Saturday, June 2
Today our mid morning goal was a campground with running water, picnic tables, pit toilets, and trash cans! It’s amazing how motivating the possibility of using a toilet can be! In spite of my motivation, the fact that I’m 25 years older than my hiking companions means I arrived last. When I arrived I noticed a familiar face, a hiker named Mike who started the CDT the same day as me! We hadn’t seen each other since our first resupply in Lordsburg. We are much closer in age and we hiked a few miles together in the afternoon and he camped with us in the evening.
Sunday, June 3
It’s 3:21 PM and I’m done hiking for the day. In fact, I’m already in my tent and curled up with my sleeping quilt on my air mattress...praying. It has been raining since 9 AM and around 11AM I found Mike taking shelter in a small stand of trees. I joined him and after 30 minutes we decided to make a dash for a creek crossing 7 miles away. It was lower in altitude, and if the storm got worse, that would be helpful. We had to traverse some exposed sections of trail, but the rain and hail wasn’t too bad and the lightning seemed to be far enough away to not be a huge concern. Once we reached the creek, we grabbed some water and found a campsite. Within minutes of setting up our tents the storm let loose! For 2 solid hours the wind, rain, hail, and thunder pounded us. It was so loud that we couldn’t communicate even though our tents were less than 40 feet apart. There was a brief respite around 5:30 PM and then another blast at 6:30 PM. By 8:15 PM it was over and we celebrated surviving the storm. We are camped just 7 miles from the border of Colorado and another three miles to Cumbres Pass/Highway 17. Our plan is to be hiking at 7 AM and hopefully be in Chama for lunch.
My feelings about the storm may be exaggerated because this morning we walked through Lower Lagunitas Campground where a CDT hiker died in 2015. He was also caught in a storm and took shelter in the campground restroom. He was there at least a month, but eventually he died in the restroom and was found in the spring of the next hiking season. His trail name was Otter and you can read more about his story here: Otter Olshansky: A lonely death on New Mexico's Continental Divide Trail.
For additional content, check out Flickr for images, YouTube for video, SoundCloud for audio, and the Postholer Map with my most recent location.
Thanks for following along!
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