Day 30: Bats and bears, oh my!

May 20: I woke up and hit the trail, which started with the continuation of the gravel road I had followed all day yesterday. I only followed the gravel road a few miles before reaching a trailhead from which I followed a real, actual trail the rest of the day. Trail! How I've missed you!

It's a real trail! Hello, wonderful trail! =)

At the trailhead was a parked car with a couple of people packing up. They had come out to meet a friends and family who were hiking the trail and apparently it sounded like there was quite the party the evening before. Well, not a party party, but lots of fun, laughs and enough alcohol to put everyone at ease. =) So they told me that there were a couple of other thru-hikers not too far ahead of me--but they weren't people I knew.

I was actually a little surprised to learn that there were other hikers ahead since most people I knew had veered off onto a shorter alternate route. It extended their road walk on a paved, busy highway, but it easily cut off a full day of hiking for them. I preferred the more scenic route rather than the shorter route, and as far as I had known, Wi-fi and I were the only two people to stick to the red line.

It was a few hours later when I caught up with Haiku and Prana, a husband and wife team that I took an immediate liking to. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they had family in San Luis Obispo, but that never hurts either. =)

We only chatted for a brief period when I caught up with them. They were taking a break in the shade of a tree, and I stopped since I was ready for a break anyhow--but their break was done and they continued onward a few minutes later without me.

Eventually, I continued onward myself, the trail passing along rocky, volcanic, rock-filled terrain. A few hours later, I stopped to take another break at a nice overlook, but had unwittingly sat down on an ant's nest or something because it wasn't long before they started crawling up me in mass. The ground was thick with pine needles here and presumably they were under the needles, hidden and unseen until they came out to check me out.

As soon as I realized there was a problem, I moved over to the other side of the trail and spent the better part of an hour flicking ants off of me and my gear. Stupid ants! At least they weren't biting me.

While flicking off ants, Haiku and Prana caught up with me again--which was odd since they were supposed to be ahead of me! But they explained that they had walked off trail to explore the top of a crater near the trail.

This was the view I admired when the ants attacked! There were lots of craters near the trail, like the one you can see not far ahead. The trail might even climb that one, although I'm not sure if it's that one or another one that the trail went through.

And I just loved that about them. For them, it was the journey that mattered. For so many hikers, they were so focused on the destination, they miss a lot of neat things along the way. They told me that they had even stayed on the red line instead of the Gila Alternate just to see more--the only people I'd met who hadn't done the Gila Alternate.

Anyhow, after chatting for a couple of minutes with me, they continued down the trail, and I went back to flicking ants off of myself.

When I finally finished flicking ants off, I continued onward. The trail climbed into one of the craters along the way, for which I was happy. I was a little jealous of Haiku and Prana climbing one of the chain of craters and looking inside the crater and admiring the views from the top, but it turned out that I got the same experience just by following the trail without any of the cross-country hassle they had to deal with. 

Late in the day, I veered off trail a short way to pick up water from a cow trough. I had originally wanted to camp near the water, but there were cattle nearby which put an end to that idea. Now I planned to head cross-country back to the trail and then stop at the first nice spot I found to camp.

Which is when I ran into Haiku and Prana again--just as I was reconnecting with the main CDT. They had skipped the water, carrying enough water to go 30 miles after mistakenly thinking that there was no water for that distance. So they didn't need to leave the trail like I did.

But for the first time all day, none of us were stopped for a break and all of us were hiking in the same direction, so we started hiking together.

We probably weren't together for more than a half hour or so, but it was absolutely awesome! During that time, Haiku seemed to notice everything. She stopped and exclaimed that she spotted bear tracks, pointing at the dirt of an intersecting cow trail, and there were bear prints! Clear as day! I'm not sure I'd have been observant enough to notice that and was glad she was around to point them out.

I may not have seen any bears on the trail yet, but these were definitely bear prints!

 

Then they noticed a bat doing an aerial displays for a surprisingly long period of time in the sky. I have seen bats flit by occasionally, but usually I only get brief glances of them. This one stuck around for several minutes doing aerobatics in the sky, and it was hypnotic to watch. They weren't in any rush either, prefer to stop and enjoy the show rather than continuing on with their hike.

It was around 8:00 in the evening when I finally stopped to set up camp. They were going to keep going a bit further, and I really wanted to keep hiking with them and see what else they discovered along the way, but it was starting to get dark and I couldn't get the photos I needed for Walking 4 Fun. So, I reluctantly stopped for the night.

The sunset turned out to be absolutely gorgeous, colorful reds and pinks coloring the clouds. All-in-all, a pretty nice day on the trail!

Sunset was gorgeous!

There are actually two craters in this photo, one right behind the other. Maybe even three craters if you also count that small hump on the right side of the photo.

Definitely volcanic rock!

There was a mostly empty water cache at the trailhead, but I had already filled up with plenty of water from the cow trough not knowing this was here.

This area had definitely burned not too long ago. Was it a wildfire or a controlled burn? I have absolutely no idea....

Here I'm actually in one of the craters, looking down to the bottom of it.

Nasty, scummy water--but beggars can't be choosers!

Haiku starts to climb over a barbed-wire fence while Prana watches. The pile of rocks under the fence makes it easier for hikers to swing their legs over it.

Day 29: Chain of Craters

Day 29: I slept in a bit late since I expected a relatively quick and easy day. Which seemed kind of odd since I was actually planning to do my longest day yet--about 24 miles to the next reliable water source. But it would be almost entirely on flat, easy gravel roads. Knocking out 3 miles per hour, I could be done in a mere 8 hours! That's like a normal 9 to 5 workday. =)

 

The perk for sleeping in late was warm biscuits with plut jam. Plut, you ask? What's plut? I had the same question! Also referred to as plucot, it's plum and apricot jam. Larry brought out some warm biscuits for those who didn't get a super early start, and I was the beneficiary of that. Hurray!

I wasn't the last hiker to get going, but I was among the last eventually hitting the road by around 7:30am. It had sprinkled a bit during the night, but by morning, the skies were clear and sunny. By the afternoon, big fluffy cumulus clouds dotted the sky and strong winds picked up. I wondered again why I wasn't seeing more wind power out here. New Mexico certainly seems like it has a huge abundance of wind.

The first several hours, I hiked by myself, alone through the New Mexican desert, but by around around noon, Wi-fi caught up with me, a tall lanky fellow from Spokane who had previously thru-hiked the Florida Trail and Arizona Trail and was excited to now be doing the CDT. And having spent a few years living in this area, it was particularly special for him. So then we started hiking together and chatting for a few more hours.

This is Wi-fi. I didn't actually get any photos of his face, though. Not today, at least! =)

Late in the day, we reached the Chain of Craters, a series of volcanic craters lined up in a row that finally break the monotonous flatness of the last couple of days. Instead, it was a rough and tumble terrain with geologically recent lava flows. The lava flows didn't look more than 10-20 thousand years old to me--not that I'm a geologist or anything--but I found this surprising since I had no idea that New Mexico had volcanic activity so recently. For all I knew, the lava flows could have been 1 or 2 thousand years ago. I figured it must be more than 100 or 200 years ago since I can't imagine I wouldn't have heard about it if it were that recent.

But it made the walking difficult and slow--much slower than I had expected. The rocks were sharp and the trail was lumpy, and the trail often wound around old sinkholes and cave-ins from lava tubes. At this point, Wi-fi far outdistanced me, but I wanted a rest anyhow. He walked much faster than I did and I was ready for a break, so as we approached the imposing terrain, I took a short break while he kept going. 

Lava flows! This section was annoying slow to get through!

 

Fortunately, that section was fairly short, then I was back on regular, flat gravel (but boring) roads again. The next water source, a cow trough, was located a bit off trail. There actually was a real trail through this area, but I decided to follow the more direct gravel road to the water source and took a wrong turn, heading the wrong way down the road for about 5 or 10 minutes. Argh!!!!

Late in the afternoon, I finally reached the water, which was a remarkably good source for being a cow trough and there wasn't any evident of recent cow visits. Wi-fi was resting nearby behind a large tank that help break the wind--the only windbreak for miles around--and I joined him.

He decided to keep going a bit further, but I decided to call it a day. I was next to water that I could use and abuse it to my heart's content! And I had already walked 24.4 miles according to my GPS and 51,935 steps according to my Fitbit--both new highs for me on this trail. I was happy to call it a day. And I could use this large tank as a wind break. Who knows what sort of wind breaks, if any, would be available further up the trail. Nope, I was ready to stop.

I camped behind the tank (where Wi-fi is in the photo) since that made such a good windbreak. The windmill, however, would be cause for concern after sunset....

I cowboy camped, but started having second thoughts about that after sunset when I noticed flashes of lightning on the horizon. It wasn't even the potential for rain that gave me the most concern, but rather that I had set up under a giant metal windmill--the single tallest thing for probably 10 miles in any direction. The flashes of lightning came from mountains far on the horizon, though, and I crossed my fingers hoping it would stay there. I wasn't anxious to move camp in the dark, nor with such strong winds, so I decided to wait things out a bit and see what happened.

But... nothing happened. The lightning didn't get any closer, and eventually faded out completely without coming anywhere near my camp. Whew!

This ended another day for our hero, the Turtle.

Check out that beard growing in! =)

I wasn't always neat and tidy when I ate.... Five-second rule!!!

So many photos like this....

See a couple of other hikers ahead of us here? We aren't alone! =) They ended up taking an alternate, however, so I didn't really talk to them. Wi-fi and I stayed on the main red line.

That lumpy mass behind the cairn is the start of the lava flows.

Day 28: Milking cattle at the LTC Ranch

May 18: I took my time leaving Pie Town since I was only planning to walk a mere 16 miles to LTC Ranch, and it was all a road walk. A gravel road that didn't get much traffic--and rather easy and fast to walk. So it wasn't until around 8:30 that I finally got my act in order and trekked out of town with my heavy pack.

 

Pie Town Pies is closed on Wednesdays, so it's not possible to buy a pie in Pie Town on Wednesdays. And since today was Wednesday, it was a good day to leave! NO PIE! =P

Evenstar decided to take the day off. She had concluded that her feet trouble were largely the result of bad shoes and was getting a new pair sent to the Pie Town post office... but they weren't expected to arrive until tomorrow. She could probably use the extra day to get a little work done on her laptop as well.

Pez was about a day ahead. After losing track of him a couple of days earlier, I had gotten a message from him when I was at the general store yesterday saying that he was leaving town just then. We missed each other by less than an hour! He had gotten into Pie Town the day before Evenstar and I did but promised to slow down to take it easy on his knee. He was in a rush to get to Pie Town because he hadn't carried enough food from Doc Campbell's, but that meant he was now a day ahead.

Addie's last message let us know that she was somewhere on the Gila Alternate, probably sent from Doc Campbell's if we had to guess. We figured she was a couple of days behind us but cell phone service was so spotty out here, we really didn't know her precise location except that it was somewhere behind us.

I didn't even see donkeys on the trail!

So I headed out on the gravel road out of town and... it wasn't particularly interesting. A grader drove by a couple of times working to level out the gravel road, and I wondered how often these roads need a grader to fix it. Every year? I have no idea!

After a few hours, I caught up with another hiker: Swift, who I meet the evening before at the Toaster House. Despite hiking nearly 40 miles to get into town yesterday, he wasn't going to let any dust settle. So we ended up hiking together for a few hours which is when I found it out he was from Seattle. Cool! Another Seattleite! =) He had school in September, though, which apparently was at least partly the reason for his long hiking days and short stops in trail towns. I was aiming to finish the trail by the end of September before winter storms struck. He was trying to finish the trail by the end of August to beat the start of the school year.

Swift and I, heading to LTC Ranch for the night.

 

The day's weather was overcast and windy, which kept temperatures cool and reasonable. 

And, late in the day, we arrived at our destination: the LTC Ranch.

They provided a thru-hiker sanctuary directly on the road walk. The most important service they provided was fresh, clean water since there otherwise would have been none since leaving Pie Town and the next reliable water source was still who knows how many miles ahead. It was a long stretch without water.

And they gave us a place to camp at the entrance of their property.

And then they really went above and beyond by feeding us all dinner! Today's menu included soup, corn bread and two types of pie. =)

While eating dinner, Larry--one of our hosts--told us a little about the ranch and one thing led to another and by the time dinner was finished, we all headed out to watch a cow get milked. Actually, a couple of hikers wanted to try milking the cow, and Larry showed them how to do it and I think we all learned a little something about cattle that evening. =)

I kind of wanted to try it, but I was also freezing cold at this point now that the sun was setting and instead rushed over back to the campsite after watching a bit and jumped into my sleeping bag.

The end of another day on the trail....

Pretty much the entire day was walking on flat, easy gravel roads.

Watching a grader go by was one of the most exciting things we saw on today's walk. =)

Taking a break in this desolate wasteland.

Even a boot on a post was an exciting thing to find on this section of trail! =)

This is part of the LTC Ranch. The orange and red containers had fresh, clean drinking water for hikers. And the trash can so hikers could throw out trash. (Not that we had much, since we had only left Pie Town that morning.)

Hiker dinner. Where did all these hikers come from?! They must have all left Pie Town before me.

It's time to milk the cow.....