself getting overly annoyed with everything.
the phenomenal view I enjoyed while taking a break to eat a snack and get a handle on myself
After my little break, I was in a much better place mentally but not physically. Still, I was fully prepared to walk until 7pm - not knowing what’s in store for us this section, I wanted to get in as many miles as possible today to give us some buffer should things REALLY get bad. So when I turned a corner and saw Nick had already stopped and set up the tent, I felt both a little dismayed and a lot relieved. Even though I had been hoping to go further, I was ready to be done. Nick made a great decision.
Despite the slowness and the pain when my foot lands the wrong way (the obstacle course created by the blowdowns really tests the limits of my ankle), I absolutely love it up here. Every view takes my breath away.
Along the trail:
[add pics after 2109/later than the trailhead pic]
Camp:
