MIA in the mountains – The hike

It’s been a while. My last blog was in Cuba, NM. A lot has happened since then. Let’s look at the journey in ten-day increments, shall we?

Day 40: Leaving Cuba was a wild ride. The road to Cuba consisted of Magic Tables and a paint palette of reds, oranges, iron magenta and tan. Leaving Cuba was a stark contrast. At first we walked along the road, New Mexico style, but soon after we crossed our first stream… then a second and a third. The poplars suddenly appeared and the mountainside was filled with green. There were meadows and swamps. There were cows, prairie dogs, and our first sign of snow (omen). In the days that followed, some days we were thrown back into the desert and others into the green forest.

We got stuck at Ghost Ranch being held hostage by our UPS package. We then went hiking being basically chased by a church summer camp of evil teenagers on a group hike timed perfectly with our departure. We fell off cliffs as we tried to leave the valley with its confusing twists and turns. We then stopped by Hiker-Midnight (9:00 pm) after waiting for the package that never showed up. He arrived 45 minutes after leaving the ranch. We covered big miles to get to Chama in four days, covering our first day of 29 miles on the CDT. We saw a wild horse run past our tent in the morning and got some lovely magic on Ron’s trail and the famous Wish Bone. I saw the rare sight of a marten: basically an alpine weasel. We spent many nights in sub-zero temperatures. I spent every morning walking with my swollen. It was sad to say goodbye to New Mexico, but I left satisfied to have walked its entire length. I felt like I got to know New Mexico better than if I had visited by car.

Chama was lovely. We stayed at Chama Trails Motel and it felt luxurious. We saw a dozen hikers in town. We all shared stories of our trip last week and the number of blisters on our feet. The Mexican restaurant we ate at was absolutely amazing. From there, we were serious. Our friend’s husband went to see it and then drove us all to the trailhead after a delicious but nervous lunch. We knew there was some snow ahead, but we had no idea how much.

Leaving Chama was hard. Just getting by was difficult. Our backpacks were heavy and I felt like I couldn’t fill my lungs with air no matter how hard I tried. We were leaving a passable pass towards a very high mountain pass. It was immediately evident that we were in Colorado. From the top of the pass we saw mountains, storm clouds, a waterfall in the distance and most importantly: snow. The snow was slushy and slippery. There were piles of accumulated snow that we had to constantly climb up and down. The sky began spitting hail and snow at us, all while the sun was still shining. We pushed ourselves until we reached camp, something we would do for the next seven days. We started walking the next day at 6:00 am. The snow was crunchy and hard: still frozen. That was when we decided to start the “Sierra Protocol”. The three of us hiked the Sierra in CA on the PCT during a record snow year (2023). We woke up before the sun every night to walk in the best possible conditions. Fortunately, the snow wasn’t as plentiful here in Colorado, so we started hiking at 5:00 a.m. We still had three to four hours of usually hard snow left to get some good miles in the morning. Unfortunately, with snow like this late in the season, the post hole was still the worst we’ve ever seen.

We were not mentally prepared for the hours of work we did to get to Pagosa Springs. Our short, clothed legs were literally bleeding from cuts from the frozen snow that looked like glass particles. We were leaving blood in the snow from our post holes: a red trail of breadcrumbs. We were not alone. There was a small group of friends on the day ahead, we all knew each other’s pain. We laughed in the waist-high post holes to keep from crying, which we would save for the next stretch. Our feet were wet every day and our shoes were frozen most mornings. The stretch was only four days, but it felt like a week. Day 41. Getting to Wolf Creek Pass was like seeing Valhalla. A few minutes later we had a problem and it seemed like a sign: zero in Pagosa. I booked an Airbnb hours before arriving in the city. It was nice, had a hot tub and space for all our friends who had been through the same pain as us.

The zero ended too quickly but it was amazing. We get issues all over the city from amazing, kind people. We made dinner together like a happy tram and they offered a ride back to the trail the next day. I can’t overstate it enough: the generosity of strangers is what makes Thru Hiking possible.

The day I left the city was not a happy day. We were eager to leave the comforts of the city and tired of the conditions that awaited us. One hiker threw up and we were all nervous about the city stomach he gave us from eating large amounts of food like burgers and fries (from Sage, the best restaurant in town), chocolate milk, steak, donuts, coffee, and ice cream. We were also sad that one of our tram members decided to be smart and cut the Creed. Something that most hikers before and after us decided to take. We would miss him and regret not having gone with him many times in the days to come.

The worst was yet to come… But that’s a story for another post.

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