I had just met a hiker who was also there limping away and some of her relatives had come to town to rescue her. I hadn’t mentioned this before but I had been having ridiculous foot blister problems since Pietown. Some of the blisters were nearly the size of my smaller toes. I popped one and it squirted fluid 6″ into the air (no exaggeration). It was crazy, I was limping, and no amount of KT tape would fix it so in Grants, I called REI, and they arranged to have a brand new pair of electric blue Altra’s waiting for me in Grants. So there I was, in the table next to this hiker, basking in the heavenly cushiony comfort of brand new electric blue Altra Lone Peak 4’s while this hiker sat suffering in her worn out electric blue Altra Lone Peak 4’s. Her uncle looked at my Altras then looked at me…. he looked at my Altras then looked at me and asked “Are those brand new?” I said, “Yep, just put them on an hour ago and my feet have never been happier basking in their cushiony comfort.” He then asked “How much you want for them?” I thought he was joking and laughing said “If you have to ask, you couldn’t afford them,” He wasn’t joking. In fact he and his friend looked like they were thinking about wrestling me to the ground and yanking those sparkly new electric blue Altra Lone Peak 4’s right off that smart Alec’s feet……. Check please, I beat it right out of there.

I was a little nervous about this next section. Viper had reported knee high postholing in snow throughout the 8 mile stretch in the peaks above 8000′ on the first day out Grants and this was just a couple days before. He said could only manage about 1 mph above the snow line. Leaving town at 10A did not help the situation and meant that I’d likely be camping on snow at altitude. A reasonable person would have stopped short of the snow line then crossed through the snow in the morning. Of course, that’s not what I did.

The day’s hike started with a 9 mile road hike to the Los Pinos Trailhead then up through some beautiful pine forest.

Los Pinos Trail

The climb up the San Pedro Peaks was gentle but long rising about 4000′ up to over 10,500′. At above over 10,000′ the patches of snow became continuous with water everywhere from the snow melt.

Much of the trail was filled with snow melt.

If you weren’t walking in water, you were walking in mud or on snow. Above the snow-line I met a 16 year old hiker, sitting on the side of the trail named Hacker, who had his shoes off and was trying to warm up his feet while his dad and brother hiked on ahead. There is really only one way to heat up cold wet feet and that’s to keep hiking and there was nearly 8 miles to go. Hacker was going to have a very long day. By that time, I had met up with Bobber and Blue Collar, the thunder and lightning had begun, and we started getting pelted by snow.

Mountain Lion track

The trail above snow-line was mostly flat and easy

Once you’ve gone through a few ice cold water crossings that go over that tops of your shoes and stop worrying about keeping your feet warm or dry, the trail goes much faster. The knee high post holing never materialized and we were able to traverse the bulk of the snow in about 4 hours. I hiked until dark, found a dry sheltered place to camp, and was still able to make about 27 miles despite the late start and snow. Overall, a good day.

The next day, the trail descended back through sunny aspen forests and also through areas where the tree fall was so dense the trail was nearly impossible to follow.

Aspen forest in the San Pedro Wilderness

The trail is buried under there somewhere

Winter is coming to New Mexico

Eventually the trail descended back into the canyons and then back into desert. One of the incredible things about New Mexico is that the climate changes dramatically with altitude.

Chama River Canyon

Prairie Rattlesnake next to Trail

Sunset near Ghost Ranch

The day ended with an 10 mile road walk to a little copse of trees just outside of Ghost Ranch.