The snow squalls that scattered a lot of the hikers around Grants were an omen of what we could expect to see going further north. The peaks around Grants all had snow and there was news of up to two feet on trail in Colorado. The locals were all telling me that this was really atypical. We should be well into the melt by now. The melt is now 6 weeks behind schedule. For us thru hikers, the snow was now on all of our minds.

On the morning I was heading out of Grants, I met up with Mouse and Dutchman over breakfast at Denny’s. It was really nice catching up with them.

Having breakfast with Mouse and Dutchman

Their main lesson coming out of the Gila was not to wear Tevas through the 150+ river crossings. I’d show you a picture of Mouse’s feet but children might read this, yikes!!!! The only downside of meeting them was that I didn’t leave my room until almost 10A and I still had to walk the two miles just to get to the trail again. My plan was to summit Mt Taylor (which at 11,301′ is the highest peak in New Mexico and which was covered in snow) at 6-7P after a 24 mile hike with a 4000′ ascent then posthole off the north side for several miles until I could descend enough to find a cozy campsite. No problem, right? Let’s just say, no one else contemplated this crazy plan. The ascent went just as planned. The weather was beautiful and cooperating and the trail was just as Carol and Hugo (local trail angels) described. Their water caches helped keep my pack weight down and I was able to move fast (fast for me anyway).

On road walk to trailhead. New Mexicans love their guns.

As I approached the summit, however, things started to unravel a bit. The winds started picking up until they were almost knocking me over at the summit at 6:30-7:00P and the clouds were building. The cold killed the battery on my phone which was my GPS and the swirling snow obscured the trail making it hard to follow.

Mt Taylor summit. Last picture before my battery died.

From reading the maps previously, I remembered that the exit was off the north side and was able to find what looked like a trail under the drifting snow, get under some cover and put a power pack on my phone/gps to reassure me that I was actually following a real path. Fortunately, due to the cold, the snow was pretty consolidated underneath a thinner cover layer so there was not a lot of postholing and I was able to stay on top of it and make progress.

The snow cover thinned and clouds cleared as the altitude dropped

At about 10,000′, and several more miles of hiking, the snow let up and the snow cover thinned, and I was able to find a nice campsite in the dark.

Campsite for the night.

At 28 miles after a very late start with a 4000′ climb and other stressors, that was a long tough day for me. For dinner, I was just too tired to cook so I ate half a block of cheese, put on all the clothes that I had and fell asleep. If would have been a long night if Vanessa hadn’t sent me my puffy coat in Grants.

The next day the skies were blue and beautiful. The trail consisted of a series of fire roads that were easy to follow and it it was much warmer. The downside was with all the snow melting from previous days, the fire roads had turned into a mud that just built up on your shoes.

As the mud collected on your shoes, you would just get taller and taller and your feet heavier and heavier until you could find a rock to scrape them off ……. then the process would start all over again. I could picture an 8′ tall cow with enormous mud clogs on its hooves. Eventually I just started bushwhacking and avoiding the roads as much as possible.

Over the next few days, the landscape transformed into the beautiful vistas you used to see in the old westerns. I’ve never seen such deep blue skies.

Ponderosa Pine – This is my favorite smell in the world

Pair of male collared lizards

Another male Collared Lizard

Sunrise near Cuba, NM

Cowboy camping in the edge of a mesa facing sunrise and under a million stars.

Sunset on the CDT

Wild flowers are all over the desert.

If you can drive there, you’ll find barbed wire & cows

It’s impossible to truly capture the grandeur in pictures.

Pauline, Fred and me at El Bruno’s in Cuba, NM

Over four days, we covered the 107 miles between Grants and Cuba but more memorably experienced some incredibly beautiful remote landscapes few get to see and met some amazing, happy, and adventurous folks like Pauline and Fred whom I hope to keep in touch with well after the trail.

Tomorrow will be our first taste of real snow on the way to Ghost Ranch. The plan is to reach Colorado by next week. Snow is on everyone’s mind.