Thank you Brianna Lewis for donating to ROMP!!!
My dear friend from San Diego, Brianna Lewis, has donated to ROMP under our name at http://Give.rompglobal.org/cdt! Thank you Brianna for being such a loyal and supportive friend. I love you!
Day 90 – October 15
Early to bed, early to rise. We got up to an alarm at 5:30am after a night of terrible sleep. Our campsite was on the top of a mountain completely exposed to ripping winds that shook our tent all night and threatened to snap a pole. It wasn’t restful. Despite the poor sleep we still got up before the sunrise and were on the trail by 7am just before it came up to officially start the day.
We hiked along steep mountain ridges for most of the morning and enjoyed gorgeous views as the day came into its own. I noticed feeling very happy about being up and using my body to the fullest before the sun had even risen. We got a fantastic start to our 19 miles into town.
The day went slowly as we checked off one mile after the other. The anticipation of town provided good motivation and our gradual descent to the highway made for a good pace. We had lunch by a beautiful lake in the early afternoon with only five miles left to go. A record morning for our time in the San Juans!
A little more pushing along and we found ourselves at the highway at around 4:30pm. It was busy with cars and tourists, two of whom we struck up a conversation with which turned into a ride into town. Thank you Patty and Leon! We had a nice time talking to them about nutrition, since Patty is a nutritionist, and world travel, since Leon has been to many unique places and even spent a few years in his youth in Pakistan. They dropped us off at Riff Raff, the recommended restaurant on Guthook, and we ate dinner before grabbing snacks and retreating into a small forested area to stealth camp for the night.
Zeroes in Pagosa Springs
Our second night in Pagosa Springs was enjoyed at The Riverwalk Inn. Complete with a sauna, riverfront seating area, Lila the bulldog, and very cozy beds, The Riverwalk Inn had us feeling great.
We checked into the hotel after a morning of running around town by bus to get food and resupply for our next stretch. Thank goodness for the bus because it was over four miles from our end of town to the grocery store. Yikes. We were not looking to do that walk.
Ryan and I had a very relaxing stay and treated ourselves to the sauna which was calming and restorative. We slept like logs, showered and in a cozy bed. What luxury!
We woke up just at the start of the hotel’s free breakfast where we posted up for over an hour eating as much as we wanted. We spent the rest of the morning checked out of our room in the hotel lobby sucking up their WiFi and taking care of phone tasks before walking towards the other end of town back go the grocery store. We got lucky and snagged a ride there with a fellow hiker, Austin. He is from LA and has been traveling around in his car doing exciting hikes all over the western USA. Cool! Thank you Austin for the ride 🙂
I picked up my birth control at the pharmacy, so thankful and amazed that it has been such a smooth process getting it while traveling. We then walked to the nearby Walmart for some thread and shoe goo. While there we decided to grab lunch before hitching back to the trail. Ryan chose a whole rotisserie chicken for himself and I went for a container of crab salad with a roll of Italian bread and pub cheese.
We met Lon at Walmart when he came up to ask if I was thru hiking. Yes! We chatted for a while and he told us about his awesome retired lifestyle. He hikes almost every day, usually 8-10 miles and has incredible access to amazing wilderness living in Pagosa Springs. He also told us he is very interested in art and gave such earnest interest in my sketchbook. He offered to have us stay over with him and drive us to the trail in the morning and we accepted. It was already into the afternoon and another day of sleeping in a bed sounded amazing to me.
He drove us to his beautiful cabin home just outside of town right next to the National Forest. I had a great time looking at all of his paintings and we spent the rest of the night relaxing and chatting in his living room, receiving and enjoying a fantastic music education, and getting very full on his tasty home cooked food. Thank you SO much Lon. We had a really great time. I felt so at home and like we had known each other a long time.
Day 91 – October 18
We had a restful sleep and woke up to breakfast sandwiches. Delicious!! Lon drove us back up to Wolf Creek Pass and hiked a mile or two in with us before we said goodbye. So long! Take care!
On our way up we were passed by Nostrovia and Larry Mashed Potato, a CDT hiking couple who we had met back by Steamboat Springs just inside of Colorado. They were with their family doing a day hike since they had decided it was time for them to get off the trail. They plan to finish the New Mexico section in a year or two. We said goodbye to them and wished them well, then continued on the CDT in the South San Juan Mountains.
The trail is less extreme than it was the past week but still challenging in the alpine sections. We hiked through forest and then along more very windy exposed mountainsides. Thankfully there was a pass that we climbed over to get away from the wind that was blasting the side of the mountain we were on. We set up camp and called it day about 10 miles closer to our next destination, Chama New Mexico.
Day 92 – October 19
Rise and shine was nice and late today. We set no alarms and woke up at 7:45am! Whew! The morning was also warmer than previous days and we welcomed the change.
We ate a strange breakfast of pub cheese and ranch on a tortilla since we had forgotten to get peanut butter at the store. What a bummer. It worked alright though and fueled us through to lunch around 2pm. Ryan and I had good conversation in the morning and early afternoon which made the hiking go quickly. It was also a pretty mild stretch through mostly flat forest hiking. Another welcome change to the extreme up and down exposed alpine we had been doing the past week!
Midway through the day we met a group of young women with the Southwest Conservation Corps and had a fun time talking to them about backpacking and hiking. They were out with a HUGE saw to help clear the trail of our nemeses, downed trees. THANK YOU!!
Overall it felt carefree and natural to be hiking today. I think the lower pressure of a three day stretch, being through what was probably the most technically challenging section of trail, the San Juans last week, and having a good amount of food, made hiking feel a lot less like a chore and made it possible to travel more at our own pace. Very nice.
We finished off the day in gorgeous mountains in alpine terrain with a little challenging climbing but nothing crazy. We popped in our headphones to help pass the time and enjoyed podcasts, audio books, and a little Leonard Cohen. Our camp is by the first water we have hit in 11 miles, nestled up by a pass on a nice flat spot. We have beautiful views and a big dinner ahead of us. Life is good.
Day 93 – October 20
Ryan and I woke up to our alarm at 5:40am. It was actually a series of alarms set one minute apart from then to 5:44 and it did a great job of waking us from another unusually warm slumber. We played some music from my iPhone while we very slowly began to move and eat our strange breakfast of pub cheese and ranch on a tortilla. We wouldn’t recommend it.
At 7:45am we were on the trail and had decided on an alternate route recommended by another hiker on our app Guthook. It took us down into a beautiful valley, closely following the Canejos River and then the El Rito Azul. It cut out the alpine walking and ups and downs that that the official CDT traverses.
We had a very nice morning enjoying great conversation and beautiful scenery through woods on a fairly flat, slightly downhill trail. Occasionally the River revealed itself to us, shimmering in the morning sun and laughing gently for our ears as it flowed down over rocks.
There were no other people on our path today which meant a lot of nice solitude and peace. The world felt wide open. Knowing New Mexico is coming so soon is a great feeling, we have walked around 2,000 miles to get ourselves here. Thank you dear body for your hard work and dedication! Thank you dear mind for the extra oomph needed when the going gets challenging.
Today wasn’t perfect, but it was very pleasant. We were very ready for camp when it came, about 19 miles down the trail next to a small mountain lake. The crescent moon is smiling down on us tonight! I know in 11 more days, on Halloween, it will be full again.
Day 94 – October 21
Today was a nice day for walking. It was super windy but the downhill and beautiful views of the valley around the San Juans made up for it. We covered great ground, even with the accidental .8 mile detour we took before realizing we were not on the trail. Whoops!
Ryan and I had a really fun morning together with lots of lively and interesting conversation so the time went quickly and soon we were stopping for an early lunch by a lake to eat and filter water.
Our filter is very slow right now so it’s become quite a chore any time we have to fill up. We top off all four liters in about 30 minutes and set off for the ten miles or so that water will last us before repeating the process.
It’s been interesting dealing with the water in the fall since there is often ice to contend with if it is stagnant water, like at the lake today. We have to sometimes break through the ice to access the liquid, freezing water beneath it. Brrr! Today I even cut my thumb a bit on a sharp piece. Ice is a phenomenon that has greatly piqued my interest in the past month. It’s fun to see it in the mornings and notice by the evening there is no more. Ice creates cool patterns in the mud, freezing it into very bumpy airy crunchy layers that sound and feel great when stepped on. The cold water also freezes on the edge of rivers and on the plants reaching out over the water. Seeing this in the early mornings leaves me feeling like I am in a winter wonderland.
The rest of our day was mostly dry, up on rolling mountain ridges with gnarly trees occasionally blocking the howling wind. We listened to podcasts and audio books the second half of our day, cruising down the mountains on the edge of a beautiful valley that extends miles ahead of us. We are headed down to town! Tomorrow morning leaves about 3 miles to our hitch in, where we anticipate breakfast burritos. New Mexico, here we come!
Day 95 – October 22
Ryan and I woke up slowly with no big miles on our plate for the day. It was just a short 2.8 into town and the light workload felt great as we walked our way to the road. Our conversation made the morning even better.
We met a group of teachers with their students at a big open area near the road and had fun chatting with them and watching the kids climb all over the hills and field. There is some magic to being outdoors, so much freedom. Watching the kids explore and play reminded me how lucky I am to be getting so much time outside where I can be in my body all day and enjoy the activity.
Hitching into town wasn’t an issue even with the few cars that were driving the highway. The second vehicle to pass us in about 20 minutes, a truck with two friendly passengers, told us to hop into the bed. I loved laying back in the back of the truck, feeling the wind, and watching the beautiful scenery passing by at amazing speeds as we drove into Chama, New Mexico.
Once in town we got right to business and ordered Mexican food at Lina’s Restaurant. A 57 year old Jicarilla Apache man was there and asked us to sit with him outside. We spent a good hour or two at the table. This man was homeless and definitely a little down on his luck. He seemed to really enjoy our company and we did our best to help him out.
After lunch we got to work on our plans. Turns out a big storm is in the forecast, four days out. Being in the backcountry when it comes through does not sound like a good idea so we did our best to form a plan that didn’t drain our bank accounts with hotel rooms or leave us freezing cold, snowed into our tent. We decided to try and move further south and try to get out of the storm’s way. Either we would start hiking again at Cuba, New Mexico or we would meet with my friend Bethany in Albuquerque where she and her boyfriend Derek live. Before all of this however we needed to get food at the grocery store.
While I was pushing my cart around enjoying the feeling of being in a grocery store surrounded by almost any food I could hope to ask for, a nice man approached me asking about my backpack and what I was doing. He told me his name was Miguel and he does hiking tours of the area. He was fun to talk to about our journey and he offered us a place to stay if we needed. Ryan and I talked it over and decided to take him up on his offer.
Miguel drove us to his awesome little cabin in his yellow Jeep Rubicon. I was pleasantly surprised by just how cozy his cabin was. Miguel definitely has an eye for interior design. Even though his cabin is small with just a bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen, there was enough to look at that my eyes were busy from the time we arrived to the time we left. He had arranged his cabin so tastefully that every item felt like it belonged right where it was placed.
We spent most of the afternoon helping build stairs for his deck. Ryan is such a willing and able builder that they were finished in just a couple of hours and fit right into the cabin’s vibe. What a gratifying way to spend the afternoon.
As the sun went down, Ryan made us all steak for dinner and we ate while talking to Miguel. He told us amazing stories about his career, romances, personal life, family, and friends. What a treasure trove of stories you are Miguel! We are so lucky to have spent the night with you. Thank you SO much for trusting us with you home and your stories, we are honored.
Zeroes in Albuquerque
In the morning we heard from my friend Bethany that we could stay with them to wait out the storm. I was over the moon! The last time we had seen her was on our first stop leaving San Diego by car a little over a year ago. This would be the first stop on the trail where we had already passed through once and I was excited to see familiar faces and places.
Miguel, Ryan and I spent the day hiking, enjoying a fabulous Mexican food meal for lunch, and then driving to Albuquerque. Turns out that Miguel lives in Chama one half of the week and Albuquerque on the other. He offered us a spot in his car on his way back and we gladly accepted. Thank you again Miguel!! We made a three hour drive where Miguel told us lots of interesting information about the areas we passed through and an hour after sunset we found ourselves with old friends in Albuquerque.
Thank you Derek, Bethany, and Leonard SO MUCH for letting us invade your space for 5 days. Wow. We have had such a great time with you.
My favorite memory was getting to ride bikes from their house, ten miles across town to The Boxing Bear for drinks. We met with Derek’s friends from work, Cal and Joe and all biked across town on beautiful and quiet bike paths. Albuquerque is tactfully set up for cyclists which Ryan and I greatly appreciate. We had a blast sitting around and talking for a couple of hours then biking back in the dark.
It was great to get some down time which I have been craving often on our hike. Good thing we chose to be inside and comfortable because the snow storm came and went, leaving at least 5 inches of snow. What a beautiful winter wonderland!
Amongst many other activities, I enjoyed:
- Going to the batting cages with Bethany, Leonard (their roommate who is very good at softball), and his friend Trinity. Bethany and I hit for 15 minutes each and developed some sore muscles for our hard work!
- Getting my bearings around their energetic pit bull, Cash. I was openly nervous around him to begin with and now feel comfortable, in control, and a warm swelling heart when he’s around
- Watching silly TV way past my bedtime including a Halloween baking show, The Price is Right, and Coneheads
- Cooking dinner with Bethany, making her famous enchiladas and trying a chili rellano recipe for the first time
- Walking a mile to the store with Ryan in below freezing temperatures while the snow was coming down
- Cooking dinner with Ryan making our favorite lentil curry recipe then eating it with friends
- Baking cookies with Bethany and decorating them with little toothpicks and paper designs
- Spending the morning with Leonard getting bagels and running errands
- Going out to buy new kinds of beer to try and splitting them up with Bethany to each get a taste
- Lounging around the house, getting to enjoy a climate controlled environment! Ha!
I completely forgot to take a picture of the five of us, but at least got snaps of these two cuties:
I will really miss my friends. The trail is calling and Ryan and I are answering. Time for a nice long stretch through the New Mexico Rockies!
There and Back Again 