Ghost Ranch to Chama – CDT Thru Hike 2018

Continental Divide Trail – Ghost Ranch to Chama Hike Overview

This section of trail takes you to the border of Colorado. After leaving Ghost Ranch, the terrain quickly transitions into mesa, hills, meadows, and ridges running high above valleys below. Water is suddenly abundant. Relatively, of course. The trails stays high, near 10k feet for much of this section, with a high of 11k. Lots of Elk. With every mile passed, it’s looking less like New Mexico and more like Colorado. 

Sunday May 27th – CDT Day 37

Woke up around 6:30am to that same jackass playing the drum from the night before. Only this time, it was a single hit on the drum once every few seconds. At least this got me up for breakfast.

At the dining hall, it was bagels, hard boiled eggs, mixed fruit, packaged muffins and grits or something. A lot like a continental breakfast at a motel.

Hung out on the porch of the welcome center the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. I charged my phone, used wifi to do some internet things and ate food. Hikers came and went. I’ll be leaving later too, hoping the heat will die down a little.

I normally fluctuate between 32 and 34 size waist at home. The convertible pants I’m hiking in are size 32 waist, and they’ve been falling off for weeks now. This also means the hipbelt on my size large osprey exos 58 backpack cannot be tightened any more. The hipbelt is built in to the pack, not removable. I’ll need to buy the same pack in medium. I spent a while shopping online to find the best price for this discontinued item. Discontinued meaning, this is the 2017 model, replaced with the 2018 model. The new model has the hip belt pockets romoved. No deal (in Arnold Schwarzenegger voice).

I left ghost ranch around 4pm. New shoes now after exactly 650 miles. The Brooks Cascadia 12s are really working well for me, few blisters and no real foot issues.

The trail leaves the ranch via the box canyon trail, and there are spectacular views all around. A good way to end the desert landscape, as I believe it now transitions into more high mountains from here on out.

The Box Canyon Trail follows a small stream as it travels through the canyon. It’s a nice little desert oasis.

There’s an off shoot Canyon where the trail climbs out, very sleepy I might add. After this, the trail just keeps climbing and climbing. No more canyon, and back to the high desert. It’s hot and there’s some steeper climbs. At least they’re short-ish.

After the majority of the climbing is done, the trail joins a road and that is to be followed. This leads to dead end tank, which looked like a pretty good water source, despite being a cow pond, and yeso tank a little farther. Yeso was as nasty as it comes! I have a little over 2L left, I can make that last till late morning tomorrow when I get to the next good water source, maybe 7 miles more.

I found camp around 7:45pm. It’s along a dirt road, and had been used by car campers. It was the skeletons tied to the trees that caught my eye… Old animal bones tied up with barbed wire, boots, beer cans. Weird but funny. Some ambitious hiker should take this to the next level… skeleton wind chimes.

A beautiful sunset played out just beyond the trees. Looking forward to many more of these in Colorado!

Miles – 9.4
Total Miles – 659.8
Rain – no
Sleep – backcountry, tent
Animals – none

Monday May 28th – CDT Day 38

Started hiking around 8am, which has been my usual lately. Then hike til 8pm-ish. Hiking around 12 hours a day now.

The morning starts with a climb. First up a dirt road, then the trail splits off and climbs higher along the Ridgeline. Lots of elevation gain throughout the day. I had LTE for the first couple hours, then no more.

About 8 miles past last night’s camp and right before the junction with the main CDT, I reached Harris bear spring. I took my water from the pipe feeding the lower Trough. I ate first lunch while filtering water.

Now done with the ghost ranch alternate route, the landscape looks like the San Pedro parks wilderness area, but with more distant views. Large rolling Hills and open Meadows, patches of pine and Aspen trees. And of course, cows grazing here and there.

I found a couple more pieces of obsidian this morning. Then I found in Arrowhead made out of obsidian. Pretty cool, never found an artifact like that before.

The trail is still climbing. Lots of downed trees in the 2 mile stretch before upper canjilon lake. Saw an elk in this area.

The trail continues to climb up along canjilon creek. Some small patch of snow still exist along the creek and in tickets of trees. I stopped to filter water again early evening. Carrying 3L.

Above canjilon creek is a large open park. I saw about 5 more elk and a coyote as I passed through. I was considering camping here based on the map, but now here in person, I don’t see anywhere and want to camp.

I pushed on over the high point for today, 10,433ft. I was looking for campsites at this point but being picky. I do this to myself looking for the perfect campsite. However, I must say it’s a great technique for getting in extra miles in the evening. I didn’t stop until about 8:30 pm. Wanted to get in a lot of miles over the next couple days so I don’t get into town so late on Thursday, making it a lighter day.

Full moon and coyotes howling. Off to bed.

Miles – 29.7
Total Miles – 689.5
Rain – no
Sleep – backcountry, tent
Animals – elk, coyote

Tuesday May 29th – CDT Day 39

I slept pretty decent last night, rested up for another big day.

This mornings hike was much like yesterday. Ups and downs, forest, occasional view of a field.

Mid morning, I passed sequoia. Unfortunately camel had to bail yesterday due to sickness. He was able to hitch to Chama from the upper canjilon lake area. If it hadn’t been memorial day, there probably wouldn’t have been anyone up there.

This mornings water source was the Rio Vallecitos. Nice flowing creek with knee deep water, some pools with trout. Ate first lunch here as well.

More forest, small fields. I kept busy by looking at the ground for rocks. Every day I have a couple to add to the collection. I have at least a pound of rocks on me now, haha. I’ll send them and the others in my bounce box home when I get to Chama.

Late afternoon I passed hopewell lake and hwy 64. Man made Lake, but still very scenic.

After hwy 64, the trail passes through a couple of meadows, and starts climbing up hill. It’s on a dirt road for quite a while.

This evening I passed Cracker. I hadn’t seen him since Doc Campbell’s! Glad to see he’s still on trail and doing well. We chatted for a while and sequoia showed up as well. We all wanted to get in another mile or two tonight, and I was the first to leave as I intended on 4 more.

Nice hike this evening. Some more rolling Hills and larger fields. I saw two elk along the tree line just before dark.

Around 8:15 pm I found camp in the tree line at the top of a saddle. A 30 mile day, whew. Feet are tired at the end of the day but in the morning I’m good to go.

Wow, so I was laying in my tent writing in my journal when I got buzzed by two planes! Didn’t get a chance to poke my head out and get a glimpse, but they were super low and very loud. Pretty cool!

Miles – 30.6
Total Miles – 720.1
Rain – no
Sleep – backcountry, tent
Animals – elk

Wednesday May 30th – CDT Day 40

Woke up to scattered clouds, which has not been typical of New Mexico. Lots of mosquitoes too, just like last night.

Not long after leaving camp, I saw 2 elk. I’ve lost track how many I’ve seen total now.

A few more miles of forest and meadows, and the trail reaches a ravine with a small stream. I followed it to the valley floor and pulled 3L, ate some food. Nice little place to stop.

Next, the trail climbs very steeply up to a ridge above the Rio San Antonio. As the trail begins heading northwest, the Valley really opens up. Great view, definitely starting to resemble Colorado now.

Back into the forest, I was getting attacked by mosquitoes. I have no bug spray, didn’t think I’d need it this soon. Black flies are out too. Instead free been using Adobe of my Dr Bronners magic soap. It’s peppermint scented, which I believe keeps bugs away. It definitely seems to work.

Next I passed through the lagunitas lakes area. It’s a bunch of smaller lakes and ponds on this shelf, with a few campgrounds alongside. There were actually several people out here. A guy driving his truck up to one of the campgrounds slowed down as he passed and waved his fist, in a “I know you’re hiking the CDT, kick some ass” fashion. I did the same, and laughed a little.

The trail then climbs a ridge and skirts the side of the steep slopes. Big views. I can get used to this.

Then the trail drops back down into the forest for a good while. The way the light shines through the trees is calming. I still haven’t mastered forest photos though.

After the forest the trail winds up high above a valley again. The east fork Rio Brazos flows here. Snow can be senn on the mountains to the north, although much less than in years past. It’s a low snow year in Colorado.

Storm clouds are Brewing all around, but I’ve avoided rain all day so far. Typical weather for Colorado in the summer, and I’m only about 12 miles from the border now.

The trail then drops down to a saddle where a forest road weeds. It’s a scenic overlook, and a trailhead for the Cruces Basin wilderness. I sat on a log here and ate second lunch. Nobody drove by. I don’t think there are any trails in this wilderness, so I’m pretty sure nobody visit it. Like most of New Mexico. The only non-CDT hikers I saw in the entire state we’re in the Gila, between little bear Canyon and Jordan Hot Springs. It just feels like us CDT hikers have the entire state to ourselves.

After traversing a rocky Ridgeline for a while, it’s downhill towards a stream. My next water source, and hopeful campsite location.

The skies were looking pretty dark all around now. I made it to the stream around 6pm and found a nice campsite alongside it. I set up my tent first in case it rained, but it never did. This was the earliest I’ve gotten to camp in a long time, I can’t remember anything earlier actually.

I soaked my feet in the steam, which was ice cold. Filtered water, cleaned up, ate and relaxed next to the sound of flowing water. As I sat up from dinner, I scared off an elk that was hanging out about 100ft behind my tent.

This is my last night in New Mexico. Hard to believe! I’ll save the reflections for tomorrow. I’m off to bed.

Miles – 23.2
Total Miles – 743.3
Rain – no
Sleep – backcountry, tent
Animals – elk

Thursday May 31st – CDT Day 41

Last night was cold. One pair of socks were frozen, the other I brought in the tent, but were still wet this morning. Not used to this after so long in the desert. I just packed up all my things as quick as possible so I could get moving and generate some heat.

Saw 2 more elk this morning as I broke down camp. Walked Through the large clearing just below camp and from there the trail starts climbing again. Not all that much to see this morning really. Dirt roads, forests with a lot of downed trees to step over. This morning was really all about reaching the Border of Colorado as soon as possible, so I had more time in Chama.

I made it to the underwhelming state line around 11am. It’s just a barbed wire fence along a hillside, with a sign saying entering Rio Grande National Forest. Still, a big milestone. I’ve hiked 750 miles through New Mexico to get here!

After crossing the barbed wire fence and walking a few yards to the Treeline, I was presented with a big sweeping view of Colorado. Below I could see Highway 17 and cumbres pass, now only 3 miles away. There’s a train that runs up and down cumbres pass that had just left as well, with a big black plume of smoke giving away its location.

When I reached cumbres pass, I began the arduous task of hitchhiking. There wasn’t a whole lot of traffic, but in reality I was lucky with maybe the 7th or so car stopping for me. All in all it took maybe 20 minutes.

Hitchhiking is a new experience for me, and I’ve always heard you meet a lot of interesting characters in the process. This was definitely the case! Really interesting guy, works 54 days a year preparing taxes on the east coast and then drives around the country having fun for the rest of the year.

After being dropped off at the Y Motel, I walked to the post office to retrieve my bounce box. It didn’t reach the motel, the post office just held it in general delivery. Huh. At least I got it.

It was an hour walk to the post office and back, and since I don’t only eaten breakfast and a light snack I was pretty damn hungry at this point. I stopped in to the High Country Restaurant for lunch. Good food and great service!

Back at the hotel, I had a wicked food coma and a bit of a headache. I rested for a while before starting to backup all my pictures and GoPro video onto my laptop. Then I went to hang out with some other hikers in another room, and headed up to the Chama Grill for dinner.

Miles – 12
Total Miles – 755.5
Rain – no
Sleep – hotel
Animals – elk

Friday June 1st – CDT Day 42 (zero day)

Walked up to the RV park across the street and did laundry this morning. Ate breakfast at the Chama Grill. 

Spent much of the afternoon working on my blog and some online logistics. My backpack never arrived, and the tracking number showed it still had not left Georgia. I called the company I purchased it from and they said they shipped it on the 29th. It’s in the post office’s hands now.

I bought my food for the stretch to Pagosa Springs from the store across the street, and picked up a DiGiorno pizza for dinner. My room at the motel has an oven, so why not? Later I hung out with Bugs, Shawn, Katie & Becca. We played this game when the dice are pigs and the way the pigs lay after rolled determines how many points you get. And drank whiskey. 

Miles – 0
Total Miles – 755.5
Rain – no
Sleep – hotel
Animals – none

Saturday June 2nd – CDT Day 43 (zero day)

This morning I woke up and worked on my blog for a while. 

Ralph, a local trail angel, was giving hikers rides to Cumbress Pass, and gave a few of us rides to the post office on his way. I decided to check and see if my package was at the post office, even though the tracking number said it hasn’t arrived yet from Albuquerque, its last stop at 3am. Sure enough, they had it! 

It was now around 11am. There’s no way I could get back on trail today as planned, since I still had so much to do. Most importantly, mail back my old backpack, 40 degree sleeping bag, etc. Post office closes at noon today, so I’ll have to wait until 8am Monday. It sucks that I am being pushed back 2 extra days, but on the other hand, there is supposed to be a big storm tomorrow, so I’ll avoid being caught out in that. Also, 2 more days for snow to melt in the mountains, making for easier passage. 

Ralph picked us up on his way back down from Cumbress Pass, and took us back to the motel. I reluctantly paid for two more nights.

I walked up to the barber shop to get a haircut, but it was closed. Oh well, maybe in Pagosa Springs. 

Early evening, I was hanging out on the motel patio with Sprinkler. A couple of non-CDT hikers were hanging out in a room nearby, on a fishing trip. They offered us some beer which we gladly accepted. 

With our livers primed, Sprinkler and I headed up to the saloon across the street for beers and dinner. Good food, good times.

Miles – 0
Total Miles – 755.5
Rain – no
Sleep – hotel
Animals – none

Sunday June 3rd – CDT Day 44

Woke up today to dark clouds and rain, just as forecasted. I ate breakfast at Finas Diner with Music then came back to my motel room to get ready for tomorrow.

I started fooling around with my new backpack, moving over straps and little customizations added in the past. I noticed the hip belt wasn’t really any smaller than my old backpack, and checked the tag… LARGE! Wtf, I ordered a medium to replace my old large! Ugh, they sent me the wrong size.

I contacted the company I bought it from, Going Gear in Smyrna, GA. Even though they were closed today, I was lucky and got ahold of someone there who was able to send me an RMA label. I had the motel print it out for me and I’ll return it tomorrow morning on my way out of town. But, I wasted two full days sitting around waiting on this package. Had to pay for two more days of hotel, food, etc. More importantly, it set me back two full days. The bright side is, I avoided a major storm and had two more days for snow to melt out in the high mountains. 

I spent the rest of the day getting my food together and other little chores. Ready to get out of town and hit the trail again. 

Miles – 0
Total Miles – 755.5
Rain – yes
Sleep – hotel
Animals – none

June 3, 2018 | Categories: Continental Divide Trail | Tags: cdt, cdt 2018, continental divide trail, new mexico backpacking, thru hiking | 1 Comment »

Pie Town to Grants – CDT Thru Hike 2018

Continental Divide Trail – Pie Town to Grants Hike Overview

Leaving Pie Town, it’s a long road walk to anything. Including the stretch before Pie Town, it will be nearly 100 miles of road walking before I hit an actual trail. And even that is optional. It’s a dry stretch along ranch land, and not super scenic at first. Most hikers are skipping the official CDT route through the El Malpais National Monument due to lack of water this year, and I’ll be doing the same. However, this offers the opportunity to hike the Narrows and see the La Ventana natural arch. I ended up hiking the northern end of the El Malpais route to see the lava fields. This was rough terrain, but worth it… I got to explore an underground lava tube! I then road walked to the Zuni Canyon alternate. Here I walked the rim of an old caldera volcano, which wasn’t even named on my maps.

Saturday May 12th – CDT Day 22

Before leaving this morning, I weighed myself on a bathroom scale. 160lb, down 17lbs from my pre hike weight. That sucks, as I did not have a lot of body fat before the hike anyway. There goes all my progress in the weight room. Skinny is not a good look for me, no desire to fit into skinny jeans!

I started hiking at 7:50am this morning. My pack was really heavy, carrying 6L of water and an unknown weight of food… probably around 15lb. Total pack weight was probably around 45lb.

Most of the hike to Grants is going to be road walking. Road walking is definitely not ideal, but to me it is part of the game. Other hikers don’t seem to mind skipping road walk sections, some for fear of injury and others for lack of interest. I’m determined to walk and unbroken line to Canada, so to me, skipping any section no matter what would be cheating. Cheating myself.

There was quite a bit of traffic on the road North of pie town. Brad from the pie town cafe drove by, he stopped for a second to chat but was running late. Almost everyone recognizes us CDT hikers, and will waive and smile. It’s a good feeling.

The weather for the next few days is going to be in the mid 70s, which is very cool for this area at this time of year. There was also a very strong tail wind which kept me even cooler. With the easy road walk, today is going to be a big mile day.

After 3 hours, I had hiked 11 miles. I took a break under a shade tree, chugged a litter of water and ate some food. Feeling good.

After the break, it was more Road walking. Traffic is dwindling and the ranches are spread further apart now. Not much to see though.

The Thomas Mountain Ranch would be a tempting stop for one in need of water or a place to camp, but I was stocked up. I took another break at 2:30pm, already at 22 miles for the day. After an hour, I was back on the Road.

Now the landscape was changing a little bit. The terrain is becoming flatter and more open. I stopped to filter 2L of water from a kiddie pool guarded by cows around 4:30pm. This took some time, but was definitely a good idea. I world have been running really low later had I not stopped.

After leaving the watering hole, I took a different road back to the main road. Eventually I just cut across the open desert Inn the direction of the main road. However, when I reach the road it was blocked by a barbed wire fence. I should be on the other side of this fence, but I didn’t see a good place to go over or under it for quite a while. Eventually, I found a spot that I could wiggle under the bottom strand of barbed wire. And doing so, I got a bunch of thorns on my back, arms, legs and pretty much everywhere that touched the ground.

Back on the dirt road, I could make some better time now. It was about 6pm and I still had around 5 miles to go before I reached highway 117, my goal for today. I figure it’ll be a low to mid 30 mile day when it’s all said and done.

I’ve been listening to a song called “before later becomes never” by caliban that has been motivating me. It has a powerful message… “practice what you preach, a thousand words don’t count. with no desire to change, tomorrow will be the same. Be among the few, the few who dare”! This is exactly how I feel about making the deciding to hike the CDT a well as many other things in life and sometimes a songs lyrics just hit home. Many songs have a powerful message but metal music also has a powerful sound to match. I listened to this song on repeat for much of the evening as I completely shattered my old daily mileage record of 26!

When I reached hwy 117, the El Malpais conservation area was fenced off with barbed wire. This meant I had to walk along Highway 117 for a while looking for a way in. It was a little after 8pm now and the Sun was setting when I found a spot I could shimmy under the bottom strand of barbed wire. I found a place to set up camp after a few minutes. Whew, 34.4 miles today! And to be honest, I don’t feel any more tired than most of the rest of the days so far along the CDT. Hell yeah!

Stars are out and the coyotes are howling. Time for some much needed rest.

Miles – 34.4
Total Miles – 391.2
Rain – no
Sleep – Backcountry tent
Animals – jackrabbit, prairie dog

Sunday May 13th – CDT Day 23

When I woke up this morning I did not feel any more tired than I had on previous days with much less miles, so that’s good news. However, there were a few spots on my feet that felt like they could blister if I wasn’t careful.

Stated hiking at 8am. More road walking, yay. Same as yesterday, the guthooks app was not showing the alternate routes on the map. An hour or so later, they mysteriously showed up without doing anything! Now that I could see the actual alternate routes, I realized that last night I did not need to hike to highway 117. Instead, I was supposed to make a right at either the homestead trailhead or another one further south that I passed. This route would have avoided some road walking and likely been much more scenic. Additionally, it would have taken me right to the water source that I was looking for this morning.

When I got close to the water source, I left highway 117 by crawling under a barbed wire fence and headed cross-country straight for it. When I got there, it was guarded buy some Bulls just has the recent comments on guthooks said. The comments suggested heading north another mile and a half or so to a different tank. So I wasted a decent amount of time here.

Back on highway 117, a vehicle stopped to check on me. Alan and Cindy from Utah, BLM volunteers, had been driving up and down the highway over the last few days helping any hikers they saw while they did their work. They offered me a Powerade which I gladly accepted.

Shortly after, I reached the next water source. I jumped a locked gate and headed over to the tank. There was a dead coyote next to it to set the mood. The water in the tank itself looked pretty gross, but the water feeding the tank was coming out of a pipe and crystal clear. I pulled my water from the pipe and began the filtering process. It was getting really windy now, which was becoming quite a nuisance. High winds are one of my least favorite environmental factors when hiking, it just drives me crazy. Anything under a pound just blows away if you don’t watch it. Plus, nasty cow shit dust was blowing all over.

I was ready to take a food break, but didn’t want to do it next to the dead coyote and in the middle of this field with high winds. I walked up highway 117 for a while until I found a decent shade tree.

After first lunch, more Road walking on highway 117. If you’re tired of reading about Road walking, imagine how I felt hiking it. By the time I reached the Narrows Trail, I had hiked something like 90 straight miles on a series of roads!

The narrows trail parallels hwy 117, but about 400 ft higher on a Mesa. These are the first good views I’ve had in quite a while. I took my time waking the edge of the Mesa, overlooking the vast fields of lava flows in the El Malpais National monument.

After a while, the views stated to look the same and I picked up the pace. The trail ends at a view of the La Ventana natural arch. I took second lunch here and enjoyed this awesome Vista.

I knew the trail ended here, but I assumed there would be a route down off the Mesa somewhere. Plan A was a canyon further down the Mesa. There was a faint footpath leading that way at first, but it fade out. When I reached the canyon, there was a drop off that was high and unclimbable. Bummer!

Plan B was to head farther east to the next canyon that the topo showed to be less steep then the Mesa itself. This took quite a while. It was all off trail. I ended up skirting a cliff with a 40ft drop looking for a way down, and ended up well south of where I wanted to be. Once past the 40ft drop, I found a wash that I followed downhill. This led me to the canyon I was looking for, but unfortunately it was much to steep to Traverse as well.

Plan C is another canyon farther east. More Bushwhacking. I saw some bear prints in the sand as I followed another wash downhill. Lots of bear crap around as well. This wash Led me to a huge drop off where I was hoping there would be a way down. It was probably 70 or 80 ft down. This would have been a sweet waterfall if it were flowing.

Plan D is to head farther east, where the mesa flattens out. It sucks to be on plan D though, don’t want to run out of letters of the alphabet here. It was already after 6pm and I really wanted to be off this mesa tonight. Instead of following the wash back up stream, I went up over the hill to the east. To my surprise, there was an old road here! It hadn’t been used in a very long time but it was leading downhill. What a relief. You’d never guess there was a road here looking at the contour lines on the map.

As I followed the road down, I was rewarded with great views. It was a beautiful canyon with a massive flash flood wash cutting through it. This wash is coming out of the plan C canyon.

I walked out of the canyon towards hwy 117, and started looking for a place to camp. I found some interesting rock formations with a flat sand spot along the base of one of the walls. This’ll do! An owl flew away and into a cave nearby. It’s hooting echoed I set up my tent. Nice sunset too.

I lost a sandal during the bushwhacking earlier. It was in the outside pouch on my pack. Bummer, I’ll have to get another pair at Walmart in Grants.

Another day, another 20+ miles.

Miles – 21.7
Total Miles – 412.9
Rain – no
Sleep – Backcountry tent
Animals – prairie dog, owl

Monday May 14th – CDT Day 24

Last night I heard a really strange animal sound near my tent. It kept coming back despite me yelling and doing my aggressive dog bark impression. After an hour, it finally went away.

As I walked back to hwy 117 I hit a dirt road. This led to a locked gate with a ranch entryway. Oops, I may have camped on private land last night.

Just up the road is the Acoma-Zuni trailhead. There were two coolers pecked full of water bottles here under a tree, courtesy of the Mumms. I carried 4L for the next section.

From here, hikers who take the Cebolla alternate can either Continue north on hwy 117 or head west on the Acoma-zuni trail, taking the Bonita-Zuni alternate into Grants. I chose the latter, but with the intention to hit up the Ice Caves & Bandera Calder a several miles west of the Bonita-Zuni alternate. From here I will take dirt roads and head off trail to connect with the Bonita-Zuni alternate. That’s the plan, anyway.

The Acoma-zuni trail starts off easy enough. Very quickly though, it passes through an old lava flow. I’ve never seen a lava flow before, so i found this very interesting. It was easy to visualize these rocks in their liquid state as lava, as it hardens preserving this image. Very cool!

Many more lava fields to traverse. It seemed they got larger in size as the trail goes on. Some had large cracks with 30ft chasms, others appeared to be a collapsed bowl shape. There was no consistency to the landscape. The rock itself is sharp and treacherous, you wouldn’t want to fall here. It’s no wonder the Spanish explorers who passed through here named it El Malpais, meaning “the badlands”. My Spanish is so bad, I feel like I’m going to swallow my tongue every time I try to say El Malpais. Instead, I just started calling it the spainish badlands.

Late morning, I saw another CDT hiker going the opposite direction. This was the first CDT “purist” I met so far. He said he was hiking the CDT official route only, with no alternates. He seemed to look down on hikers who took alternates. Personally, I’d rather hike a scenic canyon than the official trail if it’s a road walk, for example, but to each his own. My goal with the CDT is to hike an unbroken line to Canada, taking the most scenic and interesting route possible. Others want to make it to Canada as fast as possible. I get it if you’re going for the speed record, but if not, why not try to maximize what you see and experience? That’s the beauty of the CDT though… “hike your own hike” as they say. And I’m certainly glad to do it my way! 

Shortly after passing the hiker, I took first lunch. My routine of airing out my feet and dumping sand from my shoes and socks at all breaks has been working thus far to prevent blisters.

After first lunch, the large open lava fields transitioned into more of a pine forest, with a nightmarish terrain of a billion razor sharp rocks littering the ground. Every step required care. Even so, it was impossible to step on flat ground most of the time. Anyone with foot problems would be wise to avoid this trail. Those without, well, this is how you develop foot problems. My pace was cut massively, by a half at least.

I had seen a couple of small caves along the way, but now I saw my first large one. After dropping my pack, I was able to climb down into the cave to explore. I love this kind of thing, spontaneous finds that beg a closer look. My headlamp was in my pack, so I didn’t go down into the sublevel. Still, a cool find.

Not long after, I found many more caves. These caves were actually old lava tubes. Part of the surface had collapsed, forming an entrance. I climbed down into one, sure to bring my headlamp this time. Wow this was cool! A 20ft diameter horizontal tube running underground, connecting one cave to another. A shaft of light from the surface shined into the cave opening at the end of the tube. Walking to the shaft of light, there was another pile of rocks that, if climbed, could lead out of the lava tube. However, you could also climb over the rock pile and continue on in the lava tube. I did this for a while before realizing I could spend all day down here and turned back. This is one of the most unique places I’ve ever explored, and I was not expecting to find anything like this in New Mexico.

I wanted to get to the ice caves and bandera caldera by this evening. The trail passes by many more caves along this giant lava tube, but I stayed in the surface for the rest. And man, was that a hard thing to do!

The trail then passes close to hwy 53, paralleling it for a while. My feet were staring to hurt from the rough terrain, so after second lunch I decided to road walk for a while. It was after 4pm now and I had only hiked about 13 miles today. Now I could cover some miles and give my feet a relative break.

I walked a few miles on the road before hitting a trailhead. The terrain looked less Rocky here so I jumped back on the trail. It was an easy walk all the way to the El malpais visitor center, which had a water spigot behind the building. I washed off, cleaned my second pair of socks and refilled my water.

I decided to hike the roughly 3 miles to the ice caves so I could knock that out early morning. Plus, a sunrise climbing the caldera. However, when I reached the ice caves and Bandera caldera I was disappointed to learn it was privately owned. Apparently, you can own a volcano. My maps did not show the accurately show the national conservation area boundary. Also, all the land around for miles was privately owned. Camping nearby was not an option. It was 8:30 pm now, and getting dark fast. Bummer.

I hiked on West of the ice caves on hwy 53 by headlamp, which had a surprising amount of traffic. I contemplated camping right alongside the road in a ditch, right next to the fence of some ranch land. However, I decided to push on to forest service road 57 a few miles up, hoping there’d be some public land there. Just before reaching the road, a local in a truck pulled over and asked “are you one of those Divide hikers”? Why yes, I am. I told him my plan for the forest road and he confirmed the first 1/4 mile was BLM land. Sweet! However, he warned about a crazy guy who lives in the area that likes to shoot at people. Not sweet. 

It was a pain to find a decent spot in the dark, but I did. It was 9:15pm now. I set up the tent under the stars, ate dinner and went to bed.

Miles – 24.3
Total Miles – 437.2
Rain – sprinkles
Sleep – Backcountry tent
Animals – prairie dog, rabbit

Tuesday May 15th – CDT Day 25

Lots of coyotes nearby last night. Didn’t get shot or shot at so that’s good. With the Sun out now, I could see I was pretty close to the private land border. When I left Camp, there was a sign saying entering private land. The funny thing is, this is literally the only sign around it wasn’t shot up! Every single sign for anything else had bullet holes in it.

Today’s hike is going to be 100% road walking, yet again. The first section passes through private land for several miles before entering the Cibola National Forest. I happened to check check my guthook app and noticed I was only about a Mile from an old caldera volcano, which had no name. There wasn’t even a sign for it along the road. Better check it out!

The climb up to the rim of the volcano was steep with lots of loose rock. As I crested the rim’s lowest point, I saw several elk running along a game trail on the inside of the crater walls. Very cool. From here, I could climb the low or high side of the rim. I chose the high side.

At the top, and still below the actual summit, was the best view along the entire rim. What an amazing place to be! This is what I love about the CDT… Never know what the day will be like until it unfolds.

I walked around the entire rim of the volcano before heading back down. If I had more time, I would have loved to get down into the center. Maybe next time I find myself on a volcano in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no regulations whatsoever. 

I took first lunch after the volcano, and headed back to the road. After an hour or so of uneventful walking, a truck passed stopped to ask if I needed a ride into Grants. She said she had already picked up three hikers and took them into town, but I said no thanks, I’m not a cheater! It’s kind of crazy to me that so many hikers are willing to Hitch into town to avoid road walking, and then say they’ve hiked the entire CDT. Everyone is free to take their own route, but in my mind if you’re not walking an unbroken line, did you really thru hike the CDT? Anyways, she offers me water which I happily accepted.

When I reached Zuni canyon, the red rocks and steep walks pleased the eyes. However, it was still a road walk along a paved highway. 10 more miles or so to Grants. Halfway through the Canyon, I got cell signal. This was the first reliable service I had in over 300 miles! AT&T had not been able to compare to Verizon this far on the CDT.

The closer I got to Grants, the more garbage there was along the side of the road. This is been a very reliable indicator of distance to town thus far. It’s really sad to see how little respect people have for our public lands.

I got my first view of Grants in the distance after turning a corner on the road. It was still several miles to the sands motel from here. This stretch of Zuni canyon road was very sad. Run down trailers on dirt farm properties with lots of animals in pens. About a mile or two south of the RV Park, there was a gauntlet of aggressive dogs at every home. A pack of pitbulls chased me in the street, teeth showing, growling and barking. I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to kick them in the face, they were way too close for comfort! The owner was right there too, and calmly scolded the dogs, but offered no apologies.  didn’t even say a word to me. I’m sure my thousand-mile stare said it all. I really can’t understand why anyone would want to own these aggressive dog breeds, and then let them roam wild in the streets. This stretch of road did not give me a good impression of the city of Grants.

It was another hour walk from here to get to the Sands Motel. My feet were the most tired they’d been along the entire trail, after hiking 28 miles today, almost all on roads. When I checked in, I was informed that neither my bounce box or my sleeping pad my dad sent were there, but my walmart.com shipments were sitting behind the counter. Hmm. Once in my room, I checked the tracking number for my bounce box, and it showed there was a delivery attempt on May 2nd. It also said that if I didn’t elect to have it be delivered by tomorrow, it would be sent back to my return address in Michigan. So of course, I had the post office make another delivery attempt tomorrow.

First things first… Shower time! Unfortunately, there was a large hole in the bottom of the bathtub that was purposely covered up with a mat. The first time I discovered this hole, I lost my balance and would have fallen out of the shower if I didn’t catch myself on the shower curtain. Seriously?? Then after the shower, when I peeled away the comforter and exposed the bed sheets, I was disgusted to see a bunch of hair. I really hate to complain about these kind of things because it’s a cheap motel, and it’s better than the tent that I’ve been sleeping on, so I let it slide.

Then, an immense feeling of tiredness overwhelmed me. I never feel this tired out on trail, only after reaching a motel. It’s amazing how the body knows when it’s okay to relax and when it must keep going. No way am I leaving the Motel again tonight, so I ordered a pizza, wings and a two liter of Coke. After eating and writing in my journal, I succumbed to the powerful urge to sleep. Another successful section of the CDT under my belt.

Miles – 28
Total Miles – 465.2
Rain – no
Sleep – motel
Animals – deer or elk, rabbits

Wednesday May 16th – CDT Day 26 (Zero Day)

For some reason, I don’t sleep all that great my first night in a motel after getting back from a hike. It doesn’t make any sense at all. And this was no exception. But rest is rest, and anything is better then that damn foam mattress pad I’ve been sleeping on.

I called my dad to get the tracking number for the sleeping pad he sent. This too should have been here, delivery attempt was made May 14th. I walked into the office again to question why the packages weren’t here, and I got some poor excuses… Sometimes we’re not here because we pick up the kids from school, and a lot of incoherent mumbling in broken English.

I walked up to the post office, and my sleeping pad was there. Whew. But the most important package, my bounce box, was still set to be delivered to the Sands sometime today. At this point I didn’t want to stay another night at the Sands Motel, but didn’t have a choice because that’s where my precious bounce box is being sent. I had told the woman behind the counter a little about my story and she ran back to see if the mailman had already left for his daily route, and I just missed him. However, she let me know what his route looks like and when and where to expect him. This will come in handy later!

Back at the Sands Motel, I went into the office to reluctantly pay for another night. There was a different person out front, apparently the husband of the woman who had checked me in previously. Without me saying anything about the missing package, the guy behind the counter told me they didn’t accept the package because I didn’t call them to let them know it was coming. Written on neon green duct tape were the words CDT hiker, my last name, and my ETA date. This was supposed to be a hiker friendly motel, and used to CDT hikers as well as accepting packages.

I informed him that I called the motel before starting the hike to confirm they accept packages for hikers, and was not able to call them after sending the package because I haven’t had cell phone service in over 300 miles of hiking. He didn’t seem to understand how important these packages are to CDT hikers, and offered no sympathy. At this point, I got very angry. I told them how I almost fell in the “fucking hole in the bathtub” and about all the hair in the bed, but since I swore at him, he then said there are no more rooms available. Fine, I don’t want to stay another night in your shitty Motel anyway!

I packed up my things and headed next door to the very kind and friendly Southwest Motel. Next I got lunch at Blake’s Lotaburger. Now, I do not trust the Sands Motel to keep my package at this point. He’d probably just throw it away, or send it back.

Knowing that the mailman takes High Street over to the Sands Motel as part of his daily route, I posted up in the shade behind a department store and waited for the truck to pass by. Sure enough, after about 45 minutes the mail truck drove by. I was a little slow on the draw to flag him down, so I had to run after the truck. I was unable to catch up to him at his first two stops, but he spent a little longer in the third stop and I caught up. I explained my situation, showed him my ID, and he gave me the package before it arrived at the Sands Motel. Even the mailman said that was pretty messed up that the motel refuse to accept the package based solely on the fact that there was no phone call.

I spent the afternoon catching up with friends and family on the phone and not much else. Horray for zero day.

Miles – 0
Total Miles – 465.2
Rain – no
Sleep – motel
Animals – none

Thursday May 27th – CDT Day 27 (Zero Day)

I slept in today, getting much better sleep. Yesterday was a bit of a lost day, having the turmoil with my packages and all. Damn Sand Motel.

I spent the morning getting my resupply plan for Cuba together (ordering from Walmart.com), then making a list of things I need from Walmart here in Grants for the next section.

It was about 1.75 miles to Walmart from here, not bad in the late morning before temps get hot. I ran into Ripple just getting into town. Perigrene had some shin splints and they had to hitch in from the Narrows. Walmart is pretty well hidden, no sign and not visible from the road. Grants must not have wanted them to build at all here.

After Walmart, I ate lunch ate Dennys and walked back. I spent the afternoon getting my food together and going through my gear.

The evening was spent dealing with the arduous process of unloading my pictures, video and GPS data to my WD Passport Pro HDD. Then copying over the pictures to my laptop, choosing which to use on my blog, resizing them, uploading them to wordpress, copying over my journal on my phone to wordpress and on and on. Time consuming!

Back on the trail tomorrow, after what seems like forever. Back to back zeros, that might not happen again for a while.

Miles – 0
Total Miles – 465.2
Rain – no
Sleep – motel
Animals – none

May 18, 2018 | Categories: Continental Divide Trail | Tags: cdt, cdt 2018, continental divide trail, new mexico backpacking, thru hiking | 2 Comments »

Silver City to Doc Campbell’s Post – CDT Thru Hike 2018

Continental Divide Trail – Silver City to Doc Campbell’s Post Hike Overview

No more open desert, and more water in this section. At least towards the end of this leg. The beautiful Gila River awaits, and cell phone service is a thing of the past for us AT&T customers… it will be another 300 miles before reliable service! 

Monday April 30th – CDT Day 10

I had some errands to run this morning, including a trip to the post office to mail my bounce box to the town of Grants. I should be there roughly 2 weeks from now. I got a much later start than I intended.

Since I hitched in to Silver City on Saturday so that I could have most of the day at the Trail Days festival, I now had to get back to the point on hwy 90 where I got my hitch. Other hikers hitched into town and never went back to complete the 12.6 Mile Road walk section on highway 90, or highway 180 if they took that route, but I don’t intend to cheat! Fortunately, the very hiker friendly camp host at the Silver City RV park offered to give me a ride.

I got dropped off on hwy 90 about a mile north of Tyrone Rd just before noon. It should be roughly 11 miles to Silver City from here. Yay, road walk time.

The road walk is just as boring as it sounds. However, there was some entertainment along the way. I passed a long driveway beating to a home along Highway 90 that was lined with toilets. One can’t help but laugh at this. His neighbors must love him!

When I got into Silver City, I walked past a store that sold mattresses and guitars. Yep, you heard right. I love weird business models like this. Not sure how successful it is but it sure is good for a laugh. 

As I was walking down hwy 90, someone shouted “Famous! Famous!!”. It was hodgepodge and Swiss monkey on the other side of the street. Hodgepodge is the one who gave me my trail name back in Lordsburg. They just got into town themselves, and were running around doing errands. We chatted for a few minutes, and then we went our separate ways.

It was around 3pm by the time I made it to Dairy Queen, my lunch destination. So I made pretty good time getting into town. Just over 10 miles. 

After lunch, more Road walking. I followed little walnut rd north out of town for several miles. I passed a guy on the sidewalk who had a ranch up the road. He recognized I’m hiking the CDT and we talked for a few minutes about the trail. As I walked up the road, many cars seem to recognize me as a CDT hiker and waved. 

Several more miles of road walking before I entered the Gila national forest. Still many more miles before the best of the Gila, but no more paved Road walking and a notable milestone nonetheless. 

After walking on the trails for a while, two Mountain bikers came flying around the corner and scared the shit out of me. I quickly jumped off trail to avoid being hit.

Now back on the official CDT route, the Trail reaches little Walnut road trailhead. From here, you can choose to take the official CDT route through the Black mountains or veer west on the dirt road and take the Gila river alternate route. Almost everyone takes the river route. That’s what I’m doing as well.  It really should just be the official route. 

A car approached on the dirt road and stopped alongside me. The passengers were wondering why I had so much camera gear hanging off my pack and just generally interested in what I was doing out here. I told them I’m hiking the CDT and explained that it’s a route from Mexico to Canada. This spawned numerous questions which I was happy to answer. I enjoy telling people about the trail and hearing their reactions. It’s especially entertaining when they’ve never heard of the trail. Most people think I’m crazy! But, in a good way.

The route then follows a smaller dirt road up hill. It was around 7pm now, so I was looking for a place to set up camp. After another half hour I found a good spot and called it a day.

As the sunset, several coyotes could be heard in the distance, growing ever closer. I laid my head down to sleep just before 10pm, ready for another 140 days of hiking on the CDT! It’s hard work but the adventure ails most pains. Life is good. 

Miles – 22.7
Total Miles – 169.6  
Rain – no
Sleep – Backcountry tent 
Animals – none seen

Tuesday May 1st – CDT Day 11

The Coyotes were howling all night, and even as the Sun rose. Now on day 11, this is officially my longest backpacking trip for both time and distance. 

Not far up the trail, I passed a few people cowboy camping. More dirt road to follow, but the views are getting better. 

When I reached bear Creek, I found a plenty of water about 100 ft upstream. A Brit named Henry was camping nearby, and we both pulled some water from the stream. He had been camping with Cracker last night, who had already hit the trail. I hung out at the stream for a while cameling up. 

Even though it was a dirt road, I enjoyed the next section. Sometimes the dirt road is old and now it is a trail only. That’s what I assumed this was. Old mining equipment littered the side of the road. There were a few small stream crossings well. It was surprising to see a truck coming down the road after one of the crossings. It was a US forest service truck. The two guys in the truck asked where I was headed. “Canada”, I said. This spawned the usual questions. I am starting to enjoy seeing people’s reactions. 

Eventually I left the road and headed up Hill along a canyon. Now the trail is along a ridge top with great views. Lots of rolling Hills and mountains, Green trees and eventually red Rocks and hoodoos. Very cool. 

I stopped for lunch at the “Regis-tree”… A tree converted into a CDT register. Clever. I later found out a guy who goes by the name “the hermit” lives about 30 yards away from the tree, but I never saw him or anything resembling a place to live in the area. I’m sure he was watching me, lucking in the bushes or something.

Nice hiking for a little while after lunch. Red rocks and then a forested canyon. Now on the sycamore canyon trail, it gains some elevation, quite steeply at times. Probably the hardest climb yet.

The climbing went on for a while. Thick vegetation along the trail too, including manzanitas. I have some scars on my legs from previous encounters with manzanitas, which brought back those not so fond memories. 

When I made it to tadpole ridge, I was surprised that it was actually a canyon. It was all downhill and easy walking. Where it ends at sheep corral canyon, there was a water tank with a few hikers resting beside it. They started April 27th, and were doing 35 mile days. Beasts! Have fun with that. 

I took a lengthy break at the water tank, which had good water from a spigot. Afterwards I continued down sheep corral canyon. Easy waking downhill. After a few miles, I saw a sign for the Gila River, 4.25 miles. That should make a good camp for tonight. 

The next section of trail follows a dirt road on a ridge top. When it starts heading downhill towards the river, I was presented with the best views yet. Huge canyons and red rocks. 

The trail down to the river took forever. My knees hurt from going downhill and the rocks on the trail made slipping a common occurrence. Because of a the switchbacks, it was about 6 miles, not the 4.25 as the sign said. Liar! 

The trail goes down to Sapillo creek first before hitting the Gila. After crossing the creek it was only a 1/4 mile to the confluence with the Gila. Here I ran into Cruise again, who I had seen earlier at the last water tank. He was looking for a campsite too. There was a good site along Sapillo, but not many right at the confluence. I was also expecting there to be more hikers here, but it was just Cruise. He took the food campsite along Sapillo, which had room for multiple tents. I opted for a small spot under a tree right at the confluence. 

This spot is impressive. Huge canyon walls surrounding me on all sides, and the most water I’ve seen on the CDT so far. This is where all of the river crossings start. Basically, my feet will be wet all day tomorrow as I will have about 50 crossings or more. Definitely a good place to stop for the night. 

Today seemed long and tough. Tomorrow is going to be interesting. The only other time I’ve done anywhere near as many River crossings was also in the Gila back in 2012, on the west side in the Mogollan mountains. However, those were tiny streams in comparison. 

Miles – 21.7
Total Miles – 191.3 
Rain – no
Sleep – Backcountry tent 
Animals – none seen

Wednesday May 2nd – CDT Day 12

It was nice sleeping next to the sound of the river last night. I saw Cruise make his first river crossing as I woke up and looked out my tent around  6:30am. 

The skies looked dark and stormy, and it was noticeably cooler than previous days. I don’t have a rain jacket, rain cover for my backpack or a compactor bag for the inside of my backpack yet, as these items are in the resupply box I have waiting for me at Doc Campbell’s. I only have one garbage bag to protect my belongings from the rain. I put my sleeping bag, toilet paper and extra electronics stuff inside as I packed up. 

My campsite was only about 15ft from the Gila River,  and I needed to cross it immediately after setting off this morning. If crossing a river only once or twice throughout the day, it might make sense to take off your shoes. However, today’s hike will cross the river about 50 times, so the shoes stay on. 

Aftet the first crossing, I hardly cared about wet feet. The amazing scenery certainly helped. The river flows through a fairly steep sided canyon with red rocks. Really cool! I bet few people hike this outside of CDT hikers. 

Progress was slow at first, with numerous crossings and lots of loose sand. The wind was gusting over 40mph and the occasional rain drops could be felt. After about 2 miles, I passed the only other hikers I’d see along the river all day. 

When I stopped for lunch, I realized how cold it was as soon as I stopped moving. Lots of sand and pebbles were accumulating in my shoes from the river Crossings, so I had to empty my shoes to prevent blisters. I only stopped long enough to clean out my shoes, filter water and eat. 

Many more river crossings. Deepest was mid thigh, and the water levels are really low right now. None of the crossings were dangerous though. Some really beautiful bends and pools. I can’t stress how cool this was! 

By early afternoon the weather stated to clear. This made the hike that much more enjoyable. The middle section had less river crossings and more actual trail waking. This helped me get the miles I needed faster. 

By mid afternoon the train clouds were back. It rained for about 20 minutes but not terribly hard. Good, otherwise much of my gear and myself would be soaked. 

I saw a sign for a trail leading up to hwy 15 (1 mile) that wasn’t on my map. Otherwise it’d be Another 3+ miles to the Gila River bridge on hwy 15. This was a good climb, but a straight shot to the road. Awesome view of the Gila River in the canyon below. 

Now on hwy 15, there were some good photos ops alongside the road. Another 3 miles or so to Doc Campbell’s. I arrived around 5pm, and set up on a bench outside next to cracker, sequoia and camel. Familiar faces! 

Doc Campbell’s is awesome. They go out of their way to accommodate CDT hikers by staying open much later than their posted hours, stocking foods hikers want, accepting mail stop packages etc. Pretty much any CDT hiker passing through stops here and there’s almost always a few hanging out on the patio outside. It’s a great place to hang out and socialize. 

There are 2 main options for camping nearby; The RV park on the opposite side of hwy 15 and the Gila hot springs campground off Access Rd. I chose the latter. The campground is right on the river, and the hot springs are here too. No showers, but everything else you could want out of a campground. 

First thing I did after setting up my tent was jump in the hot springs for a soak. It felt amazing after the cold and windy day in the Gila River. Beautiful scenery and so relaxing. 

I ate dinner with the other CDT hikers next to a campfire, my first along the trail. Afterwards most of us had another soak to warm up before bed. I laid in my tent looking up at the stars, reflecting on the day. I feel so lucky to be out here. So many adventures still to be had. 

Miles – 20.9
Total Miles – 212.2  
Rain – yes
Sleep – tent, developed campground 
Animals – none seen

Thursday May 3rd – CDT Day 13 (Zero Day)

Today is another zero day. I have one planned for every resupply point in New Mexico, except Lordsburg. It was the first day I woke up to sun hitting my tent. On a hiking day, is already be packed up and gone by then. Last night was the coldest yet, below freezing. I got up in the middle of the night to take my water filter in my tent with me so it didn’t freeze. 

I jumped into a hot spring immediately after getting up. There is no better way to beat the cold! Most other hikers had the same idea. Most hikers also left this morning, few were taking a zero. 

After warning up it was time to head back to Doc Campbell’s to pick up my resupply box, get breakfast and bullshit with everyone else. Walking out of the campground, the road passes through a ranch. There was a rope across the road, clearly blocking it temporarily for some reason. I waited a minute but nothing was happening, so I ducked under it to keep going. As soon as I did that, a stampede of horses came flying down a side road. I quickly jumped back on the other side until the rancher was done moving them from the stable to the corral. 

Up at Doc’s, several hikers were hanging out on the patio. I spent several hours up here charging batteries, eating, going through my resupply box, eating, bullshiting and more eating. It’s more scenic than I was expecting, and just a cool place to hang out if you have good company.

One interesting thing about Doc Campbell’s is the fact that their toilets are plumbed with hot water. You’d think the seat is heated but the hot water warms the bowl. This is only the second toilet I’ve encountered in my life with hot water, worth noting for the comedic value. Lots of jokes about this. 

More hot springs soaking and good conversations back at the Gila hot springs campground. This place is awesome. At $8 for an overnight stay, this is going to be hard to beat in terms of bang for your buck. I highly recommend visiting whether you’re a hiker or not. If your schedule allows, you’d be crazy not to take a zero here! 

I bought some brats from Doc Campbell’s earlier which we cooked over a fire for dinner. Last hot meal for a while, with a 145 mile hike to Pie Town next. I asked if they had any skewers for sale for cooking the brats, and they suggested I buy a fly swatter and remove the swatter part. Genius! McGuyver would have been proud.

Miles – 0
Total Miles –  212.2
Rain – no
Sleep – tent, developed campground 
Animals – none seen

May 17, 2018 | Categories: Continental Divide Trail | Tags: cdt, cdt 2018, continental divide trail, new mexico backpacking, thru hiking | Leave A Comment »