Month: August 2025

Start: 707.3

Stop: 730.1

Today’s Miles: 22.8

Total CDT miles: 589.3

The moon was ginormous last night, and bright. A little past dusk, the cows were still mooing loudly, I kept expecting to see them trot by in a line like they seem to do when they run away together. They never did, at least not that I’m aware of.

I slept pretty decent once I fell asleep, and woke around 3:30 pretty cold. Well, my face was cold, my body was warm, and once again-everything was wet. I really hate waking up to soaking wet sleep stuff. At least this time everything else was inside my pack and dry. I just worry about not being able to dry out my quilt and having to go to sleep with wet stuff. It doesn’t have to be below freezing to go hypothermic. 

Anyway. Come 6:15 ish, I finally started to grumpily pack. It’s also super cold in the morning when everything is wet. Pebbles had already eaten his breakfast and packed by the time I was ready to go. His internal clock does a much better job than mine. I never want to get up. He seems to just pop awake and is good to go. I’m jealous. 

The trail was pretty unremarkable today. We walked through more grassy fields with cows, sloshed through thick mud, weaved around fallen trees. When we stopped for lunch, laid out all of our stuff, storm clouds rolled through. Only one sprinkle fell, but it was enough to make me decide I was putting my tent up tonight. Thankfully, our quilts and sleeping pads did dry out, but it was questionable. 

After we started hiking again, it did spittle on us off and on over the next few hours. Never enough to need my rain gear on, although I did put my pack cover on before leaving our lunch spot, just in case. The rain clouds made for easier walking weather, it was chilly and windy, not blaring hot. I was quite ok with that! 

We never saw Ellie or Doc Holiday, even though both are undoubtedly very close by. After crossing a river that I had to walk through and Pebbles could rock hop across, we took a decent break. It was almost 5pm, we had already gone over 20 miles, and the next water was 2.3 miles away. We planned to take a break, and then push to that water and find somewhere to camp. 

While we were sitting there, Dagmar walked up!! She left Ghost Ranch the day before we did, and somehow today we unknowingly passed her! She said she had set her tent up behind a tree to take an afternoon nap when that storm rolled through. Smart lady. That had to have been when we got ahead of her! 

We stayed and talked with her awhile, she’s so funny. She went the same wrong way in the canyon out of Ghost Ranch as I did-but where I turned around-she took off her pack, let it slide down the 20+ feet, and then she carefully made her way down the completely washed out mountainside! I’m glad I had Pebbles there to tell me it would be safer to go back, because I don’t know that I would have come out of that slide unharmed! I’m shocked she did!

We said our goodbyes and walked our last 2.3 miles, one of which was uphill. It wasn’t bad at all. Somewhere in the middle, there was a shrine that we stopped to take pictures of. It was beautifully done out here in the middle of nowhere.

At the creek, we started looking for places to set up. I found a good spot for my tent and asked Pebbles his thoughts. He was still going to cowboy tonight. I thought he found a spot so I dropped my bag. As I started setting up, he kept walking around, and ultimately decided to cowboy under a tree like 50 yards away. I’m a little sad he’s so far, but I can understand wanting to set up where you want to. He could be sick of me by this point, so, I get that, too. I did eat my dinner with him though, so hopefully he wasn’t that sick of me, since I ruined his chance at a solo quiet dinner. 

Anyway, I’m all bundled up and waiting for my phone to charge so I can unplug my power bank. I hope the dew settles only on my tent and that all my stuff inside stays dry. I don’t remember the dew soaking anything inside before, but I could definitely be wrong. Fingers crossed. Sweet dreams, yall. 

Start: Ghost Ranch Alternate 10.9

Stop: CDT 707.3

Today’s Miles: 19.5

Total CDT miles: 566.5

I was supposed to get up before breakfast and pack-so I’d be ready to go afterwards. I slept in. Not like a real sleep in, as breakfast starts at 7:30-but you know what I mean.

I gorged myself on breakfast buffet, and probably ate too many boiled eggs for anything good to come of it. Afterwards, Pebbles and I packed, took some stuff to the hiker box, said bye to the other hikers, and took off down the backside of the resort to the trail. 

It started off nice, still in the resort itself, but then it quickly got sketchy. There was a creek running through a canyon, and the trail was a mess. Pebbles went right at one point, and I saw the trail off to my left, so I went that way, not being able to see him. I quickly climbed up the canyon and was high over the creek, while Pebbles was also gaining on the other side.. he yelled to me across the creek that he had blue blazes where he was and that I was probably not on the right trail anymore. Crap.

My map showed I was technically on a dirt road and it should reconnect up ahead. I told him as much and kept climbing.. until a short time later he yells back across to me, “It washes out-there’s a huge 20-30 foot sheer drop to the creek below-I don’t think you can pass that way!” I got to the end of where my dirt road was supposed to be crossing to him to see he was absolutely right-my road had been washed out completely and it was loose sand and rock clear to the bottom of this ravine. Yikes.

I told him to keep going, and I turned around to backtrack. When I got down to the creek, I went forward and was able to see the jumbled mess of rocks blocking the trail-get up and over them, and then easily walk along the creek and out of the canyon. 

There were a few miles around canyon walls and whatnot before the trail opened up to cow pastures, trees, and little water. The sky started to cloud up, and it threatened rain for hours. None came, but I was happy for the cloud coverage. We passed so many cows and meandered through their fields until we called it quits around 7pm and cowboy camped close to a dirt road in one of the fields. We did have some trees close by to block the wind and give us the idea of protection. We can currently hear cows mooing and walking around. 

I’m hoping it doesn’t rain over night because I don’t feel like getting soaked or setting up my tent. I’m worn out, and my belly is still full and bloated from eating so much food the last 2-3 days.. not that I’m complaining. We’ll see how it goes, I think im ready to call it a night, and we still have quite a while to go before the sun sets. Maybe I’ll use my headband as an eye mask. Sweet dreams, yall. 

Oh how glorious a zero day is! Especially when all the chores were done yesterday! The only downfall being in a place like this, a resort type deal with scheduled meal times: scheduled meal times. I had to get up and go to breakfast at 7:30 or miss breakfast all together. Strangely, I was awake before then anyway, even though I could have easily stayed in bed a few more hours.

The day was spent relaxing around meal times, checking out all of the cool things the resort has: a library, where I did some continuing education stuff for my CCRN certification that’s up for renewal soon, a gift shop, where I bought sodas and post cards, a cafe with some baked goods, where I sat and wrote out the post cards.. a massive field with horses at the other end.. and a couple museums, one dedicated to Georgia O’Keeffe, the famous painter that lived out here once upon a time. 

It rained off and on, leaving a dampness to the air, but making the desert oranges pop.. the resort is situated around huge mesas with spires and pinnacles. It’s truly beautiful. We explored the resort and also met other hikers.. GG, ScoobySnax and Sunroof, and Doc Holliday. I took a nap midday and then hung out with these folks, learning everyone’s story and eating dinner together. We were rewarded with an outstanding sunset, and went to bed listening to music playing from a wedding taking place somewhere on the property. 

Short and sweet, sorry about that, but it’s not a bad way to spend a zero! I think I’ve eaten so much that my hip belt may need to be extended! Ha. Oh, I guess this it’s important: our box came today.. so, we’ll be hiking out tomorrow after breakfast. Not sure if I’m happy about that or not! Ha. Goodnight yall!