WalkingCarrot

North from Pie Town, the trail follows roads for the first 28 miles. We’ve been walking York Ranch Road most of the way. It’s a quiet road, and well maintained, nice packed dirt and gravel. But it is a road. The landscape’s mostly flat and the direction varies only slightly. In short, it’s just a dry, mind numbing slog, with cows.

We stopped for a late morning break at the Thomas ranch, a hiker-friendly place with a sign directing CDT hikers to a water hose. We drink up and fill up and get back on the road tanked up again with 2 gallons each of water.

The feet take a toll, with the weight of the water and a flat hard surface for walking, they swell up and are sore. We gradually drop from juniper covered hills onto a flat plain dominated by sage, and with little else.

Clouds keep the sun hidden most of the day and drop only a sprinkle or two. As evening comes on a vibrant rainbow forms over the mesa to the east where a scattered downpour is dissipating.

We finally turn off of the county road onto a jeep track which heads up Armijo Canyon and into the Cebolla Wilderness. At the road junction someone has left a half gallon of water for hikers, a gift we gladly accept and drink down.

We race the setting sun, to get far enough up the canyon road that we are back into the juniper and pinion pines, which offer some shelter from the wind. The sun has an advantage, as it sets it puts on a show that has us stopping every couple minutes for photos.  Obscured by clouds most of the afternoon, the sun now returns and slips below and between dark bands of clouds, glowing orange and casting long brilliant rays on the clouds which fill the horizons in all directions as well as overhead. The light reflecting, and refracting off of the different density clouds creates a show of many colors, different in each direction. It is as if we are walking on the inside of the sunset.

We find and make camp as the last rays of light are fading. Once again we are serenaded by mournful sounding cows.

19.5 miles