My Continental Divide Trail Adventure: 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. : )