Continental Divide Trail mile 57

[Hetchy]

Howdy everyone! I am just about to leave the town of Deming New Mexico after stopping to resupply and send boxes of food ahead to myself. The Tres Hermanas Mtns and Florida Mountains were awesome. I climbed South Peak.. 7400 feet and a 3000' climb from the desert floor. I thought about y'all while up there. It reminded me of our beloved Sierra. Just a single point thrust into the sky surronded by desert.. kinda looks like the east side of the Sierra. Except that mountains here jut out of the desert floor without hills surrounding them. The desert draws and washes are amazing. Many huge alluvial fans. I am headed into the Cookes range next. I am following the CDTS route. It is longer than walking the highway but WAYY worth it! It was funny.. I could have walked Hwy 11 30 miles into Deming from Mexican Border but I went 57 miles through the Floridas instead! It is so awesome here. I found a spring coming from solid rock in the middle of a dry box canyon!
Anyhow I am almost out of time at the library here.
Hope you all get out into the wilderness this year.
Cheers-Hetchy

[Hikin Mike]

Have a great trip....

[Hetchy]

I am at mile 400. Grants New Mexico. The Gila River was astonishing!!
New Mexico is awesome despite all the road walking I have to do. There are trails here but they are not connected to each other. We are so lucky in California. As usual I am almost out of time on the library computer.
I hope y'all are getting ramped up to hike this summer!
YeeHaa Continental Divide!

[Hetchy]

Howdy! I am in Cuba New Mexico eating like a pig. I have covered 500 miles of Continental Divide Trail so far. There is some real trail here but separated by long road walks. Sometimes it's jeep track, sometimes gravel and even .. yikes.. paved highway. There is no way around it though so I just keep going. Someday there will be continuous trail in the state but right now there is not.
What I have found is absolutely stunning. There is so much more to New mexico than I could ever have imagined. The desert gives way to Ponderosa pine covered Mountains. Volcanic Peaks like Mt Taylor at 11,301 feet. Volcanis Badlands like El Malpais where the lava seems endless and folks have literally gone in and never returned. The Gila river canyon snakes along below canyon walls of waxy stone or geometric shaped spires and always the river bouncing from one side of the canyon to the nex leaving only small islands from time to time forcing the traveller to cross hundreds of times. Recently I entered the Sandstone canyons and arroyos. Dry washes where white alkali and shades of brown and red rocks contrast with a dep blue sky. I have slept out under the stars all but one night when it snowed! These are dark skies where the milky way seems 3-dimensional and the movement of every satellite or meteor catches the eye.
Water comes in all varieties here, from cow ponds to spring fed tanks to windmill powered wells. The longest stretch so far has been 28 miles but even that was cut in half cause I found a broken water pipe in a canyon, though I still had to carry water for 28 miles since I did not expect it.
The people here are very friendly. Everyone is generous and helpful.
about the only negative thing I can think of is the over abundance of Bud Light cans along the side of the road. It is a strange and unusual phenomenon but folks here seem only to be drinking Bud Light. The blue cans are everywhere and on every dirt track, jeep trail, paved road.. it's kinda spooky. The locals blame it on the hunters. Oh well , nothing is pefect in this world. I figure if they simply raise the redemption value those cans would disappear quickly enough.
The other funny hing about the hunters s ?when they pull up on their quads or trucks and holler over the rorar of the engine, "Seen any Gobblers?"(Turkeys) The truth is yes I have. But not anywhere near those noisy machines. I have seen scores of elk. White and Black tailed deer. Coyote, ravens, egrets, hawks,eagles,rabbits,wild horses,lots of cows..too many,signs of beaver and bears.
New Mexico is amazing. I am going up into more of her mountains next. The San Pedros to be exzact. Then Ghost ranch and then Chama. After 8 days or so I will venture into Colorado and the San Juan Mountains.
YeeHaa!
I am so ready for more adventure.
Today I am taking a "zero" day. That is not hiking. I am fattening up since I basically have not stopped hiking for 3 1/2 weeks. These past days were 30 milers. It is so addicting to see a mountain in the morning, reach it by midday and then leave it in the dust by night fall
I know we thru hikers get accused of going too fast. Of not seing anything. I don't believe that. We have a different experience is all. No better or worse.. just different. The immersion in trail life day after day, week after week broken only by brief resupply stops becomes a way of life. It is a very compelling way of life. It is hard hiking 14 hours a day but also very rewarding.
Anyhow, I am rambling. Besides it is way past my noon feeding. The other beauty of hiking 3100 miles is you can eat ALL you want and still lose weight. I have been eating 3000 calories a day on trail and probably 5000 in townstops. My hiker hunger is already upon me!
Tomorrow I hike out towards Ghost Ranch where thankfully I have already sent a resupply box to break up a 150 mile section. Ah Yes, I believe I put an entire jar of Nutella in that box!
Cheers My Friends and Happy trails!
I am gonna go out and see what those Rcoky Mountains are all about.
-Hetchy

[rlown]

Sounds like a great trip so far. Kudos!!

You know, you could be picking up those cans, recycling them, and using that towards your "pay as you go" resupply philosophy..

I really like reading your trail logs on postholer. Added them to my RSS feeds.

Regards, Russ

[Hetchy]

I actually figured out a scheme to make picking up those cans effiecient and profitable. It involves a three wheeled bike with a can crusher attatchment and large basket. I would drive to the bottom of the fire road and bike to the top of the hill. Picking up cans and crushing them on the way back to the truck. Of course I would need to equip the bike with some sort of running or working brake like the old time postal carts used to have.
Amazing what you think up when you have 14 hours of hiking time a day.
Anyhow, I am in Chama New Mexico today! I slept just accross the border in Colorado last night. I have the San Juan Mountains ahead of me! There is plenty of snow above 10000 feet as evidenced by the last 50 miles in NM. It is quite consolidated though. This morning I was able to walk atop it like it was concrete to reach Cumbres Pass.
Colorado trails here I come.. snow or no snow.. I am going through!
Thanks Very Much to all those that donated to HikeStrong!
You are the Best!
Cheers-Hetchy