Finally in New Mexico!

After a hellish few days in snow and weather we took a zero in Pagosa Springs CO after hearing of another weather front coming in.  I am SO over the snow and cold weather.  We found a route that took us to Chama NM that kept us out of the mountains and at a lower elevation.  The route was a jeep road which also cut off a few miles. Yay! Even with the new route we had about 3" of snow but the road was well traveled enough that the car tracks melted the snow keeping your feet dry. Double yay! Although it was a road walk it was still scenic enough for me and did I mention I kept dry feet? : ) After a blur of road walking we came into a little mining camp ( sorry I can't remember the name) where we were able to get a hot meal ( best burger in CO) and take a load off our feet for an hour or so before getting back on the road.  The next day was a push to get into Chama.  We were walking along zoning out when a truck stopped and out popped Baboon and Spins! A trucker had offered to give them a ride down the road and since it would be rude to turn down a ride they accepted and they were nice enough to stop to pick us up along the way.  It's nice to have friends on trail : ).  The trucker gave us a ride to the end of the road then it was another short hitch into New Mexico.  We got into New Mexico in the early afternoon with enough time to hit up the post office to get our resupply box and a care package from Regan and  one from Mr. Ortiz.  Mr. Ortiz's box had traveled all around Colorado before we finally got it.  On the way to the post office we met another thru hiker Big Foot.  At this point it's kind of hard to tell who is homeless and who is a thru- hiker.  He had a buddy who was a little behind him named Barrel Roll.  We met up with the two hikers at dinner to exchange stories and experiences.  After making myself sick gorging on brownies and cookies from Regan we hit the road walk out of Chama to Ghost Ranch our next stop.  We saw an impressive amount of roadkill on our way including an elk, deer, cat, owl, and a lot of skunks.  We rushed to get to Ghost Ranch in time for the dinner buffet and barely made it in time.  I'm not a big fan of meatloaf but being on trail it was delicious! We stayed the night at the ranch gorged again at breakfast then back on trail.  Ghost ranch was a very interesting beautiful historical place here is a link if you want to learn more-

http://ghostranch.org/about-ghost-ranch/history/

Leaving Ghost Ranch we got back to walking on a trail which my joints were very thankful for.  I feel like an old lady now everything hurts, sitting, standing, moving, not moving. You get the picture. After Ghost Ranch our next stop was Cuba for our next resupply.  There's not much going on in Cuba.  After Cuba we hiked through some beautiful mesas and trails but there were long stretches between water supplies making it critical to plan ahead so we could hopefully camp near water making it easy to cook without carrying any extra water.  A few days into the section we had a thunder storm which cut our day a little short camping early so we were not the tallest thing around.  Because we camped early we did not make it to our water supply so we had no water to drink since we used what was left to cook dinner.  We were now wet but thirsty... Only on the CDT... The next morning thankfully the weather broke and we had clear skies and a beautiful sunrise.  While breaking down the tent Kraig noticed a little blood where the dogs had been sleeping.  I checked the dogs pads since we were hiking through some cactus although neither dog had been limping or showed any signs of pain.  Uh oh... Yup Hinanu went into heat early.  I had noticed Grizby was very interested in her a few days earlier and had mentioned she looked a little swollen but she had just finished her cycle before we left and wasn't supposed to go into heat until late Dec. or Jan.  Isn't it great when nature throws you a curve ball?  Since we had heard coyotes very close to camp the night before and didn't want to deal with any hill billy pups we decided we needed to get her off trail ASAP.  Luckily Kraig new someone in the Albuquerque area so we called her (I love getting cell phone service in the middle of nowhere) and she said she would board her for us until she was done or we finished trail.  After looking at the maps and GPS we found a route that would take us to the highway to get us to Albuquerque so off we went. We walked about 18 miles down a dirt jeep road before finally getting a hitch with some geode hunters.  That night Nanu was picked up then we spent the night in Bernalillo before hitching into Grants.  New Mexico has been our hardest state to get a hitch.  We posted outside of a church for over an hour before finally getting a ride from a SUPER nice family.  The family originally was going to give us a ride to the 40 but then asked if it was okay if they took us all the way to Grants.  Grants was about an hour away! We accepted the ride and enjoyed the company of other slightly crazy people who enjoyed seizing the day.  Before dropping us off in Grants they even offered to take us all the way to CA! Although it was hard to turn down we are too close to finishing to quit now.  Once we got to Grants we ate some gross McDonalds before posting up at the camp ground.  We are now in Grants waiting for the trail angels to drop off our package before hitting the trail in the morning.  I'm ready to be finished with the trail and back at home but until then I will continue to embrace the brutality and hike as fast as I can.  

Road walk leaving Pagosa Springs

No more snow on the road. : )

New Mexico!

My best friend Regan and Pete

This is why she's my best friend

Mr. Ortiz care package.  Grizby broke out of his soft crate and ate all of the jerky.

Luckily dogs don't drink 

Found this tarantula on the road walk.

Outside of Ghost Ranch. 

On the road again...

More beautiful rock faces

Coming down into Cuba

It's rare to actually camp in a designated camping spot

Yeah.Cuba wasn't my favorite or most memorable spot but their billboard certainly makes it sound great.

Walking out of Cuba I found this... Not sure if its there year round or for Halloween but it sure was creepy

Outside of Ghost Ranch

Near Ghost Ranch

Ghost Ranch

Mesa

Trail marker...

Thunderstorm...

Snow shoeing in sneakers

It was probably a good idea that we took a zero in Leadville because we got a fresh 4" of snow on the ground.  We stopped at a coffee shop before hitching to the trail and they had a great quote posted on the wall, "If you want to travel fast-go alone, if you want to travel far- go together." This quote fit our trip perfect as being a newbie I definitely slow the team down at times.  We were making our hitching sign and got as far as "CDT Hikers to" before a women walked up and offered us a ride.  The trail was difficult to hike in since the snow was wet and slushy in the sun and deep in the shade.  The temperatures did warm up as promised by the weather channel and I actually hiked in shorts one day! : ) The morning and evening temperatures while setting up and breaking down camp were very cold but the temperature for hiking was nice if you were prepared with  a proper layering system.  I usually started my day in long sleeves, my down jacket, my down vest, and my wind jacket, shorts, workout pants, wind pants, two pairs of socks, gloves, beanie, and then frozen shoes.  My pack felt a lot lighter since I was wearing my clothes not carrying them all on my back.  The trail was nicely maintained since the CDT is also the Colorado Trail.  The trail to Salida was mostly 4x4 Jeep roads with a few short cuts up and over the mountains instead of around them.  We got to the road to hitch at a terrible bend in the road so cars wizzed past.  This turned into our longest hitch waiting an hour for a ride.  We got lots of waves and  peace signs which is a nice gesture but unfortunately that doesn't get us into a town -you actually have to pick us up.   A man in a small Ford Focus type car picked us up whom used to work for the Columbian Army doing special forces.  He liked our dogs and said he used to jump from planes with German Shepherds.  He offered us a ride back up the pass if we would be ready in a few hours but we heard a cold front was coming in so we wanted to stay the night.  Salida was a little far apart for a thru-hiker with the post office, grocery store, and hotel a couple miles apart.  After doing town chores and getting a good nights sleep we were ready to get back on trail.  The weather channel warned of a cold front coming in but worried about getting too far behind schedule we decided to get back on trail.    After 15 min. of hitching a man in a truck offered us a ride.  Unfortunately he did not tell us he was only going part way before we were already driving.  He dropped us off at his turn which was surrounded by ranches.  We thanked him although we probably would have waited since we were now in the middle of no where.  We froze in the wind while trying to hitch the rest of the way up the pass for about 30 min. before we decided to hitch back to Salida and wait out the cold front.  We continued to freeze another 20 min. before catching a ride back into town.  Spins and Baboon were still a town and were also waiting for the cold snap to pass.  We hung out and ordered pizza watching Smokey and the Bandit and other old classics.  The next day we got a quick hitch from a friendly fellow who happened to have some free time and had done the CT a few years earlier. We got up to Monarch Pass and it looked and felt like the middle of winter. Creede was our next town since we decided there would be too much snow to hike the San Juan mountains so the alternative is a low route to Creede.  I'm very happy we took the low route because even the low route had tons of snow.  Creede was a small town that was very friendly.  We went to Kip's for dinner and made friends with some locals.  We picked up several boxes from the post office and one of the women who worked there gave us a ride to our motel since it was snowing.  Again we had a snow storm roll through covering the town with 4" of fresh snow.  We looked at the weather report which said the next snow wouldn't hit until Monday, which is when we were supposed to get to the next town, Pagosa Springs CO. What should have taken 2.5 days to hike turned into a solid 4 days because of the snow.  The trail was completely covered in snow with average snow coverage of 5"-6" with deep areas coming up past my knees...and the weather didn't want to wait.  We got snowed on with high winds everyday excluding the first day out.  Oh yeah welcome to rifle season... Bang! Bang! Bang! By 9am opening day we had already heard 3 shots.  Later that day we found a huge herd hiding.  A burn area about 10 miles from the road.  The 40+ herd had some impressive males and a random bull moose? Everyone must have put aside their differences to hide from the hunters.  That night was very loud with all the bugleing.  The burn area must far enough away from the road and the snow was thick enough to deter the hunters.  Seeing the herd was the best part of the section.

Stopped at the peak for a break.

The dogs love the snow!

Lake Ann.

Nanu eating Grizby's neck...

Burr!!!!!

An old railroad

Need to go potty? Cat hole or this...

Found some old buildings and someone decided to leave an old truck

Monarch pass trail head

Literally crawling in the snow to get over the pass. Not fun!

But then you get views like this that make it worth it...

More snow shoeing in sneakers...

And then there's more views...

We were walking up the trail when we saw a couple moose on the road.  The bull moose noticed us and started to shake his head side to side showing off his antlers.  The bull took a couple steps forward I started to ask what we were supposed to so if he decided to charge and when I turned to Kraig he was already halfway up the side of the hill.  Thanks! So I quickly followed him.  The moose do not like the dogs.

Tincup Pass

No snow but still windy and freezing!

Aspens when they were still yellow...

Got a package from Michael White, I didn't have scissors but Grizby was more than happy to help open it.

New leashes! Thanks you!

We left Salida after the cold snap and the clouds decided to take a dump on trail...

A bit nippy 

Grizby and Hinanu are always up to trouble...

Coming into Creede we saw lots of old mines

Great trail marker

Near San Luis Pass

It was way too cold to be wearing shorts but it was sunny outside damn it!

Found a huge bird feather. Tried flying to town. Didn't work...

Snow is cold, who would have thunk it?

Thanks AM great care package.  This will definitely help keep us warm. : )

More snow in Creede

Trail coming out of Creede.

Crawling over blow downs in the snow.  I'm ready to be out of the snow...

More blow downs

Dogs just hanging out in the snow while we freeze!

It was a two dog night.  We got stuck camping at 12,000ft. High winds and snow...

Followed some cat tracks on our way into Pagosa Springs.  Grizby immediately started peeing on everything... He sure showed that cat.

We are currently in Pagosa Springs CO, next stop Chama NEW MEXICO! Last state! Mr. Ortiz has been nice enough to volunteer to pick us up at the end of this adventure.  He can pick us up on Nov. 13 or 14th so we should be back in CA in about a month then back to the grind... 

Ps... I will be singing THE FINAL COUNT DOWN by Europe as I jump over the state line into New Mexico