Lordsburg through the boot heel

After a disappointing meal in Lordsburg, ED and I continued out of town ahead of the rest of our group, stopping at each new CDT sign to scan the horizon for the next one.

“I don’t see it, do you?”

“Maybe it fell over, like the last one”

“Should we just keep hiking the same direction and hope to see it?”

“Yes”

Silver City to Lordsburg

We left Silver City mid-morning, and stopped at the outskirts of town outside a gas station for lunch. A local, standing in line beside ED, paid for her food. Another, walking past us sitting outside, gave us money. People in Silver City, unlike people almost every else, seemed to know about the CDT, and were really excited to see us hikers coming through.

Doc Campbell’s to Silver City

The end of the trail has been hard for me. I normally think ahead only as far as the next town, but now that the End is in sight, I find myself thinking ahead to Mexico, to all the miles I have yet to hike.

Pie Town to Doc Campbells

Late start out of Pie Town. The Darkness got tired of waiting for us and started up the road a few hours before us. We chased after her all day, and late into the night until I got cranky and all but demanded that we stop.

Grants to Pie Town

I’m beginning to feel like I can’t escape Grants. It feels like a twilight-zone episode where I’m stuck in a hotel with two food options: Denny’s or Asian Buffet. I was very happy when, after several hours of unsuccessfully trying to hitch a ride, we finally called in the help of a local trail angel and left Grants for good.

Thunderstorms were still forecasted, so our trail angel dropped us off on the other side of the Zuni-Acoma trail through the lava, and we began a road-walk along the edge of the Malpaís with high cliffs (the bottom of an ancient seabed) rising to our left.

 

We managed to yogi some cookies and oranges out of friendly strangers at the trailhead for a natural arch. Shortly afterwards, The Darkness and I (tired of roadwalking) parted ways with ED and Veggie and took a slightly longer route through some canyons – keeping an eye open for windmills (In New Mexico, many of the water sources we found were pumped to the surface by windmills or solar panels).

 

We ran into an interesting stretch a few miles out of Pie Town, where the rainfall had turned the dirt road into mud. Not just any mud – mud that accumulated on the soles of my shoes, a quarter inch with each step. After a few steps, I had several pounds of platform shoe on each foot.

Stop, Scrape, repeat.

 

The Darkness and I made our way into Pie Town two days later, a full day behind ED and Veggie.

Pie Town, by the way, is as great as it sounds. It’s a small town with no stores to speak of, but they make great pie at the Pie-o-neer. My favorite was an apple pie with a macaroon crust.

A trail angel in Pie Town leaves a house, the “toaster house”, open for hikers and bikers – the kind of place with a working wood stove and a refrigerator full of halibut on the back porch. We were lucky enough to meet the woman herself, she introduced us to all the locals and gave us a history of the town.

Grants to … Grants

10/17

I made a friend at breakfast today, and she dropped me off at the Post office in town so I wouldn’t have to walk both ways to pick up my resupply box. I ate “Lotaburger” for the first time, and spent the rest of the day in bed watching a Harry Potter marathon on TV.

Monarch Pass to Lake City

I spent 4 days off trail after Monarch Pass, visiting friends in the area and spending time with my brother, Chris, who flew out to see me. Chris and I did a little beer tasting in Fort Collins, a little backpacking in Rocky Mountain National Park, and spent our last day together soaking in some hot springs near the trail – a GREAT visit.

Silverthorne to Monarch Pass

I zeroed in Silverthorne with Scout, Wonderer, Apatche, and Scout’s friend Cuddles who would join us for a day of hiking.

We ate at chipotle, watched “A Walk In The Woods” in a theatre, and shrugged off the derision of some purist thru hikers at having taken a shorter alternate route of the CDT (we saved nearly 40 miles by hiking through Silverthorne rather than hiking over Gray’s peak).

Grand Lake to Silverthorne

My group (Apache, Wanderer, and Guy-on-a-buffalo) got a late start out of Grand Lake. After checking out of the hostel, packing our food, breakfast, post office, and few conversations with other thru hikers it was 12:30 before we got on trail.

A few miles out of town, hiking along the Colorado river, a pontoon boat batchelor party saw me, pulled up alongside shore, and tossed me a beer.

Steamboat Springs to Grand Lake

In Steamboat I was welcomed into a group of 7 other thru-hikers: Guy-on-a-buffalo, Scout, Wanderer, Apache, Sleepwalker, Whistle, and Axle. Many of these are hikers I met before starting my hike in Glacier and hadn’t seen since. I proceeded to have a very rejuvenating near-0 (a day with close-to-zero mileage).