May 25 Day 31 Diverse Terrain in Our Own Time - En Route to Ghost Ranch

This will be a huge surprise to all of you, but it was really cold last night, again.  I had a hard time falling asleep with the cold.  I still have my Pashmina scarf I use as a liner, but last night it didn't even do the trick.  Oh well.  I'll order a liner when I get to Ghost Ranch.  Colorado is going to be much colder.

We woke up very late and stayed in our sleeping bags to keep warm.  I made a mean hot chocolate y melting a whole bar of orange dark chocolate into hot water with powdered milk.  Thick and rich!  We left camp around 8:30, what a treat!  Not too long after hiking, we ran into the Warrior Hikers, veterans who get a support RV along the way and have events to attend in different towns.  We leap frogged with them all day.

It was a day full of different terrain and the San Pedro mountains, where we climbed up to 10,520 feet.  We decided to have lunch at the top to help us get more used to the higher elevation.  Colorado would be above 10,000 ft for very long stretches at a time.  It was important for us to get our bodies used to it.  As we descended, we hit a huge blow down area where the trees completely covered the trail.  There was a lot of trail finding through here and I think I lost a water bottle or something along the way.  That seems to be my thing.  Losing water containers.  One of the Warrior Hikers, HD Mama, lost her pants, which were hanging on the outside of her pack.  No good.

After the blow down area we walked through meadows of dandelions, sage brush, and aspen forests. I continue to be impressed by northern New Mexico.

(This is actually the trail.....)

We had checked the weather before leaving Cuba and knew there would be a chance of thunderstorms tonight, so we kept our senses peeled for any signs.  A rumble in the distance alerted us to the reality of the situation and got our feet moving faster to get some more miles done before we might be forced to retire under the tarp.  We had been taking it REALLY easy, so this was a good incentive to get moving.  We did 22 miles in the end and never got hit with a storm.

We should get to Ghost Ranch tomorrow!