Nearing Colorado

Date: 6/04/2016 Day: 29 Distance: 24 miles start: 9:30 am stop: 7:00 pm Elevation: 9306 ft Others Here: Cloudbuster Camp: Tenting It seems the environs are a changing.  We hiked among green meadows, pine, aspen, lupine, wild iris, and other wild flowers most of the day.   It was a beautiful day, and a day where I couldn't help but feel thankful.

Ghost Ranch 2

Date: 6/03/2016 Day: 28 Distance: 0 miles start: stop: Elevation: 6500 ft Others Here: Cloudbuster, Ron; Stumbling Beef and Wes passed through but did not stay Camp: Ghost Ranch; dorm room We opted to stay another day so Cloudbuster could hike the section he hitched over as a result of his overpowering dinner craving.  Also, we are hearing that snow shoes are required to get through the San Juans.  Without them you would be postholing from 10am on.  It sounds like there is still some avalanche danger as well.  So it seemed prudent to hold up here another day. We …

Ghost Ranch

Date: 6/02/2016 Day: 27 Distance: 30 miles start: 6:30 am stop: 7:00 pm Elevation: 6500 ft Others Here: Cloudbuster, Dragon Dan, Deco, No Worries, Apteryx Camp: Ghost Ranch; dorm room Still thankful to be in the pines and aspens most of the day.  Walking by lupine in the cool breeze, in a shady pine forest teens to make me happy.  Having actual running streams doesn’t hurt either. When we took a break for lunch in a clearing full of cacti, I remembered that this respite would be short lived, and we were back to high desert fur the second half …

El Chupacabra

Date: 6/01/2016 Day: 26 Distance: 23 miles start: 10:00 am stop: 7:30 pm Elevation: 8300 ft Others Here: Cloudbuster Camp: Santa Fe National Forest, Cecelia stream; tenting It is always hard to extract oneself from the vortex of town.  We managed to pull ourselves away by 10 am. I would be less than honest if I didn’t admit that the last couple weeks have been difficult.  What with the heat, lack of water, and finally the great bacon grease incident of 2016, it has been a bit of a struggle.  However, today walking out of Cuba I was feeling thankful …

Cuba

Date: 5/31/2016 Day: 25 Distance: 20 miles start: 5:50 am stop: 1:30 pm Elevation: Others Here:  Cloudbuster, Kyros, Stumbling Beef, Wes Camp: Del Prada Motel Thankfully I had a prescription anti diarrhea medication that I had been trying to avoid taking.   This morning,  I decided it was time and all is well.  Had a great hike into town,  showered, ate Mexican, did the resupply shopping, laundry, and now trying to relax. I’ll be in Colorado soon.  Hard to believe…

Extra special trail magic

Date: 5/30/2016 Day: 24 Distance: 25 miles start: 7:30 am stop: 7:30 pm Elevation: 6930 ft Others Here: Cloudbuster Camp: La Ventana Mesa; Cowboying Important lesson: When on a hiker diet of dried foods, rice, noodles, etc…  steer clear of entire courses cooked in bacon grease.  Especially green chili cornbread that was soaked in bacon grease while cooking. When offered food of this ilk by trail angels, that day may be a good day to become a vegetarian. Let me just say that I was thankful Kalena had imodium (even if it was expired) and leave it at that. So …

Back Country Zero Archeology

Date: 5/29/2016 Day: 23 Distance: 2.5 miles start: 7:00 am stop: 7:30 am Elevation: 6243 ft Others Here: Cloudbuster, John, Susan, Kalena Camp: Near Ojo Frio; Cowboying Had a bit of a late start this morning and made it to the road before Ojo Frio by 7:30 or 8am.  There was a small sign by the road “CDT hikers trail magic”.  Of course we walked up the road.   The folks here are or for the weekend to do some archaeological exploring and help any hikers that stumble by.   John made some fantastic breakfast burritos.  Two a-piece. Cloudbuster and I had …

Water

Date: 5/28/2016 Day: 22 Distance: 27.5 miles start: 7:00 pm stop: 8:00 pm Elevation: 6835 ft Others Here: Cloudbuster Camp: ? Mesa; tenting Carlton’s advice; “if you are going to be dumb, you better be tough”, is becoming somewhat of a motto for the early part of this hike.   You will see some examples below. Since water is such an important aspect of long distance hiking, especially on the CDT, I thought I would give a recap for the past few days. 5/25 Started out with 2 liters from the cache stocked by the Mumms.  This was bottled water. Crossed …

Mount Taylor

Date: 5/27/2016 Day: 21 Distance: 21.5 miles start: 7:00 pm stop: 6:00 pm Elevation: 8186 ft Others Here: Cloudbuster Camp: Antelope Flats; tenting Only 2 liters water over a 24 hour period while hiking 30 miles and crossing a 11300 ft summit usually doesn’t turn out well.   Nor does it help matters if the day before, you hiked the last 25 miles on 1.5 liters and the .5 was cow algae water. Yes, Mount Taylor was wonderful.  I enjoyed watching two crows galavanting like children above our heads, and the views were awesome.  We also experienced our first on trail …

Shoe debacle

Date: 5/26/2016 Day: 20 Distance: 14 miles start: 4:00 pm stop: 8:30 pm Elevation: 8011ft Others Here: Cloudbuster, Kyros Camp: approach trail to Mount Taylor; tenting Some town days are relaxing; this was not.  The nice hotel owner took us back to McDonald’s in the morning and we walked to the post office.  My shoes were not there so I checked the tracking and discovered they were sent FedEx.  I called FedEx to attempt to get them delivered to the Mumms house (more about the Mumms later) to no avail.  Then I called zappos and they worked with the post …