Day 29 – The One Where I’m on the Lam
Day miles: 30
Trip miles: 535
We got up fairly early to get a jump on the road walk. We knew it would be hot. New Mexico is definitely much hotter this year than in 2019. I distinctly remember being cold on occasion then. It does get cool overnight and in the early mornings, but the sun, once up, is powerful.
We spent the morning first walking a busy highway, viewing road kill and trying to figure out what it had once been. We were stumped several times by large brown piles of somewhat fluffy fur – perhaps a small deer or calf.
Once we turned off the busier road, the walking was more pleasant. It didn’t take long, however, for us to run into some loose dogs. Stormy was up ahead of me, walking past an old, beat up trailer. There was a guy out front with two or three dogs running around, and they were down a long driveway. I thought “good – they’re loose but the owner is there.” Ha!
As Stormy passed the trailer, two of the dogs took off after him barking. I see him dancing around as they circle him aggressively. He only had one trekking pole, but he had it out fending them off. I heard him trying to talk to them and calm them down. Then I hear the owner yell “throw a rock at him!” referring to the more aggressive of the two dogs. What?! How about I throw a rock at you, I thought.
The owner has been walking up the driveway, but then I saw him waive his hand in the air as if he couldn’t be bothered, and he went right back down and entered his trailer. He probably realized he had passed an unacceptable distance away from his 24 pack of Natty Light and bug zapper.
I got ticked off by the whole thing, so I picked up my pace to try and help Stormy out, who was having no luck. The larger dog seemed to have lost interest, going across the road. The medium sized one was still hell bent on causing a ruckus. Luckily for Stormy, it saw me coming – a new play toy.
Knowing that Stormy’s kinder tactics had not worked, as it ran at me I charged it yelling with my trekking poles. I figured I would try the last ditch move I call “Alpha Dogging It.” It didn’t work. It didn’t NOT work though. The dog didn’t get to me, I just ended up doing the same dance with my poles that Stormy did. The dog seemed to know I was close to poking it in the eye with my poles.
The whole thing was pretty annoying. The fact that the guy just let his dogs do that to us tells you all you need to know about most loose dog encounters on trails. Nevertheless, we got through it and moved on.
We hiked fairly quickly through the morning and made it to a small mercantile store, the only thing in a town called Regina. Of course, it was called the Regina Mercantile. It was a lovely store – very spacious with a large assortment of snacks, some ice cream, a water spigot out back and a restroom.
The proprietor was very friendly. She said we could hang out for a bit and cool off. It was clear she was getting used to the hikers that were coming through on their way to Chama. I drank a soda, ate two ice cream bars, and downed some water. We had miles to make, so didn’t stick around long.
The rest of the day was on an even quieter road. It was blazing hot out. Later in the afternoon we passed a water cache that some ranchers had left out for hikers. I was grateful for this because otherwise we would have probably had to start walking up to random ranches to beg for water.
We took a break on a small ledge in the shade up above the road a bit. It’s always hard to get going after a break when my feet hurt from blisters or the pounding of pavement. I get used to walking on them, but then a short rest reminds me for the next mile that they do, indeed, hurt. “Hi! Remember us? Yes, the two feet you are abusing. We have rights too you know!”
Towards the end of the day, the road was even more deserted. We walked over a cattle gate and, given the circumstances, I pulled off to the side of the road to pee. Now, not only had we not seen a car for a while, but I had not seen a single police officer in New Mexico that I could remember.
I didn’t walk very far off the road to do my business, my feet already throbbing from the pavement. Of course, mid-stream I hear the undeniable sound of a car coming up behind me. I was in the middle of nowhere New Mexico, so I wasn’t about to panic and stop doing my business.
I wrapped up and turned around just in time to see that the car behind me was a police officer. I could also see Stormy laughing in the background. I panicked a little – would this cop actually charge me for public urination?! Would I end up on some kind of public pee people list?
The car slowly passed, and then I saw the brake lights come on. Oh man…. I don’t know if he was messing with me, or considering talking with us, but the brake lights went off and he kept on cruising. Stormy thought it was all hilarious.
I stood there marveling at the coincidence of a cop driving by on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere at the moment I was mid-stream. The universe has a weird sense of humor sometimes. What I didn’t know was that this little saga wasn’t quite over.
We kept on trucking, hoping to find a place to camp. New Mexico is the land of barbed wire fences. Sometimes it feels like most of the land is roped off. We hit one uphill stretch and I felt myself just start to cave. My feet were killing me. I could feel every step. I was hot, and I knew I needed to just call it a day.
I saw Stormy up ahead give the thumbs up sign at the top of the hill. We had been looking for a side road that would provide a break in the fence line and potentially a place to camp. I dragged myself to the road intersection and, sure enough, the fence ended. The road had barrels in front of it saying it was closed. It appeared on the map that the road led to a trailhead in a portion of the national forest that was closed, so they didn’t want people driving up there.
We weren’t sure if we were on private land, so we camped right off the main road we had been walking behind a large group of trees. It was too hot to set the tents up right away, so we just sat there in the shade, swatting gnats. We also didn’t want to display our tents in case the land was private, though there were no fences or signs present.
I put my bandana over my face to keep the gnats off. We dozed. It wasn’t long though before I sprung awake, flinging my bandana off. I could hear a car coming, and I had a funny feeling that we needed to suck out of sight. Stormy was fairly concealed from cars on the road; I was less so. I did a small barrel roll behind a tree and pushed my pack mostly out of view. Consequently, this maneuver had me facing away from the road, so I couldn’t see what was happening. I had to rely on Stormy giving me the play by play.
“It’s the same cop!” I hear him whisper to me. “No! What?!” I gasp. “He’s stopping!” Stormy says. While I couldn’t see what was happening as I lay in the dirt covered in pinestraw, flies and gnats, was the cop had come down the closed road, not the main road. He had stopped by the barrels blocking cars from going up the road.
We knew he had to move the barrels to get his car out, but he stayed stopped at that intersection for about 5 to 7 minutes. I watched Stormy’s face like a hawk. The funny thing is, it really didn’t matter. If the guy had come up we would have just told him we were desperate for a camp spot and asked him if we were somewhere we shouldn’t be. But at the time, we just stayed hidden, frozen by the thought of having Yosemite Sam come tearing through the woods deciding that he wanted to tan the hide of public urinator numero uno after all. I’d go on the no-good trespassing public urinator and prairie dog offender list. What could be worse?
The cop finally left. Stormy and I weren’t sure why he was there, but we figured it had to do with whatever trailhead was supposedly a mile or two up the forbidden road. Just in case he came back on another loop, we stashed our packs a little better and decided not to set up our tents until almost dark. Life on the lam ain’t no picnic.
When I finally got into my tent I was exhausted. I examined my feet and saw that I had some new blisters. Ugh. I thought I had gotten past that, but the road had other plans for me. Nevertheless, I was thankful not to be in handcuffs, happy to have a nice quiet campsite, and in only two more days I would be in Chama.
Day 30 – The Dam Rest
Day miles: 19
Trip miles: 554
We woke up and got out of camp while it was still dark, for obvious reasons. If Yosemite Sam came back, we wanted to be up and walking on the road. We never saw The Law again though. That’s how it goes in the Wild West I guess. Sometimes if the wind blows right, you might just live to ride the plains another day.
The road felt a little tougher under the feet today. It went from paved to gravel. Sometimes that is good, but other times when the gravel is large or rough, it can be painful, especially in a pair of shoes approaching end of life. This was one of those other times. Nevertheless, I walked along focused on getting to the first major point of the day: El Vado Dam.
I had to conserve water last night as it was about 19 miles to water today. I started the day with 3 liters, which is pretty decent, though in the heat of the afternoon I sometimes want to drink more. I can usually go an average of about ten miles on one liter of water, as long as I start hiking when it is still cool out.
Water was waiting at the El Vado RV Park, about 3 miles after crossing the dam. We had seen signs saying that the dam was under construction. Reports from other hikers noted that construction crews would “usually” let hikers pass, but worst case scenario we might have to wait until 6pm when the workers weee finished. We hoped to get lucky and cruise on through, but had no idea what to expect.
When we arrived at the dam, we realized what a huge project it was. They had lowered the water level of the lake so that they could fix a leaking issue. The road was lined with orange construction markers and we saw a crew surveying as we approached.
We were greeted by one of the workers, who spoke English but sounded like he might actually be French. He was very nice and told us he would walk us across the bridge over the dam. He said we were lucky. In about 30 minutes they had some heavy machinery moving in and we would not be able to pass then. Phew!
We learned that a bunch of the crew was actually staying at the El Vado RV Park, so we said “see you later” and proceeded up the hill to hike the last 3 miles to water.
My feet were screaming by the time we got to the RV Park. I was happy though – the park had both a small store and a restaurant! It cost $20 for a spot to camp, which was a little pricey for a tent spot, but I decided it was worth it. I could have split it with someone else, but we had arrived at about 1:20pm, so Stormy wanted to make a few more miles to have a shorter day into town. If not for my feet, I would have done the same.
We ate and hung out at the restaurant for a while. I had a delicious beef burrito. The owner made an order of sopapillas for Stormy and threw few extra in for me. They are basically fried dough puff pockets, kind of like a lighter version of pita bread, sprinkled with cinnamon. You eat them hot out of the oven with a honey drizzle. Yum!
Stormy headed out and I stayed back to nurse my feet. I knew tomorrow would be a long day into Chama – about 26 miles – but I knew better than to push farther today. I had a pleasant evening hanging out at the RV Park. It was a family-run business and I learned that the son had gone to college on a trap shooting scholarship. Apparently he had been very close to making the junior Olympic team at one point. The college he went to then offered him a free masters degree if he would stay on and coach. I also learned that he once won $10,000 in a shooting competition! I thought that was pretty amazing.
I tented behind the construction workers bunkhouse. It was little noisy at first as they left their doors open, but it calmed down by 10 and I fell fast asleep. I planned to get up early and tape my feet really well before making the push into Chama.
Day 31 – End of the Fire Detours (for now)
Day miles: 26.4
Trip miles: 580.4
“We didn’t start the fire! But it’s always burning since the world’s been turnin’!” I thought about that Billy Joel song as I realized that this was my last day of hiking fire reroutes in New Mexico, and hopefully for the near future, though who knows….
I woke up at 4AM, but it took me a while to tape up my feet, so I didn’t start hiking until 5:15. I find that I start to really notice the sun and heat around 8:30AM, so while my start time may sound early, it only bought me 3 precious hours of coolness.
It was crisp outside indeed! I was actually cold as I got going. I enjoyed it though, knowing that the heat would come. I would hike from the RV Park until I hit US Route 64/84, and then head north on that highway into Chama. I had three liters of water and a while cold case podcast series to listen to (season 4 of Counterclock). The road to Chama would finally lead me to Chama!
The road walk was largely uneventful. I heard a few dogs barking down ranch roads, but none of them ran out to “greet” me. I saw a few mule deer. They were standing beside the road and hopped back over the barbed wire fence when a car went by. They stared at me like I was an alien, hopping away and then staring back again. It’s funny to watch them hop – they almost look like giant deer rabbits.
I saw lots of grey ground squirrels. They look like chipmunks but scrawnier, a bit scuzzier, and grey instead of brown. I think of them as Gandolf chipmunks, perhaps the tiny wizards of their dusty domain. The fields along the road were filled with prairie dogs. They chirped at me and to each other as I walked by. Their little heads poles up from their burrows, reminiscent of a game of whack a mole one might indulge in at the local Chuck-E-Cheese.
And then there was the roadkill. The poor bunnies and prairie dogs! As the crows and vultures work pretty quickly in the desert, I had to assume that whatI was seeing was just one night’s buffet. Squashed bunnies and prairie dogs in various rigor mortis poses stared lifelessly into my eyes as if to say “where were you when I needed you??” or, “please take care of the kids!” I always feel so sad when I see dead animals in the road. This particular highway seemed to be the grim reaper’s personal driveway. I had to look away and move on.
I managed to hike all the way into Chama on 3 liters of water. Like the little engine that could, I just never stopped. As I walked the final few miles on route 64, a car pulled off the road as I heard someone yell “Hungry Cat!” It was Draggin; Blueberry was in the front seat and someone else was driving. They were headed to Santa Fe to meet people. I caught up with them for a few minutes and we parted ways. I am quite sure they will pass by me sometime next week once they catch up. They are both strong hikers and tend to hike long days.
I rolled into the southern part of town and immediately stopped at the Speedway gas station. I downed a Gatorade, ate an ice cream cookie sandwich, and took an ibuprofen. I still had a few miles before I would get to the RV park where I would stay for two nights, and I also had a bunch of errands to run before then.
I stopped at Family Dollar and bought food for my next leg to Pagosa Springs, and also a box of food to send to myself at a lodge at Monarch Pass. This would allow me to pick up my food box and continue hiking when I got to this point, rather than hitching into Salida.
I sorted my food outside, and as I finished Stormy showed up to buy snacks. He had made it into town that morning. Apparently he had almost stepped on a rattlesnake by the side of the road the night before when he had continued hiking. Yikes!
I continued on to the post office where I picked up a box my wife mailed to me. This had my micro spikes, as well as some other items and an Ursack food bag for grizzly country. I then mailed my grizzly box to Rawlins, WY, where I would pick it up later, my food box to Monarch Crest Lodge, and a small envelope home with some things I don’t really need. I mailed home a few stuff sacks, one of my extra camera batteries (not finding that I need it), an extra water bladder that I was holding onto through New Mexico, and my little handheld compass that I had for the desert (I never used it, but carried it just in case my phone failed since the trail is not well marked in many places there).
Stormy showed up again and we headed to Foster’s Hotel and Saloon for an early dinner. I had originally tried to reserve a room at Foster’s. It has some history and isn’t too expensive for a hotel, but it was all booked. When we got there I was glad I had not booked it, simply because the hotel sits above the saloon and it was a Friday night. It was going to be noisy; I could see a few patrons already glazing over from a bit too much of the sauce….
We sat outside and ate, though it was pretty warm. I had a burrito since I wouldn’t be in New Mexico that much longer. It was good, but not great. The small food trucks along the way really set the bar high for burritos in New Mexico.
After dinner we went to the RV park and got our tents set up. There was decent shade and the park itself was a nice one. I took a shower with some soap out of the hiker box. Yesssssss! It felt good to clean my feet, though they hurt as I did so.
I enjoyed just laying in my tent now that it had cooled down. It was quiet and there were a lot of nice birds singing at the park. Arriving in Chama had added a pleasant splash of green to my world. Chama gets a lot of water since it is positioned in the valley south of the San Juans. It was the most green I’d seen since leaving Wilmington.
I was happy to finally be in Chama. This was huge for me, simply because this was where my hike demanded some tough route decisions in 2019. Knowing I would soon be heading into the San Juans without the headache and safety concerns of massive amounts of snow felt amazing. As I fell asleep, I felt nothing but promise for the future of this hike.
**Side note: my age old Sea to Summit Aeros inflatable pillow died on me. It was not repairable. I have been using my clothing bag as a pillow and that is working well, so I don’t think I will replace the pillow at this point. Also, that’s a 2 ounce weight savings!
Day 32 – A Day About Nothing
Day miles: 0
Trip miles: 580.4
Today was very much like the show Seinfeld. It was a day about nothing, they maybe more truly about nothing than any episode of Seinfeld ever was.
I tried to sleep in, but light and birdsong woke me up at about 5. I put on my new shoes (yes, I got new shoes in my box from home!) and walked a quarter mile to the laundromat. The Speed Queen Laundry was great. It was clean, the owner was very nice, they had snacks and even some old video games (most were out of order, but still).
A small cat named Fred appeared and took a liking to me. I caught up with my parents while I indulged Fred and my wash went round and round in suds.
After laundry, Stormy and I hitched a ride to the south end of town to go to breakfast at Fina’s Diner. Stormy didn’t have a lot of patience for waiting for a hitch, so he continued walking. I got a ride and passed him by on the road. My ride didn’t have room for another person, so all I could do was waive. Sometimes you just need to have faith! It ended up ok as he did get a ride right after that.
Breakfast was good and also nostalgic because I ate at Fina’s in 2019. I ordered a burrito, because that is my favorite. I drank some coffee and we sat and charged electronics there for a little while. My burrito was huge, but Stormy’s was massive! It was the size of a restaurant menu and topped with two eggs. I couldn’t believe he ate the whole thing.
We popped into the Lowes grocery across the road for some stuff for later. I got a chicken dinner (2 drumsticks and mashed potatoes with gravy), a banana, two JJ’s pocket pastries, a mango fruit drink, and a Monster energy drink.
We hitched a ride back to the north side of town where we stopped for milkshakes – my treat since Stormy’s birthday is tomorrow.
It was a pretty simple day. I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on my journal in the shade at the Rio Chama RV Park pavilion. Little white fluffies filled the air as a nice breeze helped to cool things down. I think they were from cottonwood trees, but I’m not sure.
It was nice to have a rest day today. I’m grateful for my new shoes and hopeful that my feet will continue to heal as I hike into cooler conditions tomorrow. It is a 12 mile hike on the road tomorrow to Cumbres Pass, and at some point before then, I’ll officially be in Colorado!
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