Wednesday, May 27, 2015

May 9 Day 15 Snow Lake en route to Pie Town

(Windy and exposed)

I slept with my filter last night.  That's when you know it's cold.  The filter shouldn't be allowed to freeze, so it becomes your cold weather snuggle buddy.  The Pashmina wool scarf gifted to me by Nick Prince in Silver City was my bag liner and was pretty much the only thing that made the night bearable.  It was hard to fall asleep due to the cold and I woke up to frozen shoes and socks!!  What a laugh I had as I tried feebly to tighten and tie my shoe laces.  They weren't going anywhere.  I had to shove my socks into the outside mesh of my pack because I swear I could have snapped them in half they were so solid.  I hiked in unlaced shoes and different socks.

Apparently I didn't take many pictures today so I apologize for that. The frozen socks would have been pretty ace.

I was ready to head out before Ratna and Wide-Angle.  While I would have waited on any other day it was frigid and windy so I got moving as soon as I could.  Shane had left before me and Dutch right after, so I was surprised when, as I walking down the road, I didn't see him behind me anymore.  I got that uneasy feeling that I might not be where I am supposed to be, so I checked my Guthook App (GPS) and sure enough I had missed my turn on the road a half mile back................UGH!  Nothing to be done and no cross-country route to fix it, so I just had to turn around and claim the extra mile as bonus points.

At the turn off I intersected Ratna and Wide-angle, so now we were even.  We hiked together for a while on the forest service roads and when it turned to trail again.  Eventually Downhill and Tiger Lily caught up to us on the trail with the intention to hitch into Reserve, NM because they had essentially eaten all their food already!  Talk about a change in appetite!  I ended up zoning out at following them for a longer stretch than I should have and, again, got that funny feeling in the gut that I wasn't where I was supposed to be.  Checked my Guthook and sure enough I had missed my turn off again! ARG!  I cross-country hiked up a small mountain, which was no fun, and yet again intersected with Ratna and Wide-Angle.  Face Palm!

We finally connected with another Forest Service Road on top of the divide and had a completely exposed path across these little mountains.  By exposed I mean the wind and cold were relentlessly beating us down.  Air is something we rarely see as having much substantial mass, but let me tell you, air HAS MASS!  The gusts were so strong we were staggering off to the left then stumbling to the right as the wind pushed against us and then let us go like being dropped horizontally. It wears you down that wind.  Makes you crazy in the head.

Our goal was 21 miles to camp by water and we rocked it.  I realized just before camp that  I got my period, no fun, but at least it wasn't debilitating or anything.  I took care of that and settled into another cold night in my tent.  Time to get cozy with the water filter again.

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