Thursday, May 3, 2012

Hi all, writing to you today from Grants, NM, about two thirds of the way up the state.  I've been essentially stuck in town for the past several days due to some rather crippling right knee pain that is taking its sweet time healing, but more on that later.  Seeing as I haven't had any internet access since Silver City, there is quite alot of ground to cover.

 I was hiking with Elinor, a woman originally from Israel who has lived in the states most of her life, who is going to grad school in August.  Given her time constraints, she is trying to finish in under 4 months... a tough challenge for just about anyone, with a 25 mile a day average overall.  We booked it out of Silver City and headed up into the dry hills surrounding the area before dropping down to the absolutely beautiful Gila River Canyon, a deep scar of red rock cliffs and pinnacles towering over the twisting watercourse that we would follow for the next few days.  Given the back and forth path through the narrow canyon, the trail fords the river around 150 times during the length of its stay in the gorge.  And no, thats not a typo.  There is no extra 0 there or anything.  150 times.  Thankfully, its been a low rain year in the associated drainage areas, so most of the crossings came only to our knees or so, and the water wasn't moving fast enough to be a threat, but regardless it did get tedious at times.  The views more than made up for the effort however, with broad, grassy expanses where the canyon widened giving way to narrower sections complete with over hangs and watery caves crowding the river banks.  Seriously, just Google some pictures, mine won't do the area justice.

Halfway up the canyon, we had the opportunity to explore Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, an old Indian settlement build into  a series of caves overlooking a tributary stream.  The look into the history of the area was pretty cool, especially from a hiker's perspective; with no pack animals to freight around the building materials, the natives would have had to treck tons of stone from the stream bed far below on their backs.  Luckily we were somewhat spoiled by some visiting boyscouts who hooked us up with burgers and drinks in exchange for the usual peppering of questions and requests for trail stories.  We also ran into Uncle Don and Dan Bedore, 2 other long distance hikers on a seperate trail from ours who happened to be staying in the next campground.  Given the small number of us out on the CDT, particularly this early on, it was a welcome encounter with some kindred spirits who gave us some helpful info about the trail ahead.        

Upon leaving the upper canyon, we once again entered an arid stretch with little water access.  After being spoiled by days of light packs and fording-cooled feet, we shuddered at the prospect of schleping 10 pounds of water on dusty roads, but the trail must go on.  We once again entered areas of big skies and distant hills, a stark contrast to the closeness of the trail in the previous days.  In places, the path climbed to over 9,000 feet, resulting in a somewhat surprising change of schenery affording long views of rolling, grassy hills (and possibly an impending forest fire that thankfully petered out).  Because of Elinor's deadline, we elected to push a few extra miles each day in order to reach our next town stop early, and despite a few close calls with some... unsavory water, we managed to reach our next destination half a day early.

Pie Town is a tiny settlement on route 60 about half the way up the state on the trail.  I say "settlement", because with a population of about fifty people, its hard to call it a village even.  It does however have 3 churches, no gas station, library or convenience store, and 2 restaurants (very crucial here).  Most importantly, it is home to the Toaster House, a hostel of sorts owned by Nita, that is open to hikers.  Unfortunately, she was not in town, but the doors are always open there and the hiker box was full of goodies.  Gale, an older hiker who had been a few days ahead of us, was already set up there, and we were joined soon after by Richard (a former CDT thru hiker now doing a section hike), and 2 hippie travelers who apparently knew Nita in decades past.  With such an ecclectic crowd, the conversation was... interesting, but with hippie types not really being my favorite individuals, I was content with getting some reading done.  Thankfully, the 2 restaurants offered some respite, and Pie Town lived up to its name with a great selection at the Pie-O-Neer Cafe, including an apple-pinenut-pepper confection that I doubt I'll ever taste the like again.  The staff there, though small, was an interesting combination of people hailing from such diverse city centers as London, Dallas, and Chicago.  All chose to come to remote Pie Town, and despite its seclusion, they seem to lead a pretty charmed life.

Seeing as Pie Town was my first real opportunity to relax (given that I had been hiking with Elinor and choose not to stay in Silver City or Lordsburg), I elected to take a zero at the Toaster House.  Elinor and Gale continued on, and I spent a quite day reading before heading out onto the road once more the next day.  And road it was.  This section was characterized by much road walking across relatively flat landscape, with a few scenic breaks up some dry canyons.  The highlight was a trek across El Malpais (the Badlands) on the Acoma-Zuni trail, an old Indian route that traverses a huge section of basalt formed by a lava flow 10,000 years ago, overlooked by high sandstone bluffs.  The tortourous terrain in plagued with crevasses and swirls of rock, essentially looking like an enormous pot of asphalt had spilled over the countryside before cooling and splitting.  A long hike down Zuni Canyon, a dry watercourse flanked by colorful, twisting cliffs, concluded the trip into Grants, including a deceptive and agonizingly long road walk to the McDonalds where sweet, sweet hydration lay. 

Unfortunately for my joints, I apparently managed to push myself a wee bit too hard over the last few days.  Despite being used to walking or riding everywhere in NYC, and having a job where one is always on their feet, my right knee managed to get fatigued somehow.  Its pretty painful to walk short distances, though in the long run it seems to stop bothering me once I get going, so it looks like I'll be hung up in town for a few more days while it rests up.  Obviously, this is not ideal, but given that Colorado is still probably covered in snow, I'm not too worried about the miles just yet.  Eventually, my restlessness will get the better of me however, and the need to maintain some momentum will force me to book it out of here on the next 125 mile leg to Cuba, NM.  Hopefully I'll be 100% by then, but if not I'll just have to try and take it slow for awhile.  Regardless, I'll try and keep posting a bit.  In the Meantime, I'm staying with the local trail angels Hugo and Carole Mumm, an awesome couple who really go above and beyond for the hikers, and without whom I'd be somewhat screwed for the moment.  The continued generosity of people on the trail always astounds me.  Talk to you all later!