Max on the CDT

I’ve owned an ice axe for 7 years. Yeah, I thought I was pretty cool just having the axe in my closet, giving the illusion of being a real adventurer or under my bed to hack up an intruder if the occasion ever arose. I had taken a 1 day course and knew in theory how to use it. That was good enough for me.

Rumor had it, send the crampons and axe to Chama. So we did. For some reason I thought this must be a mistake. The option for the Crede route (lower) and the San Juan route (higher) didn’t happen until after Pagosa Springs, 65 miles away.

Halfway through crossing one snow shoot hundreds of feet up the side of the mountain I look down at Sweep, a tiny speck below. She had decided to take the low route. I say to myself, self, Have you lost you mind. I look down at the ice axe in my hand and the crampons on my feet, thinking are these really my feet, wishing to hell they were someone else’s and I was really safely at home sitting on my sofa drinking wine and eating Goldfish. Popsicle was ahead of me so I just kept my head down and followed her footsteps. This was the longest crossing yet and once you get out there theres no turning back.

On most of the snow crossings we could see the run out. If we fell we at least knew where we were heading. Down. Sometimes way down. Sometimes way down into a river, lake, boulders, trees, ect. A few times we came to snow shoots and the snow dropped off into nothing. We couldn’t see over the edge. At times like these I would just keep saying Don’t freak, Don’t freak (my mantra for the next 30 miles) Sweep would yell back How ya doing Max? I would yell one verbal Good! then back to my silent mantra. I would also think about in cartoons where the Road Runner goes over the cliff, apparently to his death, then you look over and hes standing safely on a ledge three feet down.

So after 5 days in a paradise that turned to hell around every other corner, getting hailed on, getting snowed on, seeing a mountain lion way in the distance, seeing lots of elk, sloshing through marshy fields, glacading down slopes, seeing amazing views, looking back at passes we had just came down and hardly believing it was possible, one thing is for sure….. we’re taking the Crede route.

P.S. I’m never buying a wetsuit to hang in my closet.

Just when you think things will start to go more smoothly, the trail throws you another curve, literally. About 30 miles before the border, hiking on actual trail for once, we managed to take a wrong side trail and ended up down in this beautiful canyon. Instead of backtracking which is not our style, we just cut crosscounty back up through some other canyons, over some streams, up and over a hill, up and down another hill, around a small mountain, past a water hole, through some marshy fields, down a forest road and through a campground. After about a 4 hour detour we managed to get back on the CDT. So after all that we didn’t make it to the border that day but we did the next morning. It was a great feeling getting there. In another 5 miles we reached the pass and the road to Chama. I love town stops

MVI_1167

Its only been two days since I showered, I don’t need anohter one yet.

We only hiked 5 miles today. Thats pathetic.

Have my dinner sitting 5 inches from the socks I’ve been wearing for three days.

Pee 5 ft from Sweep and feel the need to announce to her every time I need to poo.

Stick needles under my big toenails to drain the blisters that have  formed there.

The Die 666 sign and the two attack dogs biting the eds of my hiking poles were not the welcome I had envisioned for Cuba, NM. I had heard the town was a little scarry but how bad can it be, Everything was made better though by one little phone call to the Circle A Ranch. Please come get us! Within an hour we had been taken out of what could have been hell to the best place on the trail so far. WE of course stayed for two nights. Popsicle and Buckeye had come back into town from Albuquerque and decided to stay at the ranch for  Buckeyes last night on the trail. He was only out for a month and we were sad to see him go. Sage was in town and also decided to stay at the ranch. This was the most hikers in one place on the CDT so far.

Climbed Mt. Taylor. Piece of cake :p Postholed down the north side. Climbed the steep jeep road to the radio towers. We saw our first rain here. We scrambled to set up our tents on the jeep road before the rain came. My tent poles had broke so it was taking me longer to get mine set up. Luckly the rain never got bad and we probably could have hiked on to a better spot.

The trail north of Grants has been awesome. Ther’s actually a trail. Lots of walking on top of mesas with great views. After the climb down from one of them, I forget the name, we were planning on finding the water source, tanking up and hiking on…until we heard this call "do you want a beer", again "do you want a beer" I say to Sweep, is she talking to us? I obviously wasnt thinking straight because there was no one else for 50 miles that she could have been talking to. So again, long story short, we met a great group of people and ended up not hiking any more that day. We instead sat around the fire and talked and ate and drank and had a great time. We camped out in this big open area with mountains and mesas in the distance and a sky full of stars.