000 Anneliese’s Continental Divide Trail Pages Page Two - Today’s Date is 20 May 2002

My CDT Hike 2002 May 4, 2002 - The Journey Begins 00 I left my house at Castle Rock in my packed Red Saturn, headed south on I-25 to Albuquerque, NM and then west on I-40 to Grants. Arrived without any problems at about 3:30 PM. Stopped at Wal-Mart to purchase a spoon (I remembered I forgot to pack mine at home) and a small version of sunblock for carrying in the pack. Ron bought some treats. We then decided to hike the stretch through town and Ron dropped me off at the Cibola National Forest ranger station on Lobo Canyon Road at the edge of town. Ron took my car and parked it at a patch of green grass at a Ford car dealer place along the fence. When I got to the grass where I thought the car should be I sort of looked but the dealership was a Buick/Chevy and I thought I must have misunderstood. I continued walking across the overpass and strained to see another car dealership but I was now on motel row. 00 (I wanted to include the picture of the Indian family shown above as we had an opportunity to talk with them and we learned that the mountain in the background is very sacred to them. I have no idea if I was perhaps trespassing when I went there to climb it the next day; it is named Mt. Taylor.)

00 The first motel was a Holiday Inn and I inquired where the Ford dealership might be and the clerk told me it was about four miles in the opposite direction where I had walked. I was a bit perplexed but since I was on foot, I had no choice but to retrace my steps and go in the other direction. As I passed a gas station I asked a man who was just finishing with his fill-up how much further to the Ford dealership and he indicated a good distance. Since I knew Ron would be waiting I asked if he would mind giving me a ride and explained what I was doing. As we were driving he told me he was a coach at the local high school and had just come from a track meet.

00 When we got to the Ford dealership we looked along the fence line and did not see my car! My driver's name was JT and he was nice enough not to just dump me there but offered to take me back to the ranger station to look for Ron. As we drove in that direction Ron was walking along the Highway and we had him get in the car to take us to my car. As it turns out the car was where he had said by the green, only it was obviously not a Ford dealership and I had not gone from the left side of the road to the right side to look for my car or I more than likely would have seen it! This was not a very good start for a hike that would last six months but it was a learning experience. I thanked my gracious driver for his assistance and we found rooms at the Leisure Motel for the night. We had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant. Ron had a burger, salad, and fries and I had rib roast, baked potato, and salad.

May 5, 2002 - Climb of Mt. Taylor 00 I didn't get much sleep because the motel was very close to the train tracks and by the time I finally fell asleep a train would come by and wake me up. Today the plan was to drop one person off at the ranger station and then drive the car five miles north. The driver would hike the five miles south and the other person would hike North. This would mean three five-mile trips for the car. We ended up doing ten miles or two segments that day. At the end of the second segment Ron had developed a very conspicuous lump just slightly below the knee. It didn't hurt but he thought it prudent to go back to the motel and elevate his leg and put ice on it. He attributed the lump to the road walk (pavement) and was concerned if that was not it what could it be? At this point I was tired of the town thing and wanted to camp, so I decided to hike up to Mt. Taylor. At 11,301 feet it is quite impressive and stands out above the landscape.

00 To get to the trailhead it was a five-mile drive on dusty FR 193 and then a three-mile hike to the top. The hike started out through forest, followed by open meadow and occasional patches of alpine fir trees. It was still sunny but had become very windy. Since I did not start till 4:00 PM I could not linger long at the top. I did look into the small crater and took a picture of the sign lying down which gave the name and elevation. On my way up there had been isolated patches of snow and very large tracks on the trail and I wasn't certain what they might be. I also noted a few alpine-like wildflowers in yellow and white which I did not recognize. The view at the top was lovely but there was haze on the distant horizon. The hike got me down to the car by 7:30 PM and I was pretty much exhausted. I was still curious about the tracks I had seen and wanted to ask "trail angel" Tom Bombaci about them. I stopped at his house and he and his wife Donna were already in bed reading. When I mentioned the tracks and questioned whether they might be desert bighorn sheep he stated that they were elk tracks because he was not aware that there were desert bighorn on Mt. Taylor. He asked if I wanted to spend the night and I readily accepted the offer, particularly since it included a shower. When I took my socks off in the bathroom they left a noticeable spot of brown dirt on the floor and the water running off was also pretty brown. New Mexico, much like Southern California on the PCT, is extremely dry and dusty making it impossible to stay clean even for a few minutes. It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't done any hiking in those areas how good it feels after you've taken a shower. I cannot imagine being an early pioneer traveling across country and not having the pleasure of that experience. By the way Tom and his wife Donna have hosted CDT hikers over the years and as Tom said: "we do it because we enjoy meeting the different people and giving them shelter and helpful information about the trail".

May 6, 2002 - New Tent to Try Out 00 In the morning I chatted briefly with Tom, thanked him for his hospitality and drove back to Grants to pick up Ron at the motel. I had gotten an excellent night's rest and was ready to move on. We continued our shuttle and hike for approximately 17-18 miles to just past San Mateo Spring. There we opted to camp for the night in an area which had seen some use in the past. A campsite on the opposite side of the road had the remnants of a skinned bear. I set up my new Sierra lightweight tent for the first time. This tent is not free standing and is less spacious than my Northface Tadpole but it weighs two pounds less and I thought carrying two pounds less on my back was worth spending $350.00 for a new tent. It got pretty cold during the night, perhaps as low as freezing.

May 7, 2002 - Shuttling gets Tough 00 We started driving and Rte 239 got very rough and I did not want my car to have to make that trip three times for the shuttle. We had not seen any other vehicles and I don't believe AAA would come to tow my car from that location. Eventually near Ojo Del Dado we did a five-mile segment but, again, the road got rough and we decided to drive to Cuba, New Mexico, and change our itinerary to hike southbound from Cuba later after reaching Canada. Cuba has three motels and evidently because of pipeline workers they stay pretty full. We were able to get two rooms at the Del Prado. Ron went to get something to eat at the Pizza place. I showered, went to the Laundromat and washed my car. At the Laundromat I met Chris who had moved to Cuba in August from West Virginia. She is a vocational therapist for the school system, making good money and really likes the area so far. Tomorrow she was going on a field trip to Albuquerque to see the play David Copperfield. She said some of the kids did not even know who he was. I went to dinner at a very nice restaurant called El Bruno toward the end of town. There, I indulged and had a margarita and chicken fajitas. It was very good in a tasteful atmosphere but I could not eat all of my dinner. I had it wrapped in foil and would use it the next night with my dinner. While dining I could not help but overhear a couple at another table talk about doing a hike on the Appalachian Trail, starting at Harper's Ferry. I went to their table and introduced myself. Their names were Bruce and Jennifer and they were from Martinsville, VA and since I lived in VA for 38 years we immediately had much in common. We talked about hiking and probably could have chatted for hours but I needed to get back and pack for the next day, so I said Good Bye and we might see each other again on a trail somewhere.

May 8, 2002 - San Pedro Wilderness 00 Up by 6 AM and ready to go hiking. I drove from Cuba to the Coyote Santa Fe National Forest Ranger Station. Before I left Cuba I stopped at the gas station to fill up and who should I see but Chris from the Laundromat the afternoon before. We exchanged addresses and again said our farewells. At the Ranger Station I asked for specific directions to the CDT trailhead at the San Pedro Wildrness. The receptionist called for Barbara Garcia who evidently is the trails person. Barbara was able to give me good directions on the main roads but was not clear on the FS road numbers after that and did not know if there were road identification signs or not. The fact is, I spent 3 1/2 hours extra hiking time before finding the CDT trailhead. By that time I was exhausted and it was now about 5:30 PM. There were nice big logs to shelter the wind and I cooked my dinner at that spot. I fixed myself a cup of tea and had chicken stuffing with the left over chicken from the night before. I also had pop tarts with my tea. I wanted to get in a little more distance on the trail and hiked for another two miles before bedding down in dense forest. The trail was littered with downfall and blocked occasionally by large blow downs. This segment of the trail was going up hill. It was a pleasure to finally be on actual trail. Hiking on roads, whether, paved, gravel or just dirt is not much fun. The problem with the access to this particular trailhead is that they are old logging roads and not accurately shown on any map. Some of those roads are impassable in a regular car.

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