Month: June 2025

Start: Pie Town Alternate mile 14.4

Stop: Pie Town Alternate mile 26

Today’s Miles: 11.6

Total CDT miles: 303.9

I tossed and turned until close to midnight, constantly popping my head out of my quilt to see if I could see the stars. If I could see them, then I knew the smoke and fire wasn’t about to take us over. I mean, I knew we were probably fine, but even still, a fire that close, and with my history, sure makes for an anxious night of attempted sleep. 

I guess I did actually sleep, though, because what felt like only minutes, hours had passed. I popped my head out again, looking for the stars, and the entire sky was basked in sunlight, and Pebbles was looking at me. Haha, I jumped and he laughed.. he had been awake long enough to eat his breakfast and was contemplating when to wake me up, thankful that I did it on my own. 

We only had 11.6 miles to walk down a dirt road to get to the Davila Ranch, a nice “shelter” with everything a hiker could want: showers, washer and dryer, bathroom, running water, charging power and WiFi-although very finicky. Oh, and FOOD! They have potatoes, onions, eggs, and canned beans. We were both pretty pumped about getting to this place, though Pebbles has been dreaming about it for close to 2 weeks.. ever since he read about it. 

We arrived at our little desert homestead oasis before noon, and slowly set to work.. showers, charging, laundry, lunch.. I ate some chili beans on my last tortillas, with some cheese. Pebbles made a bowl with eggs, onions, and chopped potatoes. We were both pretty content, although now that it’s been about an hour since I devoured my food, my stomach is growling again. Seriously not normal, at all. 

The wind is blowing and the clouds overhead look a little like rain. This place is basically several medal lean tos put together on the dirt/sand ground. I wonder how it’ll all hold up if it does rain. I’m sure it would probably be fine, but the floors would definitely all be soaked. I guess if it rains, we’ll see!

Tomorrow we’ll have 14 miles into Pie Town. It’s apparently pretty small. The boxes we mailed were delivered to a restaurant called The Gathering Place II, so our only real goal tomorrow is to get there before they close at 4pm. I don’t think it’ll be an issue at all. It’s all dirt road to get there, even if there is some elevation apparently. Oh well. We’ll make it happen. I’m excited for a restaurant meal, and hopefully they’ll have some better WiFi or service. AT&T is not doing that great out here in New Mexico! 

Alright. It’s no where near bedtime, but I’m gonna call it-time to nap, relax, see if I can get this WiFi to load literally anything.. ha! Bye yall! 

Start: CDT mile 360.4

Stop: Pie Town Alternate mile 14.4

Today’s Miles: 21.1

Total CDT miles: 292.3

I thought for sure Pebbles and I would be sliding on our sleeping pads all night, but surprisingly we stayed put pretty well! And I slept good, too.. I’ll take the wins when I can!

We had some pretty trail throughout the morning before getting onto a dirt road that eventually took us to the Pie Town Alternate. Right before getting to it, we got water from a solar tank and hid in the shade for a bit with another hiker planning to hitch into a town we were planning to skip. I know, me skipping a town? Shocking!

The rest of the day was dirt roads and uneventful, until a little after 5pm. It was hot as hell, we were pouring sweat-and we had a climb! We had to go up a dirt road to a fire tower lookout. It was over 800 feet of elevation in just a few short miles.. in the heat, it felt like it was 20 miles away! 

Close to half way up the dirt road, winding around a mountain, a black jeep wrangler comes barreling down the road! I screamed and jumped to my left, the mountain side of the road, Pebbles screamed because of me and jumped to the right, thankfully not off the side of the mountain! We laughed for way too long about the screams and jumps, even hours later, cackling and unable to stop. 

The man in the jeep was the caretaker and I guess “fire lookout guy.” He told us where some water was but not much else. I petted his cute doggo, and we carried on up the hill-the only thing making me continue walking being the laughter at how we reacted to the jeep. 

Close to the top, we realized we had to climb up a slight cliffside and bushwhack through to the fire tower, unless we wanted to add unnecessary miles to the day. We climbed up and made it through, to find a cabin and a picnic table. We had our dinner there, trying to figure out where we’d camp for the night. As we sat eating, looking off into the gorgeous distance, we spotted a puff of smoke. “Hmmm.. you think that’s a fire?” “I don’t know, but maybe.” And right before our eyes we watched it start to slowly billow more smoke.

We wrapped up dinner and started walking back the way we came, to get back to the road that would take us to the trail. The smoke was getting worse. Pebbles looked up on his phone and was guesstimating it being about 15 miles away from us. I called it in to 911, and we were within the first 30 minutes of the initial call to report it! It was a fire! She said they were dispatching the local fire department and basically that was it.. I sort of thought she should ask me follow up questions like, “are you safe from the fire right now?”

Or something? But I guess when it happens all the time out here, people would start with “I need help!” Who knows?

As the sun was setting and we were looking for a flat spot to camp, I could smell the smoke from the fire. I really hate that smell.. it never seems to not make me think of the house fire I was in as a child, the one we lost my brother to. I tried to ignore the rush of emotions flooding me, Pebbles helped lighten the mood-for sure-with his jokes and fits of laughter about the jeep. 

We’re cowboying tonight, and we’re still smelling the smoke but it’s gotten better since we’ve set up. I hope I don’t have nightmares tonight, or wake in a panic. Crazy how something from 33 years ago can show up out of the blue and feel like yesterday. Anyway, I guess that’s it, goodnight yall. 

Start: Gila River Alternate mile 104.2

Stop: CDT mile 360.4

Today’s Miles: 16.8

Total CDT miles: 271.2 

I was out like a light, so fast, and probably got my best night of sleep on trail so far. Maybe I should have huge Adrenaline crashes before sleeping every night! We slept in a little bit, after our bear scare last night. I was happy about that. 

We got to hiking, passing cows that we just knew had seen us last night, watched me fall in a ditch, thinking the baby was a mountain lion ready to pounce on Pebbles and eat him for dinner.. knowing it could just save my goofy self for later.. ah, good times. What memories we make out here! lol

We got to our first water tank of the day, after seeing a dead cow half decomposed nearby. The water tank had 3 dead bats in it. Welp. That’s a problem. Pebbles fished 2 of the 3 out, one decided to sink into the underworld and be gone forever. He reminded me of the high risk of rabies, so we couldn’t drink this water, even if we could have figured out how to stomach it. Our filters will remove bacteria, but not viruses. 

We didn’t have much water left, but knew we had to press on at least 9+ miles to the next water source. And it was already getting hot. Shit. This is not good, not good at all. We pressed on. There wasn’t much choice in the matter. 

As we were hiking up the hill of this dirt road we’ve been on for miles, a car comes by and stops next to us. They told us they were parking at the lot coming up and they’d share water with us! TRAIL MAGIC! When hikers say the trail provides, this is what we mean!! What are the chances that the one time we couldn’t get water, someone literally offers some within 20-30 minutes of realizing we’d be going without!? Incredible!

We hiked to the lot at the top of the hill, there were 2 vehicles and 5 people. Two women were getting ready to set off on their section hike and their husbands and their friend were driving the vehicles and planning to wait at the next highway the trail crosses! How fun! The one guy had a cute doodle with him, Arie, and let us love on the pupper and fill up our water bottles. So dang nice!

Speaking of puppies, my Molly girl is doing good still! She’s eating and not in any pain, so I’m so very relieved that all is well back home. Mom sends me pictures and updates all the time, so whenever I get service, it’s usually the first thing to pop up. It really makes my heart so happy that my girl is doing ok! 

With fresh water ready to go, and the last of our puppy kisses, we set off again. The trail went to actual trail, which was a relief from the road walking. We hiked up a mountain, switchbacked down the other side, and half way up the next mountain, I plopped down in some shade for lunch. Pebbles wasn’t far behind me. He luckily got service at the top of the last mountain, I didn’t. Sad sad. 

We ate our lunch and complained about the flies and the heat. It’s a scorcher today! And I’m slap worn out! My feet were achy but my back was fine, so I knew I couldn’t complain too much. We started walking again, and the trail seemed to be a lot more brief ups and downs. We finally decided to camp as the sun was setting, knowing we couldn’t get to the bottom of the mountain we were on before nightfall. The late start, bat fishing fiasco, and playing with the puppy ate more into our day than I expected. 

We decided to cowboy camp again, as there really wasn’t enough space to set up either tent, let alone both. We’re kind of crammed into this one slightly uneven spot, hoping it’ll work well enough. I don’t think we’ll have any issues with animals tonight, but if I hurry up and go to bed, I won’t know about them either way! Ha. Dinner has been eaten, and we’re laying on our pads, slightly sliding a little. Oh well. I’m not packing up til morning, it is what it is! 

Sweet dreams!