It's not supposed to rain in the desert — Adventures With Samson-The-Bear

On 5/8 I did 22.3 miles to Snow Lake. On 5/9 I did 26.3 to a logging road. On 5/10 I did 23 miles to Hwy 12. On 5/11 I did 26.2 to Davilla Outpost. On 5/12 I did 13.8 to Pie Town. On 5/13 I did 20.1 and slept along Catron County Rd. On 5/14 I did 29.1 miles and slept on-top of the El Malpais Narrows. On 5/15 I did 30.7 miles to Zumi Canyon Road. On 5/16 I did 7.3 miles into Grant's, NM.

Listen to "1957" by Milo Greene. I listen to this song on almost all my road trips, and I feel like I'm on a road trip with all of this road walking.

After climbing out of the Gila, (and crossing it for a total of 265 times(that's not an exaggeration (are you allowed to put parenthesis inside parenthesis)?)). I jumped onto a jeep road near Snow Lake. Up to this point it wasn't uncommon to be on a jeep road for a few miles before getting back onto a trail. Little did I know that over the next 177 miles I would spend 146 miles on jeep trails and dirt roads and when I wasn't on a jeep trail I was in a lava field (actually the lava field was awesome but it's a better story if it sounds like it sucked). The dirt roads have their advantages since it's hard to get lost or turned around; on the straightaways you can see for miles and miles; and it's a good opportunity to catch up on all of my audio books. I also went over three 9,000 foot mountains on the roads which is good that I am getting a little bit of elevation in before I hit the next state whose name I won't mention.

Unfortunately, while I was hiking a freak storm system came in. Normally NM doesn't get any rain this time of year but for the past 6 days I have gotten rained on, hailed on and covered in snow. It's not like I've never been rained on before, but because it's so cold in the desert at night, all of the rain turns to ice, and coats my tent making it an ice cave. Not only does the rain freeze but all of the moisture in the air settles on my gear and once the temperature drops it also becomes a frozen brick. The first night it iced over on me, I had to pee on my tent poles just to break them apart in the morning. I'm spending about an hour each day crisping my gear out in the sun. While the rain and ice makes the morning a little hectic and unpleasant, it has also made the hike difficult because all of the dirt roads become extremely long mud pits. I think it would be easier to ski across the trail at this point rather than slog through miles and miles of mud that sticks to your shoes like concrete.

So the trail hasn't really been in the wilderness and the weather is kind of sucking but the landscape and geological features have been amazing. Getting views of mesas has been awesome and travelling through a section called the Narrows and Malpais has been fascinating. Malpais is Spanish for badlands which is what the Spanish called the lava fields since they were unable to take their horses and wagons across the land and were forced to go around the massive flows. The Native Americans and now hikers use cairns to guide themselves across the indiscernible lava flows. The night before I crossed Malpais I climbed up a large Mesa called the narrows which overlooked the lava fields. It was nice to get off the road and sleep in the trees plus it made for an amazing sunset and sunrise.

In this latest section of trail I have run into a lot of trail Angel's and hostels which I did not expect on the CDT. Along one of the road walks in the desert a guy built an outpost out of corrugated steel and setup a kitchen, shower and toilet, it was basic but everything a hiker could need. He stocked the kitchen with bacon, eggs and beans and hikers could fix themselves whatever they wanted over propane burners, and as an added bonus he also had a kegerator so.... it was a very welcome surprise and a cheerful night. I also stayed at a hiker/biker hostel in Pie town called Nita's Toaster House. Pie town is famous for... you guessed it... pie. It's also a stop for cyclist who ride the divide, which is the cycling equivalent of the CDT. Pie town has 3 different places to get pie. Coincidentally, it also only has three buildings in it. So if you don’t like pie there isn't going to be a lot for you in town, fortunately I love pie.