Day: 029
Date: Tuesday, 04 June 2024
Start: La Ventana Mesa
Finish: Cuba, NM
Daily Kilometres: 38.7
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 879.9
Weather: Warm and partly sunny
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Snacks/Muesli
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Cheeseburgers & fries, icecream.
Aches: Dave - new blister and the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported
Highlight: The climb up Mesa Portales was special. We could see the forbidding walls of the mesa from 5km away as we approached it across grasslands, knowing that somehow we were going to have to climb to the top although no obvious route was visible. Dave was very apprehensive. When we got to the base, we just followed the trail which wound its way upwards through boulder fields and short sharp pinches requiring the use of arms and legs. The higher we got the more intimidating it was to look down, but the views were stupendous. We gained height really quickly and, before long, reached the mesa top and marvelled at what we had done.
Lowlight: The last 8km road walk into Cuba at the end of a long hard day was not much fun, made worse at one point by the attention of an aggressive dog which we had to fend off repeatedly with trekking poles.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We woke at 5am, keen to get started on our long day, 37+ kilometres, to the small town of Cuba where we had a motel booked for two nights. Although we knew there would be a road walk for the last part into town, we also knew there would be some demanding trail before then which would slow us down.
The trail was slow going but, again, the scenery was truly spectacular, almost every direction we looked. Canyons, buttes, mesas and the occasional hoodoo. Straight out of a Western movie. We felt privileged to be there and, as was the case yesterday, we saw no other hikers.
Our biggest, and also most rewarding, climb was to the top of Mesa Portales (see above) and then, after walking the length of the mesa, we had a steady descent through more canyons into desert grazing land.
It was another day when we saw fresh bear tracks on the trail, but no bears, just a few hares/jack rabbits.
Our last break for the day was at a solar well, surrounded by cattle curious at our use of their water trough. Then began our road walk into town which was tedious (see above) apart from craggy bluffs to our left.
Even when we got to Cuba, we had to walk the length of the small town, nearly 2km. It was a dusty uninspiring place with more closed than open businesses, interspersed with vacant blocks. Maybe our view was coloured by fatigue and the fact that our motel was at the other end of town. Finally, at 5:30pm, we reached the motel, which is fine, and checked in.
We bought take-away dinner from a nearby cafe and really enjoyed our showers after a spectacular and dusty five solid days of hiking.
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