CDT Day 29 (6/15/23)

Miles 649.5 (Red line 766.5)- 670.5 (Red line 787.5) (21 miles)

Verbatim

Last night was freezing, holy crap. I thought about buying an accordion pad today in Chama but didn’t. Instead I bought an ice axe and fuel and a bivy sack thing. Hopefully those things will do me warm. We will see. The people at Tumble On Outfitters were very nice. It is a strange place here in Chama. They’re on a water restriction because the snow melt has made the water running through the town’s water supply too silty. So, things are served bottled or with plastic utensils and on paper plates. It’s a bit frustrating for someone packing all their plastic.

There’s quite a bubble in town. Monster, Dragon Sky, Sebastian, Songbird, Kismet, Catdog, Happy Alpaca, BeeKeeper, and maybe a few more are all in town. Some are back from flipping in the basin. Others are about to flip. It’s a happening place. I’m the only one hopping back on trail today.

I walked into Colorado today. There was some trail magic at the border from Tumble On Outfitters. I got to drink a Coca-Cola. It was nice. I met Kismet and BeeKeeper there and enjoyed their company the three miles to the border. Colorado definitely feels different and will have more snow. Maybe I’ll miss New Mexico. Maybe not. I do worry about sleeping well and comfortably. And I worry about the increasing weight and mass of plastic I’m carrying. Colorado seems like it will be the challenge of the CDT. Both mentally and physically. Change is scary, and my lack of snow experience makes this feel scarier.

I’m not sure I feel very connected to the hikers I met in town today. Keep walking I guess.

I’ve tried really hard to eat a lot in town today. I feel really scattered without trail. Or maybe even on trail. I worked so hard to get here to Colorado and now I have no idea what it will be like.

I ate two burritos in town today. They both were served with plastic silverware which I avoided. Both, however, came with either a styrofoam or plastic bottle. I had to take it, because there’s no other way to get water in this town. I had to poop as well, but all they had to offer is hand sanitizer. Which, now that I’m writing about it, I can totally use to refill my hiking sanitizer bottle.

Man am I tired. I’m having a hard time processing anything. I think it’s probably time to hitch back to trail.

The side of my shoe is cutting into my ankle bone and it really hurts. It sucks! I’d like to have bought new shoes in town today but the Tumble On Outfitter didn’t sell any. Bummer. As I was leaving Chama I walked past Foster’s Inn. From its porch waved Alpaca and Catdog who invited me to split the room with them and Monster. I laughed and declined, but when they offered me a shower I took it. When Alpaca tried to convince me to stay while I was hitching she lifted her shorts and butt cheek toward me. At least that’s what I thought I saw. She said something as well but I couldn’t make it out because a truck was passing. I was very confused and wondered what she was signaling. I am out here to make friends. I’m not out here to get laid.

It’s a good thing I bought an ice ax. Should I have bought crampons too? Maybe, but the ice ax seems essential already in just the first ten miles. I really hope the melt keeps on. 700 miles of this would proves tedious, risky, and emotionally and cerebrally exhausting. I also notice I get the faintest bit of a head ache at 12k elevation. Right now I’m missing my west coast bike trip. I think it would be a good thing to get on the bike summer. For now it’s working hard on trail.

I also learned today from my mom that my grandfather’s pancreatic cancer has returned. This more than likely speaks the end for him. We’re not quite sure where it’s metastasized, but a second bout of cancer generally doesn’t “arrive” in ok places. We’ll see what this means for my hike. I’d be happy to get off trail at any time to visit him. It may mean two trips. A visit and a funeral. Which may mean just one trail is possible this summer.

I also talked to Paige today. She’s under a lot of pressure. She’s bored at work and doesn’t want to be a quitter. She’s about —.

My hand is too cold to keep writing. I really hope I sleep well tonight. 20ish miles on a town day. Nice. I hope to get to Creede in about four days. We’ll see if that’s possible. Safety first. My mom seemed anxious on the phone.

Post Note

There were a couple freezing nights on the horizon. This one was no exception. I’d gone up high. High enough for trail to be mostly snow covered, though I was able to find a snowless patch of trail around the bend of a pass. The wind was whipping through the pass. But just twenty feet to the left and under the shoulder of the mountain I was protected. I was inside the space blanket I’d bought, which is a heat trapping layer. I would sleep wet, on account of my body’s moisture being unable to exit the space blanket, but I would be warm. Sleeping right on trail was nice. I had a little cocoon like shaped depression. I could feel the soft grasses cradling me on either side of the dirt ribbon.

Ok. I hated Chama. Worst trail town on the CDT. The town is strung along a mile and a half of road. The grocery store is at one end. The town center with restaurants and gear store is at the other end. You have to walk in town. That’s a no no for thruhikers. Walk all day on trail? Yeah! Walk a half mile in town? Please no…

They served everything with plastic! I cannot express the sinking feeling of disappointment I’d feel in multiple towns along the CDT when I was served an entree on a styrofoam plate or cup or in a plastic container. First of all, this is a restaurant.. Fine dining? Why are you not doing dishes? Second, do you have any idea I have to pack this for the rest of my trip? I have to walk 2000 miles with the consequences of this mutual action we just took. Of course you don’t. I would get angry. I’d be eating dinner with a friend, yes I’d finally make some on this trail, and would finish my meal and would take the plate to the bathroom to wash it off. That’d confuse them. They they’d see me tucking it into my backpack. That would really confuse them. I didn’t talk about myself as the plastic person. So, it would take them by surprise when I explained. The response was always, “Yeah but you don’t have to pack that too. This is in town”. I’d just say, “everything”.

Let’s talk flip flopping. Chama is the trail town right on the border of NM and Colorado. You walk into Colorado, drink a coke, and then hitch back into New Mexico to Chama to resupply. Because through hiking is so popular, and people are foolishly eager to get out on trail and start their big adventure, people start earlier and earlier every year. This means that you get to a place like Chama while the snowpack is still nice and secure from it’s overwintering. Then you say, “Oh no! It’s too dangerous!” and spend a week in Tucson or Denver or fly home for two weeks or spend $1000 on hotels for a week and talk with every thruhiker that comes into Chama over that time about how it’s “too dangerous” to go on because you feel obligated to defend the decision you’ve taken to stay and wait and feel insecure about that. I’m not saying there’s a right or wrong thing to do. Hell. These mountains are dangerous. That’s part of why we do it. I am asking you not to fear-monger. It’s really annoying. And the people who haven’t done this before actually listen to you. And just because you can spend money on a trip in a trip or on hotels doesn’t mean the next person can.

A final alternative is to “flip”. Flipping is when a hiker does a section out of order. I’ve flipped before. On my 2022 CDT hike I flipped up to the Great Basin after the NM national forests closed because of fire. I could have road walked with my friends. But I didn’t want to walk 200 miles of road. I could have gone to CO, but there was still too much snow in late May of 2022. I don’t recommend flipping at all. I think there’s something really impactful to the singular and continuous walk. I am walking from here to there, not just sight seeing. If I’m picking and choosing certain places at certain times I should not hike the CDT. There’s too much suck on the CDT. I have to actually walk from here to there to walk from here to there. That’s me, anyways.

The only remedy to the social pressures of flipping or fear mongering is to get back on trail. You get on trail and suddenly everything reduces once again to the dirt path in front of you, monitoring how much of your food you’re going to eat today at the expense of the food you can eat tomorrow, and making sure you find some yummy water and a place to sleep. No one is scaring you about the snow while you’re on trail. You just go see the snow. Then you know for yourself what you need to do for you. It’s also cheaper than a hotel. It’s also so much quieter than all that fear mongering.