Posted by 20.0 miles
With breakfast served at 7:30am it was a late start to the hiking day but I was nit going to miss a full breakfast of scrambled eggs (proper eggs, not the typical powdered stuff to make mass meals), bacon, potatoes fry up, toast, coffee and orange juice.
What’s up with American bacon? Did the US not get the memo on middle bacon. I’m craving it at the moment, some nice but fat, smoke sections of middle bacon. It seems all the US has is crispy bacon, cooked until it’s brittle like pork crackling. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but come on there must be real bacon out there.
I was able to pick up my new shoes which was brilliant. For the desert and roads of New Mexico I’ve been using Hoka Speedgoats which are super cushioned with a good stack height. For this round I’m expecting more rocky and technical terrain I’ve gone with an old favourite the La Sportiva Ultra Raptor, mainly because they have a rock plate in the sole and have used these on many trails. There will a new period of wearing in though and I’m expecting some new rub points and possibles new blisters.
Leaving Ghost Ranch it was straight into a fairly major climb. You’ve seen pictures of the surrounding hills. The CDT had to get back out of the valley on to the top of the hills. After a short 30mins following along a river through the canyons there was a narrow slot the trail climbed steeply through on treacherous ground. I’d caught Steady and IQ and hike with them for a bit. We would leap frog each other through the day.
Once up on the main plateau the terrain flattened out substantially and again moved away from the desert into pine forest and wide open alpine meadows.
I passed Steady and IQ as they were eating lunch. Imagine their surprise around 3pm when I came upon them having an afternoon snack. They were sure I was in front and I was. At some point I’d missed a turn and ended up walking half a mile in the wrong direction. Walking back I bumped into them again.
The trail is funny like that. Another hiker with the same pace might be just half a mile in front but you may never see them. Others you will encounter multiple times. I have a much quicker pace than Steady and IQ hence catching them again.
They were keen on a short 14 mile day and would only be going to the next water source, a stock tank fed by a spring. I would catch them there as I was filtering my water but would continue on. Had I known what lay ahead for me I may have camped with them. It was 4pm. Keen to venture on until about 6pm I left the stock tank. That would give me 6 more miles for a 20 mile day.
Shortly after the stock tank the terrain opened up into huge grasslands with very little cover from strong alpine winds and next to no camp sites. The maps I’m using show the trail, contours and creek lines but little in the way of showing open ground and tree cover.
The air had a bitter cold bite to it from which there was no escape. I put my head down and charged on, reaching the 20 mile mark just as I needed it, the shelter of pine trees appeared providing perfect protection from the winds. Time to call it a night.
Mick Beckers 