October 2nd
(10/12 photos added)
Well, you know about my headlamp issues, so I won’t rehash them. The general frustration is that daylight is precious. Days are getting shorter and they get shorter as I head south. I need to get miles in if I want to complete the trail this month. Hiking in the morning fits my personality and helps solve this loss of daylight.
This morning presented a new challenge. Either at my last water source or climbing over the blowdowns, I lost a key part of my water purification system. This was bad. You simply cannot hike through cattle-happy New Mexico without a water filter. I was able to reach Helen and she performed a few Sunday miracles and arranged to get a headlamp and water filter sent to me via overnight at Ghost Ranch (my next destination).
Even though it is elk season here in New Mexico, I still enjoy walking quietly in the morning and coming upon a herd or a single bull. I came across a few bulls in the morning and they couldn’t figure me out. I slowly reached for my camera, but they seem to be able to detect the sound of a camera case snap with great clarity.
“The trail will provide.” So goes the saying. Well, in mid morning, I came across a cattle tank where the rancher had elevated the pipe containing incoming ground water. The tank and pipe were accessible to the public in this case; usually ranchers fence it off. I was so relieved to find fresh groundwater and tanked up for a full day, about 3 liters.
It was forest in the morning and then switched to mesa. I find that I can hike fairly fast on mesa, mainly because it is flat. Also, I was mad at myself for losing my filter and I find I hike faster when I am mad. The upshot was that when I sat down for a snack at 1:00, I realized I might be able to make Ghost Ranch tonight instead of tomorrow. If you have followed this blog… Ok if anybody had followed this blog, they would know the reward of town food is motivating to me.
I cranked up the hiking a notch and followed the alternate that went directly in to Ghost Ranch. Ghost Ranch is famous for Georgia O’Keefe and her landscapes. It is a Presbyterian retreat center open to all. Through-hikers can stop by and enjoy the all you can eat (AYCE) meals.
The alternate to Ghost Ranch follows a gently sloping mesa and then descends sharply into a desert canyon. While I was on the mesa, I encounterd a larghe lump in the trail that created a lump in my throat: bear scat. On closer examination (yes, I did), it appeared to be heavily tilted towards acorns. Perhaps these black bears are related to the Glacier Park grizzly and tend to be vegetarian.
As I dropped down off the mesa, the trail was challenging. However, the change in the ecosystem was awesome. Within a mere quarter mile the land turned to desert with prickly pear, cholla cactus, and sandy soil. There was a small stream at the bottom of the canyon. I was in cruise control and went by some day hikers. As if scripted, right after passing them, I slipped on a tiny rock in a tiny stream and fell on my butt. The mighty through-hiker shows ’em how we do it. More seriously, my replacement Zpacks pack started making weird squeaking sounds…similar to those the last time when the original one failed in the field. I decided to have my old pack sent to Cuba, NM and not risk having the Zpacks fail on me in the desert.
I recovered from my fall from grace and made it to the registration. Got a room (campsites are available) and was ion time for the AYCE dinner. In full disclosure, I did offer to buy two dinners knowing I would eat a lot. They said it was fine and they were used to hikers. While the food was not the best (think college food service), it was plentiful. I ate thoroughly and was glad for the fresh veggies.
backpacking over the hill 