After 39 days on trail, Pebbles and I crossed the New Mexico/Colorado border today! I’m so dang happy I can’t stand it.. except that for the first time in practically forever, I was bitten by mosquitos today. Hopefully that’s not a sign of what’s to come.
I slept well, especially since I could hear the creek beside our tents all night. It felt like listening to my white noise app, so peaceful! As always though, morning came too quick for me. We were up and hiking by 6:30, and yall, I’m still not used to that.
The morning started off cool, temperature wise, and the trail felt very green and slightly overgrown. We hit a dirt road and met a bike packer doing the Great Divide Trail. Pretty cool to think you can just cycle the whole way too, seems crazy but I guess we seem crazy to them.
Anyway. The morning was mild and then as we got closer to Colorado, the trail seemed to climb a little bit and we started to get some pretty incredible views. In the afternoon, we hit the border, and to my great delight, someone had put out a cooler of trail magic!! I got a Mountain Dew and then Pebbles and I took pictures with the border sign.
Initially we planned to get into Chama tonight, but we’d have to hitch a long way and so many hikers are there to wait out the snow in the San Juan Mountains a little bit longer.. so the rooms available are expensive. We decided to just camp close to the road, hike that little bit in the morning, hitch to town, and then hitch back all in the same day.
It works out great for today, because the spot we decided to camp wasn’t far after the border and the views are unbelievable already. We even saw a herd of elk and heard them bugling! We got an epic sunset and even though the mosquitos are out, they aren’t too bad, so we’re going to cowboy tonight to get out quicker in the morning. I cannot wait to see what all Colorado has in store for us!! If it’s anything like the last few hours, it’s going to be spectacular!
Today was a long one, and a tiny bit sketchy there for a minute.
We started off on a dirt road walk with lots of woods around that opened up into gorgeous valleys and meadows. We saw some wild horses, and then people on horses, and then a lady camping with horses. For once, today felt like the horses outnumbered the cows! And we had tons of streams, so beautiful greenery and so much water. It was pretty refreshing.
We passed a campground that I dumped my trash at, and used a pretty decent privy. Shortly there after was a recreational lake spot, so we snagged some water while other folks were fishing. This is where we met 2 people on horseback. They were out for a ride with their friend who is doing the CDT in sections on horseback too! She was up ahead of them, camping with her 2 horses and her dog. They were on their way back to the horse trailer and were going to move it for her. How cool!
The afternoon included some decent climbs, all open and skirting up grassy mountainsides. There were aspen groves spotted around and when a huge storm rolled in, Pebbles practically leapt off the side of the trail into a patch of them! If it wasn’t actually a little scary, it would have been hilarious.
As always, he was walking ahead of me up this last climb, like 2 miles away from where we planned to camp. Lightening flashed across the sky and several seconds later the thunder rumbled through my chest. I spot Pebbles crouched down against the mountain up ahead. It started to rain, and as I passed him, he looked at me like I’m the craziest person he’s ever met. But when I looked up at the sky, the worst of the storm seemed to be off in the distance a bit.. if I’m going to “sit out” a thunderstorm, I prefer to have more coverage than the nothing covering either of us at the moment.
I don’t claim to make the best choices ever, but the way he looked at me had me laughing out loud as I walked up hill in the rain. I probably am the nut job he thinks I am. Anyway, minutes later-Pebbles comes barreling up past me, muttering under his breath just how “smart” he thinks I am, and how maybe “un-smart” he is for deciding to follow me in a thunderstorm. I continue to cackle, feeling like the lunatic he thinks I am, when he suddenly drops is his pack at the side of the trail then lunges down the side of the mountain a good 50+ feet to an aspen grove. I gape.
There is no way in hell I was about to go down the steep side of a mountain to some trees, especially when I could see another huge patch of trees up ahead on trail-granted I did have to continue uphill to get to them.. with the lightening continuing to crackle across the sky almost continuously. So, Pebbles stayed in the aspen grove, and I kept walking until I got to the trees at the top of the climb.
The thunder only seemed to come faster and faster each time the lightening streaked across the sky. I could actually smell the ozone, just like our friend Ellie told us you could when the lightning is way too close. I huddled under a huge grove of trees for over 30 minutes. I watched and counted the seconds between lightning strikes and thunder rumbles.. when it seemed the worst had passed, I kept moving-running through the open meadows to the next grove of trees.
Eventually, the trail stayed in a forest and kept going downhill. In the next valley, I found a spot for both of our tents, and got some water from the creek running beside it. Twenty minutes passed. Then thirty. I got worried, so I dropped my pack and took my Garmin and my headlamp, and headed back up the trail to look for Pebbles. He’s such a fast hiker, and the storm had rolled on, so he should have been at the spot I found by now.
I hiked back about a mile, yelling his name, when I finally ran into him. He had stayed put in that same aspen grove the entire time! Over an hour! With nothing from his pack, squatted down holding the lightening position. That’s some serious strength.. he didn’t even have on his rain gear-and it was chilly with all the bad weather. We walked back together, talking the whole way-him confirming I’m completely insane to walk UP a mountainside in a lightening storm.
When we got to where I dropped my pack, he agreed it’s a good campsite-so we set up our tents. One of the spots I found had a dead limb lingering over it, so we smooshed both tents next to each other. We’ve just finished our dinner, and the rain is gone. I’m excited for tomorrow-we finally hit the Colorado border!! We’ll have to hitch to Chama and I’ll get to pick up my new shoes. Wahoo!
Oh!! Also-I found out that GG fell from that spot I turned around at when leaving ghost ranch! She dislocated her hip and had to hit her SOS button. She’s in Albuquerque and had surgery! She’ll be non weight bearing for 10 weeks and her hike is over. I’m praying for a smooth recovery. Hike ending injuries are what scare me most. I know I have what it takes to make this thing happen-just as long as I don’t get injured like that. Scary stuff. Anyway. Time to get some sleep, say a prayer for GG if you don’t mind. Sweet dreams, yall.
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.
