Start: Pie Town Alternate 26
Stop: The Toaster House
Today’s Miles: 13.8
Total CDT miles: 317.7
So, yesterday afternoon, the guy that owns the Davila Ranch showed up! He woke us from our naps and we talked with him a bit. He’s a very nice guy. After he left, we ended up cooking dinner-and by we, I mean Pebbles. He sautéd some onions and fried some chopped potatoes (I helped by chopping said potatoes), and then we had some baked beans to go with the potatoes. I posted the picture of them on yesterday’s blog. They were great!
I slept well, it never rained! We were under a roof if it did, but again, I don’t know how those sandy floors would fair in a real rain storm. We were up early and had eggs and potatoes for breakfast. Since Pebbles did all of the cooking, I did all of the cleaning up. It was cold water I was washing with, which left me with numb fingers, but it was worth it!
We had less than 14 miles to hike down a dirt road to get into the town of Pietown, New Mexico. I knew the “town” was coming up, and expected to see some paved road, stores, something-but the whole place basically existed off of a few intermingled dirt roads with one highway road shooting across the far side. It was tiny!
We went into the Gathering Place II, and sat down to eat lunch. Everyone was super friendly, and the tables were set up family style, like we walked into a stranger’s dining room. We sat at the end of one of the long tables and ordered some food. I got a burger and tater tots with a side of coleslaw. The coleslaw left a lot to be desired, but the rest was good! Pebbles said his was pretty decent, too, fries topped with pulled pork. I bet if we hadn’t have had real food at the Davila Ranch for the last two meals, we would have loved it.
Even still, it is a place named Pietown, so we both ordered a pie to go, too. I got black and blueberry, while Pebbles went with peach and blueberry. I was also not wildly impressed with the pies, but I prefer more savory foods anyway. Maybe if they’d been heated they’d have tasted better. The presentation was beautiful, though!
The owners of the restaurant let us hang out in this “hiker’s den” with a tv, Netflix, couches.. it was wonderful! We relaxed, ate our pies, and watched some TV while playing on our phones. We would be staying at a free hostel in town called The Toaster House, and I had a feeling I’d like the current hiker’s den much more than the toaster house, so we stayed until they closed up at 4pm.
Boy was I right. The Toaster House used to be owned by a wonderful trail angel who ran the hostel and kept everything in ship shape. She sadly passed away, so her children are overseeing it so hikers still have somewhere to go, since there’s nowhere else to stay in town, but there isn’t an on sight caretaker. I wouldn’t have called it clean, by any means, but it wasn’t nasty either. It was just, well-it gave me the creeps. Bare mattresses on the floors in rooms, which just felt like a crack house, minus the crack addicts, spider webs-but no bugs-like roaches or anything. It was truly fine, I just didn’t enjoy it.
I was also very grateful I got to take a shower yesterday at the Davila Ranch, because I don’t think I’d have gotten in the shower here. Pebbles and I walked to a food truck two doors down after looking over the house. I got another burger and a pink lemonade, and ate it back at the house on the back porch. We played cribbage and watched the sun set.
Just before 9pm, 3 other hikers appeared. Pebbles and I ended up taking one of the rooms near the bathroom, and laying here on this mattress curled up in my sleeping bag liner-I wish I had just set up outside in the yard. It’s stuffy in here and I feel like spiders are going to crawl across my face all night. Oh well, free is free, huh? Prayers I fall asleep fast! Goodnight
