Wednesday, June 3, 2026
36.4 miles, 3829′ gain/6581′ loss.
Max altitude: 10,560′
I was up at 5:15am and hiking by 5:45am. It was such a relief to be hiking among trees with natural water sources again. At my first water source of the day (a stream flowing into a lake), I saw a hiker tent in the distance and a large herd of elk drinking and walking in the lake. I climbed for the first 10 miles through beautifully lush green meadows. I saw and heard many prairie dogs, with their cute squeaking. At a nice water source in a meadow, I chatted briefly with two thruhikers, Just Brett and Sherpa Crew, before pushing on.
At the edge of the Santa Fe National Forest’s San Pedro Parks Wilderness area, there was a log ‘bench’ with a trail log. I saw that Plankton was up ahead, having passed by earlier today. It was nice to see a log book; a tangible reminder that I’m one of many people doing this hard thing separately but together. I passed a British couple soon afterwards, but once I arrived at a water source and paused to filter and start my coldsoaked lunch, they caught up to me. They weren’t interested in chatting but they picnicked nearby. Once I left the stream, I didn’t see them again.
As I descended, I saw some blooming cactus with big red flowers. It was so cool to see plants with flowers in June, thanks to the higher altitude and snow melt. It was increasingly cloudy in the afternoon, with intense passing thunderstorms. As I climbed up and over a ridgeline towards a burn area, the temperature dropped 15 degrees, wind started blowing, and it rained off and on for 5 minutes at a time for a few hours. It was just enough moisture to soak the clay on the fire road. This made walking very difficult, since the wet clay clung to my shoes like cement, building up on itself and then drying to my shoes like platforms. There were also some herds of cows with calves along the road, and the mamas were not happy to see me so close to their calves, but we managed to avoid any true unpleasantness.
My fire road walking lead me through a big burn area. The trail descended into the Chama River Canyon Wilderness, and the signs of fire were fresh and substantial. There were many downed trees and there was also a LOT of flood damage. The trail descended through some tight canyons, with severe flood damage. Thankfully, a trail crew had come through a few weeks earlier and added orange surveying tape and some cairns to make it easier to navigate the flood damaged area. It was very spooky to see the damage done, with a small stream I could jump across at the bottom of a 15′ ravine. Getting in and out of the flood ravines was challenging, since the edges were often vertical and very crumbly, mainly made of loose sand and dirt. I knew I couldn’t set up camp anywhere near here, so I kept walking as the shadows got longer.
I made it out of the canyon area around 6:30pm. There was a small water cache nearby the road, so I topped off my water, since access to the Chama seemed difficult and the water quality wasn’t great. I followed the fire road, which turned into a 4×4 dirt road and then joined Forest Road 151 along the Chama River. I kept myself walking on the road for a while, but also knew I’d need to pick a spot sooner rather than later since there weren’t a lot of options.
Camping along roads with car traffic can be stressful, since it makes it easier for people to bother or harass hikers. A few miles down the road, around 8pm, I found an area with a small parking lot and a lot of dispersed camping spots nearby the river. I checked out my options, and picked a flat spot tucked away in the woods, shielded from view of the road and the first path into the woods from the parking lot.
I set up my tent, checked out the river, ate dinner, and then got into bed. As I was just about to fall asleep, a pickup truck pulled into the parking area. They opened their doors a few times and then turned off their lights. They didn’t seem to set up a tent or anything, but perhaps they were sleeping in their car. The truck stayed the night and left 15 minutes before I did in the morning. I don’t think they could see me or even knew I was there. I went to sleep, proud of my day’s big miles and looking forward to getting my resupply box at Ghost Ranch tomorrow.
Transcending Mountains 