Well, I made it to New Mexico, twice! First, my tent got covered, inside and out, in frost. But the first rays of sun hit my feet and got me moving quick in the morning. The trail into Cumbres Pass was through some recent clearcut, but the bright side was they had actually made a nice trail afterwards. I had a lot of notes telling me it was really difficult to figure the area out, but I blazed right through. I got into Chama by 10:30ish thanks to a ride from a couple Latino hunters and quickly got my shopping out of the way. That being my only town chore, I parked myself at a little restaurant and ate for 2 hours.
The only annoying thing about Chama is that it’s one of those towns built around a highway, so it’s about 3 miles long and sadly I was far from the end I needed to leave town by. I walked to the edge of town, somewhat trying to hitch as I went, but not trying tooo hard. I ended up waiting an hour for a ride, crammed in the back of a jeep with another guy and a longboard.
I walked along some railway tracks (possibly the official CDT?) and then got onto a dirt road that I stuck with the rest of the day. After an hour or so, I crossed into New Mexico at a cattle guard :). So far NM looks a lot like Colorado, I even had my afternoon weather, although thankfully the lightning was striking a few hills away. I ended up hiking until well after dark (i.e. 7:30pm) because I was feeling good. I’m hoping the good trail continues and also it looks like a full moon is coming soon, which I will definitely hike by.
Daily Summary
Date: Oct 3, 2011
Day 102
Daily Distance: 24 miles
Trip Distance: 1973.5 miles