CDT Day 26 (6/13/23)

Miles 558.3 (Red line 673.2)- 582.8 (Green line 23.2) (24.5 miles)

Verbatim

I slept surprisingly well last night. I had some cow pie flies all around me when I made camp. But, I tucked myself right in my bag with my sweater and head net on and they had no purchase. I slept relatively easily and only awoke for a vague bit once. I started walking at 5:54am. It was a good clip by the river where I ran into Voodoo-Doll and T-Rex. They were very kind company for six or so miles until T-Rex needed a water break. T-Rex is 60, a pharmacist, and is looking forward to being a more full time thruhiker come retirement.

I walked to Ghost Ranch and had a really friendly encounter with Caroline in the museum. I grabbed some beans and couscous from the hiker box. I charged my phone and read from Fire & Blood. I also got savaged by mayflies coming up to Ghost Ranch after passing the river bridge. Those were gnarly. Oh yeah, Ghost Ranch used to be called a “dude ranch” where wealthy east coasters would come out to live the “cowboy life”. Apparently dude ranches were a thing.

I am officially out of the desert! In NM at least... It was a beautiful canyon and then climb out of Ghost Ranch. What a special place. I got to share that climb with Arthur and Jen, two friends I made out on the patio of Ghost Ranch’s welcome center. They shared some cheese and crackers with me. Both are 38! Jen is beautiful! She’s half Chinese/half Caucasian from Australia. Her accent was super cute and she was dressed like a cowboy! She rocked it. They were surprised to hear I graduated with a Masters in Divinity. Both are Christian. Arther is a water lawyer and Jen is a civil engineer specializing in water. Their first conversation was about water rights!

They offered to take some of my plastic (I was eating an ice cream bar as I left the ranch). I declined because I’m packing all my plastic. They thought that idea was super cool and told me so. Jen was like a cheerleader! Arthur took my number and instagram handle. Hopefully we can continue to be friends!

On the climb out I came across a troop of about 40 firefighters from Arizona who were helping prepare a section of the forest to burn. They were fun to chat with, super responsive to my smiles, and had great camaraderie with each other. They were whooping and hollering. It was a fun group.

Ghost Ranch’s history is pretty cool. I must have sat through their museum video 20 times (while charging). Georgia O’Keefe, outlaws, and dinosaurs! The history is worth a quick read.

Post Note

You know. Thruhiking is the new dude ranch. All these rich people with the money and time to take off from work and go travel. Just living the “wild” and “rugged” life. It’s being homeless for fun. You get to come home and people think you’re all crazy for living that cowboy life.

Jen was so. cool. Arthur, sorry, I was definitely crushing on your girlfriend. They were both so intelligent and kind. They were both really full of life. They were in a “happily thankful” stage of relational life. That’s my original diagnosis after two hours of conversation and hanging out. I’d describe a happily thankful stage as one which comes sometime after the honey-moon stage and following downturn but contains much of the same goodness as the honey-moon stage. I got to watch them disagree and then consider each other cordially. I got to watch them express curiosity both about me and each other as my presence revealed new points of interest and understanding previously unknown. They were both super excited to hold each other when taking photos but had no fear when the other wasn’t present. Maybe it’s a stage relegated to being 38. It was hard to imagine. Which felt kind of sad to me, I think.

They met through tinder (or some other application) when Jen was in Denver attending a wedding. Jen was super forward in describing the way with which she used tinder to find the best things to do in town. It was better than a Yelp review. Instead of just guessing from a number of highly rated, but otherwise indistinguishable entertainment options, Jen would find herself in conversation with some guy she matched with and then ask him what the best things to do were. Better yet, if she liked conversing with the dude they she’d actually express interest in going on a date with him. Arthur was impressive enough, what with all that water talk, and so a relationship was born! They’d been visiting each other ever since and Arthur was planning on moving to the Pacific. What a way to travel the world.

At some point I expressed that I’d been through a tough breakup and exclaimed that their relationship gave me hope. They laughed and said something like, “Of course you can find love at 38!”.