The morning of April 28th I woke up in my rented school bus, and knew it was time to hit the trail. Still I wasn’t in a hurry so I took my time packing up and getting ready to go. Vince, the owner of Rebel’s roost gave me some coffee and Monster came out and said he was staying another day.
After I finished my coffee I shouldered my pack and stay to walk back towards the trail. As I was leaving Monster walked by with his gear. I eyed him questioningly and he said “It’s cheaper to hike” and marched on. I laughed and followed behind. He’s a faster hiker than I am ( pretty much everybody is, I was born to mosey) so he was soon out of sight. The trail followed dirt roads for a while to the Los Pinos trailhead and then headed up the mountain. I knew we had to climb up to 10,500 feet and there was going to be snow. It’s spring and the snow that is melting is swelling the rivers and creeks. As I climbed I crossed a small creek about a dozen times but other than getting my feet wet it wasn’t a big deal. There were aspens and hardwoods flanking the trail and it felt wonderful to be walking through a forest again. As I climbed higher the snow started to become more prevalent and although it was only in patches I was already starting to posthole.
All to soon the snow dominated the landscape and I was breaking through with every step. It was slow and exhausting but I had to continue on. With everything under several (or more) feet of frozen snow there was no sign of the trail but Monster had waded through before me so I mostly just followed his tracks, just checking occasionally to make sure he was going the right way. I slowly continued on for several more miles when I noticed a second set of tracks had joined Monster’s. He had caught up and passed Widesky, who had left the afternoon of the 27th ( the day before). He was hiking through the snow in sandals and regular hiking socks. I knew his feet had to be freezing.
I continued to follow their tracks and as the day wore on and the snow heated the postholing grew worse and worse but I knew I needed to get over the mountain and back down to a lower elevation to camp for the night.
My feet were dry in my waterproof socks but still cold in my soaked shoes. Once when I broke thru the snow I realized I was standing in the middle of a small pond, but unable to get any wetter I slugged through. At times the snow would get so deep I would be floundering up to my chest, clawing, and crawling my way to to firmer ground. I eventually reached the peak and started down the other side hoping for relief but it was a long time in coming . Fighting my way through the snow was so tiring at times I wasn’t sure I was capable of lifting my foot and taking another step until I did. It was nearly 15 miles of deep snow that day before I started to see patches of dry ground. The day wasn’t over though, the north side of the mountain was covered in dead falls, trees of all sizes blocked the trail from every angle and here were still deep snow drifts to contend with in between. The trail had become an obstacle course. I climbed, and crawled, and pushed my way through fighting exhaustion, determined to make it down to the creek for water and a campsite.
I eventually reached the creek which was swollen with snowmelt. As I got near I noticed two tents set up in a small clearing on the other side. It had to be Monster, and Widesky. I sighed in the fading light of sundown and waded into the cold water; soaking myself in the icy snowmelt and knowing I would be putting on frozen wet clothes, and shoes in the morning.
I camped there with my fellow hikers, you make friends quick on the trail and often lose them just as quickly. We camped at mile 665.3, a 21.4mile day for me.
On the morning of the 29th we were all headed to Ghost Ranch which was located on the Ghost Ranch alternate. My parents had mailed me a resupply box there. It was 31.6 miles to the ranch (20.6 to the alternate junction and then 11 miles down the alternate).
I was planning on hiking at least to the alternate and then just getting as close as I felt like before setting up camp and hiking in on the next morning for breakfast and to get my package. Monster stated he was hiking the whole 31.6 and making it in time for dinner at 6 pm. Widesky was still in his tent as I hiked out at 7 am. It was a gorgeous morning and again it started with a long climb but only up to 8500 feet or so and without snow, The scenery was stunning with huge rock walls hued in shades of orange and red. Monster soon strode by and was gone over the horizon. I climbed up and over a huge ridge and down the other side. The trail led through pine woods and out into a huge valley completely surrounded by canyon walls. It was a beautiful place full of color. The trail led through the valley and I lost my sense of time as I boyishly took in the majesty of the timeless walls around me. Timeless but worn by wind, and rain into amazing sculptures. Holes, and monoliths stood out among massive grooves and eroded peaks.
I followed the valley to the Rio Chama, a tributary of the Rio Grande. The trail crossed the river and actually had a bridge. Once across the river the official trail went straight and the alternate went to the right along the river. The last forecast I had seen called for late afternoon thundershowers so I figured I would walk until rain seemed imminent. The trail just followed the dirt forest road and I could see kayakers and river rafters floating down the river. 
I have been told that the rivers are higher here than they’ve been in 17 years due to all the snow.
Around 5 pm the clouds were rolling in and I was hearing thunder so I decided to go ahead and make camp. I knew I was less than 8 miles from Ghost Ranch so I could get there early on the next day. I found a site at mile 4.8, which meant I had done a 25.4 mile day and it was 6.2 miles to the ranch. If I got up early I could make it at 7 for breakfast. I was listening to the thunder and I felt the first few drops of rain so I got my tent up and crawled in. The rain hit but it only lasted for about 20 mins so I felt kind of bad about stopping early but hey, I had walked over 25 miles.
Around 6 Widesky walked up and hung out for a little while. Soon he said he was going to walk some more and get closer to the ranch since it was so early and headed off. I made dinner climbed in my tent and enjoyed my lazy evening.
The 30th I was up and packing at 530 in the morning. I was going to make the 6.2 miles to the Ghost Ranch in time for breakfast at 7. I was camped by the road overlooking a series of canyons that led off into the down to the river with huge mountains stretching off on the other side into the past the horizon. As I climbed out of my tent and looked off over the canyons huge lightning bolts rent the sky. The wind raged out of the canyon and almost blew me over. I could feel the relatively warm temperatures begin to plummet. I stood there for some minutes watching the lightning split and splinter, dancing across the sky, challenging the thunder, which not to be outdone beat its drums in tune with the howling crescendo of the wind. I quickly decided I wasn’t really all that hungry for breakfast and that I would just go back to bed and sleep a little longer. I made it to my tent and as I climbed in the sky opened up. Chunks of ice were suddenly pummeling my tiny shelter as nature let loose. The winds were flattening my tent and trying to blow it away all at once. I was worrying the poles would break as they were nearly bent double when I suddenly realized the hard packed ground into which I had had to drive my tent stakes with a rock had suddenly turned to mush in the torrential down pour and my stakes were coming loose. I laid spread eagle in the tent hoping my weight would hold it tto the ground. There was a steep cliff into the canyon maybe ten feet away and I was picturing a brief flight and a long drop.
I managed to keep my tent on the earth and just as quick as the storm erupted it was gone. The world stilled and I exited my tent. I packed up and headed off. The ground had been turned into deep slimy mud that stuck to your shoes with every step.
I hiked on under the cloudy sky. About 3 miles later I ran into Widesky again and we hiked together. It was slow going in the mud and the trail was cross country for a while but we made it. We got there around 9 and since it was too late for breakfast we decided to wait for lunch. To our surprise Monster had just hiked in that morning as well. We hung up our tents to dry and bought sodas and snacks at the gift shack.
That afternoon we again hit the snow and it was back to postholing. Widesky was still wearing Chacos (sandals). When there’s that much snow there’s really no way to follow the trail so you basically just make your own aiming towards whatever waypoint you want to find. We trudged in postholing, wading through the snow. It was beautiful and it was exhausting. At some point Widesky decided he was going to have to hitchhike into Chama at the next road crossing on hwy 64 and take a bus to Santa Fe to the REI store to buy some boots and snowshoes. Monster said he was going to hitch in and get his snowshoes, which he had mailed to Chama as well. My snowshoes were on their way to Chama by Fed Ex but I wasn’t sure if they would make it in time. We had all planned to hike all the way into Colorado to highway 17 before going to Chama to get our gear but the snow wasn’t supposed to be this deep in New Mexico. The next highway crossing was still at least a day and a half away though so for the moment we had to just keep slogging on. We were actually off trail when we decided to call it quits for the night and camp on a ridge. We stopped around 6 so we could try to dry our shoes and socks out in the fading sun. We were near mile 722.8 which made it roughly a 20 mile day.
The 2nd of May we all got up and went off to find the trail. We still had at least 27 miles to the road crossing at 64 where we had decided to head in and get our gear. We also knew there was a dangerous river crossing ahead which had already turned a hiker back and caused them to get off trail. It was a rough day of varying terrain. At times we were fighting deep snow, at others malicious mud left from the snow melt. It was mostly cross country with little sign of a trail. The walking was hard but the scenery was beautiful with ridges, and mountains, aspen groves, and creeks. It took us all day to get down to the river, the Rio Vallecitos, at mile 739.3. The river was swollen over it’s banks and full of debris. There was pine log over the main flow that we thought we might could cross on but we would have to cross a debris field of driftwood and smaller currents to reach it. We decided to camp there on the shore after only 17 miles and put off the crossing till morning. We had a fire and fell asleep listening to the roaring river.
We had all agreed to wake up early on the 3rd so we could cross the river and hike the 11 miles to the road where we could hitchhike to Chama. We were on our way at 6 crossing two logs over the smaller channels through the debris field before reaching the pine that bridged the main river. Monster started walking the log and quickly turned back upon realizing it was coated in ice. It was our only way across so we attached our tracking poles to our packs to free our hands and prepared to crawl across the ice covered log above the raging river. Widesky went first and scooted across an inch at a time holding on for dear life. Monster followed and I brought up the rear. As I was crawling and using branches for handholds a couple of them broke from the pressure of a 3rd hiker putting their weight on them and I fell but managed to straddle the slippery log with only my feet in the water, balancing on the ice with my 35 pound pack. I scooted the rest of the way crawling over the branches sliding on the icy sheet that covered our makeshift bridge. The log ended in the shallows about 5 ft from shore and I plunged into the knee deep water making my way to shore. We had made it! Now to town.
The 11 miles to the highway went by fairly quickly. We climbed some small mountains and it was early enough in the morning that we were able to walk across the crust of snow without breaking through. Before long we were at the highway at mile 750.2. There was a cool shelter there that made us think of our days on the Appalachian trail and a privy that was locked for the Winter ( I guess the forest service doesn’t like people pooping when it’s cold outside?)
Monster had been in a hurry to make Town that morning and he’d already hit the road and caught a ride before me and Widesky got there. Traffic was slow and we hung out by the road for a couple of hours with our thumbs out before we finally got lucky.
A guy who had been out turkey hunting picked us up and took us to Chama and dropped us off at the Y Motel where Monster had already arranged for us all to share a room. After tracking my snowshoes I discovered they wouldn’t be in till the next day so I was just killing time. The thermarest I had ordered had arrived that morning but the new lady at the desk hadn’t been told to accept the package even though I had called and told them it was coming and she had sent it away. I called the company and they said that would reship it overnight on Monday and it would be there Tuesday. So I would have to get my snowshoes the next day, Saturday, and get back to the trail and walk the 43 miles to hwy 17 in Colorado and hitch back in for my package. Widesky also had to get to Santa Fe to REI to buy boots and gear. It was too late to catch a bus that day so we decided to wait till morning and just hang out in the room, after We ate dinner at the Highcountry restaurant and saloon; built over a hundred years ago when Chama was a railroad stop in the old west. After returning to the hotel Moonshine Pete came by. He had been rescued and was recovering at the hotel. Apparently he had just got caught in a big snow storm and was unable to get out by himself so he hit his spot for rescue. He was planning on hiking back in the following week.
The morning of May 4th we hung out at the hotel waiting for the 1 o’clock bus. My snowshoes got delivered, along with my ice axe, and chains for my shoes. Monster had already picked up his snowshoes and decided to go ahead and head back to the trail. Widesky checked on the bus and was told it wasn’t running on weekends anymore. Not good, since it was Saturday. We had to find a way to Santa Fe over 100 miles away. He got the number of a local trail angel ( what we call a person that helps hikers) and called to see if she had any ideas. The lady, Mary, said she would drive us all the way to REI and back since she had an errand to run in Santa Fe.
We made it to Santa Fe and to REI which was actually a bit of a letdown. I was good since all I needed was some socks but Widesky needed an ice axe which they didn’t carry ( ironically REI was founded by a group of mountaineers because they needed a place to buy ice axes) and snowshoes which they had one pair of. He also needed boots which he was able to purchase along with the snowshoes. Almost 500 dollars later he was ready to hit the trail again.
Mary drove us all the way back to Chama to pick up our stuff which we had left in Moonshine Pete’s hotel room and then back to the trail where we slept in the shelter so we could get an early start the next morning. Almost all of the next 40 miles would be above 10,000 feet. On Sunday May the 5th we hiked up into the mountains, the road itself where we slept was already at 9800 feet in elevation. That morning the snow was still cold and firm so it wasn’t bad hiking. We could see Monster’s snowshoe tracks from the day before so we basically just followed him.
In the late morning we started breaking through the crust and it was time to learn how to snowshoe. I got mine on and almost immediately tripped over my own feet and crashed into the snow. I carefully regained my feet got my pack on and started hiking.
The shoes were working, I was staying on top of the snow. Of course it was harder than regular hiking but it was way better than postholing. Plus I was snowshoeing through the remote Rocky Mountains that’s pretty cool. It was rough terrain all day snowshoeing up mountains and through forests climbing over dead falls and crossing rivers on bridges of snow. Navigation was pick a point on the map and head in that direction checking occasionally to verify your heading. We decided to aim for the Lower Lagunitas campground at mile 769.2 which would make it a 19.5 mile day. Snowshoeing was tiring work.
The campground we were heading for was also where a CDT hiker called Otter had perished after being snowed in for 3 months in 2016. He had hiked up in the winter of 2015 and taken refuge in the bathroom at the campground. He lived there on a 20 lb bag of horse oats he found; waiting for a rescue that never arrived.
We made it to the campsite and of course everything was covered in snow but we managed to find a clearish spot under some large trees. We collected water from a nearby frozen lake and crawled in our tents to stay warm making sure to unlace our shoes as we knew they would be frozen solid in the morning.
7 am on May the 6th found us up and walking. It was 20 miles to the New Mexico/Colorado border and then 3 more from there to hwy 17 where we planned to hitch back into Chama. Widesky and I got separated in the morning so I spent the day hiking alone through the frozen landscape. I loved the quiet solitude of the snow covered mountains, the rushing streams peaking out through the ice. Elk roamed the highlands a coyote dashed away through the trees. I had to climb over an 11,040 foot peak before I could descend down to the road and it was a tough ascent in my snowshoes but would have been much worse without. Occasionally I would trip over my shoes or crash through hollow snow and fall to the ground but I always managed to get back up. On the steeper slopes I often slipped and slid until I crashed into a tree to stop my descent then I would push back to my feet and walk on. I snapped a tracking pole on one such harrowing tumble but was able to piece it back together slightly shorter but functional. Around 3 in the afternoon, at over 10000 feet up in the Rockies, I snowshoed my way into Colorado! I had officially walked across the entire state of New Mexico. From burning deserts to snow covered peaks I had persisted and at mile 788 of 3,100 I still had more than the entire length of the Appalachian trail to go.
The view into Colorado from the border was staggering. It looked like something from a dream. Huge mountains, disappeared into the distance. I could see the the highway I was aiming for down in the valley and a railroad trestle just beyond. It was awe inspiring.
I began to make my way down towards the road and of course fell down on the next steep descent and slid into a tree but I couldn’t help but laugh cause I could tell from the tracks Widesky had some the same not long before.
I made it to the road and started trying to hitch the 12 miles into town. I managed to get a ride with a guy in about half an hour. He was on vacation and his whole car was full of stuff but he made room for me as long as I held my pack in my lap. When we got about half way to town we passed Widesky he hadn’t been able to get a hitch and was walking to Chama. There wasn’t any room at all in the car I was in so all I could do was wave. My ride dropped me off about a mile from the hotel I was heading towards cause he had to take a turn to the right, so I started walking again. About then a car came by with Widesky sticking out the window and waving, he had finally gotten a ride. Soon after a pickup pulled over and told me to hop in the back. I made it to the Y motel about 30 seconds after Widesky. As I pulled up Monster and Moonshine Pete were leaving, they were staying at a trail angels house for the night and hitting the trail early the next morning. I had to wait on my package to be redelivered so I was staying till at least Wednesday morning. Me and Widesky got a room for 40 bucks ( the motel gave us a discount if we didn’t make them clean it) so we got it for two nights. It’s got an oven so we cooked frozen pizzas and chilled. Today’s the 7th and I’m still waiting for my package to arrive. The weathers looking rough with loads of snow for the next few days. We are debating whether to stay or go. We already have the room for tonight and if the weather turns foul the trail angel,Mary ,has offered to let us sleep in her attic for a couple of nights; at least until Friday. So here I am washed up on the shores of Chama, New Mexico, trying to decide if I should stay or go…
Random pics below 🙂
What absolutely awesome pictures and once again what a great read:-):-):-). I am feeling a sense of awe at all that you are experiencing:-):-):-). I can’t imagine how breathtaking the scenery is or how vast!! When stepping off trail you could be planting your foot ( or your bottom) lol on a spot where noone has touched since God created the world! Wow!! Another qoute comes to mind but I think the author is unknown! “Life isn’t measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away” just reading your experiences take my breath away. Proud of you and Proud for you to have such great experiences. Till next time. Mom
Thanks it’s so amazing out here, and hard but hey the hardest climbs lead to the best views.
Well you made it to Colorado… 788 miles… WOW… love the pics and the story… “ONE STEP FOR MANKIND” 😂
Take care bud …..
Thanks bro
Amazing country you are going thru my friend ! Awesome pictures ! You are really good at writing too ! I can’t imagine all of the crap you are going thru.You are doing great !
Thanks man it’s crazy out here but so amazing
I’m enjoying your journey.
Awesome! 🙂