Longstride

Today is the last day in Albuquerque. That meant preparing for our early departure for Chama tomorrow.

The Continental Divide Trail — Artwork by Dog Bite.

• When we first got here, I picked up some Propel and Crystal Light drink mix packets at the grocery store since, even without doing inventory, I knew I’d need them. While I did inventory this morning, I repacked them, and discovered that one of the boxes of Crystal Light had packets that were leaking.
• After taking inventory, I returned to the nearby supermarket and bought enough food for six days, from Cumbres Pass (the southern-most road crossing in Colorado) to Wolf Creek Pass and Pagosa Springs. It’s only 67 miles, so it shouldn’t take that long, but we’re being conservative given we’ll have been off-trail for a week, there may still be snow, and it’s still early season so there may be plenty of blow-downs to navigate around.

Dog Bite: I love that I can walk around in my underwear in a group of people I didn’t know a month ago and it’s perfectly normal.

Longstride: Yes, but in fairness, you’re wearing underwear and sunglasses.

Dog Bite: That just makes it cooler.

• In late afternoon, it was almost hot, well over 80°, quite a departure from the past few days.
• We worked out a plan to get to Chama tomorrow. We’d have to leave at 6 am, taking an Uber to the train station; a train to Santa Fe; with only a few minutes to transfer, a bus to Española; and another bus to Chama. We should arrive around 12:30 pm. If we miss any of our connections, we don’t get to Chama until after 8 pm.
• A trip report posted late in the day suggests that we should have a straightforward hike, at least to Pagosa Springs. The report said there was only a little bit of postholing, near the north end of the section; hopefully that’ll mean none at all for us, but that’ll depend on how much melts before we get there.