Day: 023
Date: Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Start: Acoma-Zuni Trailhead
Finish: Grants, NM
Daily Kilometres: 40.1
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 698.7
Weather: Cool early, then very warm and sunny.
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Mexicali Sub
Dinner: Cheeseburger & fries, thick shake.
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles and a new blister, probably from road pounding; Julie - her left knee still giving her some trouble.
Highlight: After our limited menu for dinner last night, we were keen to make a Subway restaurant, where the trail crossed the Interstate 40 Hwy, by lunchtime, even though we had to cover 24km first. We did it in good time, and were in the Subway, for an excellent and much-appreciated lunch, before 1pm.
Lowlight: None really.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were on the road, literally, by 6am, now back on the “official” CDT route, having finished the Cebolla Alternate last night.
Our first goal was to reach a ranger station, 10km down the road, where we planned to get water. The road was quiet and the walking enjoyable with continuing sandstone cliffs to the right and the austere black lava field to the left. We made good time and reached the ranger station around 8am. It has been closed to the public because of a problem with the water supply, but we climbed over the closed gate and walked up to the ranger station where several large containers of water had been left by a picnic table, specifically for CDT hikers. Another thoughtful and valuable contribution to our journey.
After breakfast, we were keen to cover the remaining 15km to the I40 freeway junction and the Subway restaurant there, and continued our good progress. The road was busier now and, although the scenery continued to be spectacular, it was tiring to be constantly observing the traffic and making sure we were safe. Having said that, nearly all drivers gave us a very wide berth and many waved, some obviously aware of journey.
We reached the freeway around 1pm and enjoyed our lunch sub (see above). Several other customers were keen to chat with us about our trek.
With another 10km to our booked motel, we began to think how we might get to the Post Office before 5pm and pick up our two parcels - one food sent on from Doc Campbell’s and the other winter gear. Grants is a spread out town and the PO is 4km beyond our motel. We were, however, aware there was a cheap on-demand bus service in town that hikers had used. With 5km to go, Dave called to try and book a bus from our motel to the PO around 4pm, just after our anticipated arrival. No dice. They could take us at 3:30pm. Eventually, they agreed to pick us up at a point outside town, about 3km from our motel, and take us to the PO, and back, at 3:15pm.
It was a little surreal jumping on the bus and being taken to the PO, picking up our mail, and then being returned to our original pickup point outside town. The driver offered to take us directly to our motel, but that would mean that we missed 2km of our journey and we are determined to walk every step of the way.
We actually met another CDT hiker on the bus, who had hitch-hiked into Grants, reasoning that road walking was hard on the body and why not just hitch-hike along the same road rather than walk. Each to his/her own.
In the last few days we have also been passed by a few cyclists riding the Continental Divide Trail mountain bike route, which has intersected with our route.
We finally reached our motel around 4:30pm and checked in. Later, we bought take-away dinner from a nearby fast food restaurant.
Looking forward to a day off tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment