The San Juan Mountains – Salida to Chama, NM (Days 96-107)

HD: Hello New Mexico!! Morale is up.

We started back on the trail after a day off in Salida with the first snowfall of the season. This is always a scary proposition for someone from south Louisiana! All was well as our progress went mostly unhindered, and the weather generally cooperated for the next 10 days. 

The much hyped San Juan mountains were impressive. We saw more wildlife (moose count is up to 21 now), and the Aspens were in full foliage as we walked through southern Colorado. There were also a few holdout flowers that survived the first snow.

I felt like these mountains had a bit softer edge to them when compared to the ranges in northern Colorado. Our daily elevation gain was still ridiculous, but things seem to be trending better. Nevertheless, everything is very high. We were almost always above 11,000 feet, and daily averages above 12,000 were the norm.

As we entered the southern San Juans and turned towards the New Mexico border, the landscape began to change to more high desert. There is a volcanic presence here; lots of basalt and some granite, especially at the high altitudes. The tops of the mountains began to look more like tables than peaks. It was refreshing. We saw no other people except our friend Flamingo while we were in the southern San Juans. It was obvious that we are once again far from major cities, in a remote area that you must earn the right to see by suffering to get there.

Although we’re resupplying in Chama, New Mexico, we still technically have 3 miles of trail left in Colorado once we hike out on Sunday. We will take the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad to arrive there – they drop off CDT hikers at the pass for a reduced rate.

Now we turn our attention to New Mexico. Moving from the most difficult hiking to the easiest of the trail is quite exciting! After 4 days of continued hiking in high mountains, we  will descend onto a desert plateau. It will take us 8 days to walk from here to the next resupply town of Cuba. The weather looks promising, and we may even change out our sleeping quilts for a lighter version when we get to Cuba.

But New Mexico is a long state, and we still have 750 miles to hike. As the days continue to shorten, managing daily mileage expectations with our desire to get to the finish is the greatest mental challenge.

For now, we have an exciting new state with different things to look at, and with different towns to visit along the way.

MC: we finally made it, we made it to New Mexico. The state of Colorado has been beautiful but brutal, and I am happy to say goodbye. Making it to New Mexico is our last milestone besides finishing the trail at the border. 

The scenery during the last two weeks has been spectacular, as the aspens all turn their leaves from green to yellow/orange. An interesting fact about the aspen leaves is that not everyone gets to witness them turn orange; usually the leaves begin to die off at the color yellow because the temperature turns cold too quickly, but Colorado has been unseasonably warm this year, which has allowed us to see these trees go from green to yellow to orange. We have camped at high elevation almost the entire duration, which means over 11,000 feet. This sounds neat in theory, but actually wrecks havoc on your sleeping and bathroom habits (emergency bathroom events are getting VERY old).

We have resumed hiking with our friends again; everyone has kind of congregated into the same area on the trail now that the major towns and alternates of Colorado are behind us. We have even met new hikers that are on the same trail and heading in the same direction as us that we have never seen before. I had the most interesting encounter with a new hiker we met, his name is Shoe-ee. Shoe-ee’s actual name is Alan Moss, he is one of my classmates from West Point. The probability of this happening is quite low! I found out he was a West Point grad from another thru hiker, Triple T, who’s son just graduated from USMA, to which Hannon and I responded, we both went there. Triple T proceeds to tell us that Shoe-ee went there too, and that he got out with either 8 or 11 years or service. This peaked my interest because that fell in line with him possibly being there at the same time I was. A couple days had past and I finally saw Shoe-ee again late at night when him and his girlfriend showed up at the same wild camping area Hannon, Flamingo, and I were staying at.

I finally got to ask him, “Shoe-ee, did you graduate from West Point?”

Shoe-ee, “yea.” 

Me, “what year?

Shoe-ee, “2013, are we classmates?!”

Me, “yep!” Everyone around proceeds to start laughing. 

Anyways, that was a neat encounter!

We have finalized our finishing date if all goes according to plan, we look to finish at the border on 12 November. Only 700 more miles to go! Hannon and I intend to eat our weight in hatch chilies during our time in New Mexico; however, the hatch chilies had to wait as we had local BBQ which included brisket and smoked hamburgers last night for dinner (thank you Judy and Grandma!)

Here’s to a net descent in elevation in our future, and no set backs in days for the final stretch.