Anniversary from the Trail

September 30th 

I woke up and walked slowly along the ridge. My headlamp, for some reason, only goes on the low setting, so I had to walk slowly. I passed the Brazos Ridge Overlook as the sun came up.   It was a beautiful sunrise but then the clouds rolled in and I was walking in a cloud in the morning. I came across five gallons of water left by a trail angel, but all the water was gone. (In trail jargon, a trail angel is a person who does good deeds for hikers.  It can range from leaving water or snacks to providing transportation or lodging.)

Later on, the sun broke through and I had a beautiful view of all the aspens changing color. It  was a great day for hiking. Temperature in the 60’s and very few clouds. Although it was dry, I did manage to find enough water to quench my thirst.  The first water source, unfortunately, was Laguntas Campground where a hiker who had finished the CDT was later found dead.

One highlight was walking along the ridge overlooking the Rio San Antonto.  There were golden aspens that crept up to the base of the trail along the edge of the mesa.  then, across the valley were more patches of pines and aspens.  Glorious.

Later in the afternoon, I was expecting to get water from a reliable source called Spring Tank.  However, the dead cow at the edge was a clear sign this water was not for me.

It was my 27th wedding anniversary today. My age is 54. For those of you who are not good at math, that means that half of my life has been spent married to Helen and the other half was before marrying her. I thought that if I had not met and married Helen, I would probably be eating bad food, have poor  personal hygiene, and be sleeping on the ground. Come to think of it, that is what I’m doing now.

It  was a great day.  The Taos Trail Angels  (Tom, Ron, and Tony?) had left some delicious treats just before Hopewell Lake.  Then, when I got to the campground at the lake and found the water had been turned off for the winter, a nice family let me take 2 liters from their igloo cooler.

I hiked in the dark a little further.  I set up a cowboy camp.  Earlier in the day I had seen the dust from a cattle roundup. Most of the outfits here are cow – calf.  This means the rancher keeps cows and then raises their calf’s to a certain age before selling them off.  Let me tell you there is no more mournful sound than a herd of cows calling out for their calfs which have been taken  away.   Eventually, and perhaps sadly, I grew accustomed to their calls and fell asleep.