Tag: triple crown

Start: 779.3

Stop: Red Bear Welcome Center

Today’s Miles: 14

Total CDT miles: 652.5

To do 14 miles on a “hero” day is absolutely impressive, if I do say so myself. A hero day is when you go in and out of a town in the same day and don’t stay the night.. it’s a hard thing to do, especially when you’re like me and love a bed.. and a shower.. and yet-we did it AND managed to still hike 14 miles! Success. 

We were up early, packed and at the road by 6:30am. We hitched for about an hour, and the second car that came by ended up stopping for us! There just wasn’t a lot of traffic that early in the morning. We did our food resupply at a grocery store, ate a pizza there, hitched to the post office, got my shoes from an outfitter I had mailed them to (the shoes are solid white-lord help me), and then were about to walk to the end of town to hitch back, when we decided we were still hungry and wanted a meal. 

So, we turned around and found a diner. When we walked in, Ellie of all people was sitting there! We met her in Cuba, New Mexico and absolutely loved her. We sat at her table with her and ate way more than we intended. The food was good, nothing special but everything is technically special when you’ve been eating ramen noodles everyday. 

We caught up with Ellie and yapped a while about the snow and which way to go on trail. We could either take the redline and deal with chest deep post holing, or take the blue line alternate and have hopefully little to no snow at all. We decided to not risk it and take the blue line, Ellie was still undecided on which way she wanted to go.  Eventually, we decided we had to get a move on or we’d never leave.. which I would have been totally fine with! 

We said our goodbyes as Ellie walked to her motel room and then stood on the corner and popped out our thumbs. It was so hot already, the idea of walking sounded awful.. but at least we knew we wouldn’t encounter any snow today. Minutes later, a guy stopped for us and took us back to the pass we got off trail at. We filtered some water and then started our road walk down the blue line.

The only thing motivating me to make this road walk happen in a somewhat timely manner, was the promise of a place to camp for free that sells burgers and has live music. It was like having town legs AFTER the town trip! I was full and my pack was heavy thanks to all the food I just bought at the grocery store, and even still I was hauling ass to get to the Red Bear Welcome Center to get my dang burger! God, hiking is so weird.

It was quite hot and miserable on the road, and I was in new shoes I was breaking in.. but.. we got to the Red Bear place before 6pm, just in time to order our burgers and fries and watch the staff set up for live music! We charged our power banks inside and set up our sleeping pads outside in the grass, far enough away from the patio the band was set to play on. While charging our stuff, the man that drove us into Chama this morning saw us and bought us a beer! So stinking sweet!

Today ended pretty dang cool. After we ate our burgers, we laid in the grass on our sleeping pads and listened to the band playing to the 50 or 60 people that came to hear them. The atmosphere was fun yet relaxing. I’m pretty happy we didn’t stay in Chama, that we got some miles done, and got to experience this small town Friday night right here. Oh! And we’re camping with some bike packers! There’s 3 or 4 of them, and we’ve chatted randomly to almost all of them! 

It’s a little chilly, I guess we are in the mountains for real now. Time to get some shut eye, and it’s definitely an ear plugs required kind of night, since we’re so close to the road. I may even put my headband over my eyes like an eye mask, because it’s bright out here too! 

Cheers to a successful day in every way! Sweet dreams yall! 

Start: 755.2

Stop: 779.3

Today’s Miles: 24.1

Total CDT miles: 638.5

HELLLLOOOOOOO COLORAAAAAADO!! 

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!

Goodnight yall! 

Start: 730.1

Stop: 755.2

Today’s Miles: 25.1

Total CDT miles: 614.4

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.