LAGUNITAS CAMPGROUND, CARSON NF, NM
Another day of great weather. I got an early start before Dr John and navigated with only map and compass since my phone (GPS) battery is low
It was good hiking but the navigation was pretty challenging. I was able to figure things out, so I guess my map and compass skills are improving
A CDT hiker named Jess passed me and later I passed her and didn’t see her the rest of the way
An exciting development was that at lunch I finished my GORP (good old raisins and peanuts). I put dark chocolate M&Ms in mine, which are great if they don’t melt. I started at Crazy Cook with 4 pounds of it, and until today it seemed like a bottomless bag. I’ll bet I ate some raisins and peanuts today that were in the bag at Crazy Cook.
I was really looking forward to seeing the cairns I built years ago, and did see one of them on the rock ledge in perfect condition. The big disappointment is that the others I built apparently are on a section which is no longer the CDT. If I had known I could have hiked down further to see them, but now the CDT stops short and ascends a very steep climb that turns back the other way from where my cairns are. Heck!
When I got to Lagunitas Campground I saw M80, Trooper, and Willow again. I went for a fully clothed swim in the cool lake and let my formerly stinky clothes dry as the others hiked on.
When I got back on trail I was somehow going really fast. I guess the swim really got me refreshed. For several miles I was really flying until I hit snow in the woods up high. This was some major hip deep postholing that really slowed me down, and what was worse is it made navigation really tough. With this snow you couldn’t see trail and hoped to find someone else’s footprints. Somehow I managed to find trail and caught up to M80’s group. After that there was more postholing. It was heck!
Eventually we got out of it and camped with a pretty incredible and intimidating view of the snow capped San Juan mountain range. It makes me think flipping to Wyoming might be a good idea
Tomorrow I finish New Mexico. HeHo! One down, 3.5 to go