Day: 033
Date: Saturday, 08 June 2024
Start: Youngsville
Finish: Ghost Ranch
Daily Kilometres: 30.8
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 984.1
Weather: Warm and sunny
Accommodation: Cabin
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Muesli slice/Pop tarts
Lunch: Snacks/Trail mix
Dinner: Tortillas & salad, chocolate brownies
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles (the most chronic of which is pain below left knee); Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: One highlight occurred just before we planned to stop for our breakfast break after two hours of hiking along the highway. A pickup truck going the other way slowed to a stop and handed Julie two muesli slices, which became breakfast.
Lowlight: We were over the highway traffic by the time we reached the Ghost Ranch turnoff. Almost invariably, vehicles gave us a wide berth if they could, but often there were vehicles coming from behind us at the same time, giving them little room. We usually ended up stepping off the road, sometimes into the rough steeply sloping verge, for everybody's safety. It gets quite tedious after a while.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We slept quite well despite the nearby road traffic, although one police car went by at high speed with siren blaring in the small hours.
After a quick pack-up, we were hiking along Hwy 96 by 6am, hoping to make quick progress. We knew we could get water at Abiquiu Reservoir, 15km away, from where we hoped to cover the remaining 15km to Ghost Ranch in good time, arriving mid-afternoon and in sufficient time to perhaps get accommodation and meals. We were prepared to camp there, but a cabin would be better.
We did make good time, occasionally pausing to take in, and photograph, the spectacular desert scenery bordered by mountains and multi-coloured bluffs, sometimes reflected in the Reservoir.
The Reservoir Visitor Centre was just off the highway and provided everything we needed - picnic table, water, toilets, trash cans and mobile service - for a mid-trek break. It overlooked the reservoir, on which people were boating and fishing, and was popular with passing motorists.
Soon after leaving the Reservoir, we turned off Hwy 96 onto the much busier Hwy 84, where road walking became more tedious. However, we still made good time and reached the unique and historic Ghost Ranch just after 2pm. The very helpful staff set us up with a basic cabin for the night, sold us meal passes, and handed over a parcel of food we had mailed ahead. By 3pm we were having showers, doing laundry and sipping on cold Diet Cokes. Heaven!
The Ranch is now owned and operated by the Presbyterian Church as a retreat and education centre, with a focus on the arts and history. It sits in a canyon bordered by orange cliffs and has a colourful history of its own, including as a base for notorious rustlers and as the location for a number of Western movies. It was also the home of artist Georgia O’Keeffe who painted some well-known pictures here.
After a relaxed and healthy cafeteria dinner, we had an early night.
We have now rejoined the unofficial CDT, as Ghost Ranch lies on the Ghost Ranch Alternate taken by most hikers. No more highway walking for a little while, hopefully.
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