CDT Days 25-27 – Pie Town

This section of trail had a lot of road walking into and out of Pie Town. But at the end we made it to El Malpais National Monument which is a very unique volcanic area.

Day 25 – Mile 414.2 – Pie Town

We had five miles of cross-country travel this morning before hitting a highway for a long road-walk into Pie Town. Renee’s blisters were acting up a bit, but the walk was mostly uneventful. Three miles before Pie Town we hit a general store where we did our resupply. The selection was not very good, but we made it work. Then we walked on to the “Toaster House”, which is a wonderful place where most hikers stop for a night. We arrived after the Pie Town post office had closed, but Dirty Money (who we did a lot of hiking with on the PCT) had picked up our two boxes and left them for us as the Toaster House. Our plan was to stay for only an hour or so before getting back on the trail… But it was so fun to chat with other hikers that we stuck around for several hours and then decided to spend the night. My excuse was that it is good for Renee’s blisters, and Renee’s excuse was that I wanted to. Really, we were both happy to be able to socialize with other hikers on what has been such a remote trail. We are camped in the yard tonight, and we plan to leave first thing in the morning. This was a nice day. -T

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Day 26 – Mile 435.2 – Dirt roads

After a fun night & morning socializing at the Toaster House, we tried to hit the trail fairly early in order to try to catch up with Dirty Money someday soon. Some other hikers gave me ideas for the blister on the bottom of my foot. Before leaving, Tim helped me drain it again by sticking a needle in it. Then I applied first aid ointment and put Leukotape over it (thanks, Splash!). The blisters on my toes and sides of feet are manageable but that one was really starting to hurt. We also had a nice big breakfast of avocado peanut butter toast sandwiches and stopped at the post office. We had a dirt road walk the entire day today with private property on both sides of the street. The walk was relatively easy and we had some nice views, so we didn’t mind too much. When we were getting water at TLC Ranch, three other thruhikers showed up (Splash, Eric, and Alec) bringing our on trail thruhiker count to 15. There was a cemetery right when we wanted to camp, but Tim was too scared to camp near it so we had to hike a bit past it. The tape helped a lot with my foot pain! I also aired out my feet every 5 miles and changed between my two pairs of socks. I had more new blisters when I got to camp though. -R

Day 27 – Mile 455.5 – Lava

Fortunately no ghosts for us last night. It did get cold though, but there was no wind so we didn’t notice… When I woke up I checked the temp on my watch and it was 33F — if our water filters freeze they are broken forever! I quickly put them in my sleeping bag before making coffee. The first half of the day was on dirt roads. Then we had 2.5 miles to walk on a highway… But that was all worth it because for the last part of the day we were walking across lava fields in/around the El Malpais National Monument. It is a very unique landscape with hardened lava that the trail goes right over. We saw two large and very green lizards — we have never seen this kind before. We filled up water from a ranchers tank toward the end of the day and chatted with our friend Eric. It was fun to chat with a hiker at a break! Encountering other hikers has been very uncommon on this trail. While at the water source a friendly BLM law enforcement ranger drove up (we were on BLM land at the time). She chatted with us about the hike and what’s ahead. She was nice. For dinner we are having Thai Curry. Yum!! -T