Deming, NM to the Mexican border

From Deming we only had 60 miles to the border, and we could all feel the excitement building. The last 60 miles followed either paved highway or jeep road. Our route skirted around the only mountains in the area, the Floridas and the Tres Hermanas. Water was scarce and weather remained sunny and cold. The worst, however, was when we awoke in the middle of the night to find that our cowboy camp had been invaded by giant red ants. Brian actually got bit on his lip and looked like a plastic surgery gone bad for about 24 hours. As we walked the highway into the town of Columbus we were happy to see our tax dollars at work; as evidenced by the hundreds of border patrol vehicles we saw driving up and down the highway. We strolled into our final town and gathered the group to hike the last 3 miles together. With our packs full of champagne and beer we hiked the last 3 miles to the Mexican border in style. We made it to the border on November 17, 2009 and just like that, our 2600 mile journey across the country was over. It was time to celebrate!

We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who supported us throughout our journey, both on trail and off. We are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family. We look forward to seeing you all very soon.

Doc Campbells, NM to Deming, NM

Doc Campbells wasn't a town at all. It basically consisted of a general store, bed and breakfast, and some amazing hot springs. This "town" was also the point at which we had to make a critical route decision. From here we had to decide between the shorter route to Antelope Wells or the longer route to Columbus. We actually opted for the longer route because of its close proximity to Columbus; only 3 miles from the Mexican border. After a quick resupply and a refreshing soak it was off to the town of Mimbres. The walk to Mimbers consisted of a long and mundane road walk. When we arrived in Mimbres we were greeted with the generosity of trail angels, Julie and Pat, who took us into their home and transported us back to the trail. The trail then took a 30 mile jog to the East where we hiked to our final 10000 foot elevation, Hillsboro Peak and fire lookout. We were actually surprised when we found that the cabin at the top of the peak was open, complete with bunks, and a wood burning stove. From the peak it was a steady descent into the Southern New Mexico desert. The hike into Deming consisted of sandy jeep roads, broken windmills, rattlesnakes, and every prickly plant imaginable.

Pie Town, NM to Doc Campbells, NM

Our Stay in Pie town was A-Ma-Zing. Nita, Kathy, Ty, and Meghan were magnificent. I walked into town convinced that I didn't love pie and oh how I was wrong. If you're ever driving thru Pie Town, NM, stop at the Pie-O-neer. Enjoy everything and tell them Brian and Brenda (CDT 09) sent you. Oh and don't miss the VLA. From pie town we continued our walk south once again finding our tread to be jeep road, and water to be scarce. Special thanks to the guy driving the truck with the camper who hapended to have an extra 2 1/2 gallons of juice that he didn't need. After almost 90 miles of difficult water conditions we finally reached Snow Lake, and the source of the Middle Fork of the Gila River canyon. As we began our hike down the canyon the walls began to rise above us. The trail in the canyon crossed the Gila River over 70 times, in only 15 miles of trail. Halfway through the canyon we took a sidetrail that took us the famous Gila Cliff Dwellings and on to Doc Campbell's.

Grants, NM to Pie Town, NM

Grants was a fun town to hang out in. We found the best little Mexican place in town, called El Cafecito, and were introduced to the wonders of green chillie. We also got to see a movie, Zombieland, in town and highly recommend it. Oh, and due to the lack of water expected in the next section, we rented a U-Haul to place a water cache in the desert. Brian and I weren't exactly thrilled to leave Grants; due to the snow storm that we had to road walk in. It was impossible to stay warm as the icy desert winds blew across the volcanic landscape. We camped near a beautiful historic arch formation the first night out. The weather had been so cold that our water cache was frozen solid. The next days were full of endless road walking. However, it all paid of when we met the Thomas family on the highway. The Thomas's were trail angels who picked up our group of 15 hikers and took us into their home. Their kindness and hospitality was endless, and for that we are forever thankful. For Halloween we all camped together outside of Pie Town and shared ghost stories around a huge campfire. On November 1st we hiked into Pie Town.

Cuba, NM to Grants, NM

From Cuba we headed out into our first section of flat, waterless, and harsh desert terrain in New Mexico. The good news is that we began to increase our daily miles. Our days of 20's were long gone. It is a whole new level of torture, to the body, when you walk over 30 miles in a day; our longest day was 34 miles! Walking on flat terrain also brought back the challenge of blisters. We were also playing catch up in this section due to the fact that we had taken an extra day off in Cuba. It took us 3 days, but we ended up catching up with the pack just before reaching the summit of Mt. Taylor. Mt Taylor, our highest summit in NM (11,301 feet), provided amazing panoramic views of the vast and varying terrain of New Mexico.l From the summit we walked straight down to the town of Grants, NM, located on historic Route 66.

Ghost Ranch, NM to Cuba, NM

Whoever said that is doesn't snow in New Mexico is a liar. From Ghost Ranch we climbed back up on the divide, mostly in foul weather. We had very cold conditions with rain for the majority of the hike. However, above 10,000 feet in the San Pedro Peaks area, we were given the opportunity to again hike in knee deep snow, in blizzard conditions, for an entire day. Oh, and it is also a myth that New Mexico is all desert. We were happy to finally descend 3000 feet into Cuba and see Walley one last time.

Chama, NM to Ghost Ranch, NM

We have to say that one of our happiest moments on the trail occurred at Cumbres Pass. Number one, because there was no snow, and second because we reunited with other south bound hikers. We met up with Puff, Snappy, Freefall, Chance, Luna, So Far, Patch, Toothfairy, Valley Girl, Panda, Mike, Bret, Brie, Samurai Joe, and Sheryl. It was very strange and exciting to go from hiking alone to being part of a large group of hikers. After only 7 miles of hiking we finally crossed into New Mexico! With only 700 miles left to hike on the trail we were stoked. The landscape transformed as we headed south. We went from forested mountains to rocky desert within 100 miles. Descending into Ghost Ranch was a beautiful mix of cactus, sandstone, aspens, and red landscape.

Pagosa Springs, CO to Chama, NM

From Pagosa Springs we attempted to hike from Wolf Creek Pass. However, we only made it about four miles before turning back, due to the bitter cold wind and knee deep snow. So, we were forced to pick up the trail at Cumbres Pass.
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Silverthorne, CO to Pagosa Springs, CO

We had some big decisions to make in town regarding the early and persistent snow issue. We were not impressed when we learned that two of the ski resorts around Silverthorne were opened the first week of October! The next week and a half took us though snow flurries in Leadville, to ice storms in Colorado Springs. We caught up with our good friends Sterling and Meaghan (congratulations on the new jobs guys). We also got to drive up Pike's Peak with Walley while we were in CO Springs. We ventured up to Monarch Pass only to find that there was way too much snow for hiking. After a quick visit to the wonderful little town of Gunnison we made the decision to make our final attempt to hike in the San Juan Mountains.

Grand Lake, CO to Silverthorne, CO

We left Grand Lake reluctantly, due to the very chilly weather. We had actually took a few zeros in town to wait out some brutal snow storms, and purchase some warmer gear. We also met a fellow thru hiker in town named Jeff. The beginning of the section brought sun, but we were soon to have snow. We hiked in the Indian Peaks Wilderness during the first section and camped illegally the first night. The next day we hiked in snow, and crossed frozen beaver ponds where giant trout lurked beneath the ice. The weather arrived quickly. We were greeted with the ominous icy winds from the west. In the worsening weather we climbed to 12000+ feet as it was getting dark. The weather stayed bad for the remainder of the section. We could only hope that the rest of CO was not getting as much snow as we were. Unfortunately, the rest of the state was getting more snow.

Sorry for the delay...

Brian and I would like to apologize for the delay of our Blog updates. Due to the early arrival of winter on the Divide and the lack of computer availability in the trail towns, we have been directing our focus to making our way South. The following sections are to update our travels over the last month, and pictures will be added as soon as we find a computer. And we have some great ones so stay tuned..
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Steamboat Springs, CO to Grand Lake, CO

We started off this section with a familiar face. Soren, from our Wilderness First Responder class, graciously put us up for the night, fed us, and got us back up to the divide. Thanks Soren. We were blessed with the most beautiful weather we've seen in quite some time. Four days of bluebird! In this section we traveled the top of the divide and made camp at 11400 feet the first night out. The mountains around us continue to grow in elevation, and it always seems that we drop 3000 plus feet in between them. We saw our first bear since Idaho. He was a huge, fat, and shiny black bear. We also saw several mountain sheep on our trek. Today we are hanging out at Grand Lake to hopefully wait out the "big storm". It's threatening up to 8 inches of snow in the mountain towns with 40 mph gusts. But, a sunny weekend is predicted, and so we will hopefully have a window to make it to Silverthorne; before we need our shred sticks.

Rawlins, WY to Steamboat Springs, CO

This section was full of adventure! Just out of Rawlins we met a wonderful group of gentleman from town who shared food, drink, and showed us one of their favorite camp spots. We took off the next morning and made our way back to the divide. We hiked in pine forest with intermittent aspen groves that were beautiful. We weren't as alone as we would have liked. Unfortunately, with the coming Fall, we have encountered the elusive camouflaged bow hunter. Not to worry, Brian and I have already purchased our fashionable hunter orange attire for the hunting season. We camped that night by Highway 70 and went to bed with clear skies. In the morning we awoke to a cold rain storm. We waited till the afternoon when we finally got a break to hike. The storm persisted on and off through the day, but it was nothing like what was to come. Again, we went to bed with clear beautiful skies at 10500 feet. We woke in the middle of the night to the howling wind breaking on our tent; it wasn't long before the snow began to fall. Morning greeted us with over a half a foot of snow and zero visibility. Once again we were forced to wait for an opening to hike. When we saw our chance we descended to lower ground to determine our best route to Steamboat Springs. Unfortunately, our safest and warmest route was to leave the divide and follow a country road to town. The road walking was not as bad as we had anticipated. The views were still amazing and there was hardly any traffic on the road. The temperatures at night were around 20F and the daytime temps only in the high 30s. We were very happy to descend in elevation. We finally made it across the WY/CO state line, making our halfway point official and giving us only two more states to hike! From the state line we continued towards Steamboat and were lucky enough to find a beautiful secret spot to camp. Thanks J+K for everything. The last bit of our journey into town took us by the Strawberry Hot Springs where we were able to soak the aches and dirt away. We walked into town the next day after sharing a camp the night before with a wonderful guy from NZ who was biking the Great Divide trail. Good luck Jeremy. Our arrival in Steamboat was great we were able to get a shower, some good grub, and meet some awesome locals like Corey who helped us find the gear we needed. Now the sun is out where we can see it, so it's off to Grand Lake and more adventure.

South Pass City, WY to Rawlins, WY

Well, to make a long story short, this section sucked. Well, not entirely, but it is really hard to come out of the most beautiful mountains you have ever seen with water abound, and walk into a desert. The land was beautiful, but we walked on sandy jeep roads primarily. The highlights of our day included spotting antelope and wild horses. We were actually approached by one stallion who troted back and forth in front of us. He didn't take his eyes off us until we were out of sight. The sunsets were beautiful. But, I would be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled to get to Rawlins and take a shower. Next we are off to Steamboat Springs, CO. That's right, this is the section that we meet our half way point! We can only hope, since we are not skiing in Colorado, that they have a indian summer and the snow stays away, just for the next 25 days or so. Wishful thinking, we know.

Togwotee Pass, WY to South Pass City, WY

On September 2, Brian and I headed out for the first couple of miles with my brother and mom. We said our goodbyes on a hill that looked out over the Wind River Range. Not five miles down the "trail" we ran into bushwhacking issues and trail that was MIA. We did finally make it to a forest service road that evening, thanks to our handy GPS. We were exhausted from carrying the weight of 9 days of food. The next morning we were greeted by a pack of five wolves that we had heard howling all night. They actually approached us! Good thing they turned around, because I'm not quite sure what we would have done if they had gotten any closer. We made our way south toward the ever impressive Winds. They looked like the Yosemite Valley as approached them from a distance. There is no way that description or pictures could do justice to the beauty of the Wind River Range. We highly suggest that you put this on your list of places to see. The passes were high (up to 11,500 feet), the mountains were jagged, and ALL bodies of water were filled with the most beautiful trout an angler could ever hope to lay eyes on. Brian and I can't wait to return. The hiking in this area was incredibly challenging due to the hairy terrain. We actually only traveled 13 miles one day because we had to climb over 3 11,000+ foot passes. But, it was all worth the amazing views. The Cirque of the Towers, a place we hope to return to rock climb at someday, was beyond words. As we left the mountains, the elevations dropped and we began to walk through arid sage land. And, before we we knew it we were in the flat desert! We saw antelope, wild horses, and horny toads throughout our travels; oh, and the ever elusive truck driving hunter. The wind NEVER stops blowing in Wyoming. The air was so dry, and the water sources were always 20-25 miles apart. The walking was the hardest we had encountered yet. We thought the snow was bad up North, but the sand of the desert makes for super slow hiking. Needless to say we still bumped our mileage from around 20/day to 25/day. We were so happy to get to South Pass City and pick up our resupply box! We, for the first time, were literally out of food by the time we got there. The hardest part was knowing that we still had five days to Rawlins. Which meant five more days without a shower.