Thursday, June 4, 2026
23.2 miles, 3852′ gain/1037′ loss.
Max altitude: 9,125′
I was awake at 5:35am, and packed up and walking on the road by 6am. I made quick miles on the road, though it was a bit more rolling hills than I wanted. The sun rising over the river and the canyon was beautiful! I took advantage of a day-use USFS lot with privies to enjoy an indoor bathroom visit.
As the trail veered away from the river, I emerged into more wide open scrub and grasslands. I only saw 2-3 cars as I walked, all heading towards the river. I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye, nearby a cattle fence. It was a grey fox! It was so cute and magical.
After the dirt road walk ended at a major paved road, I had a little trouble finding the start of the trail across the road. But FarOut comments can be super helpful, and someone gave directions for this year’s hikers to find our way. The trail was a bit hard to follow/discern as I got closer to Ghost Ranch. I got to see a small rattlesnake sunbathing in the middle of the trail, but at a good enough distance for comfort. More frightening was the swinging, janky suspension bridge over a gully that was under construction and missing half of its girders. But I survived, and made it to Ghost Ranch by 9:30am.
I signed in, paid to stay, eat, and use their facilities, and also picked up my resupply box. I figured that regardless of whether I stayed the night, I wanted free reign to shower, wash laundry, recharge electronics, and relax. I gratefully drank some of their fancy icy cold lemon water on their porch while I opened up the box, sorted my food, threw away my trash, and combed through the hiker box for extra snacks. I took a Rice-a-Roni to coldsoak it for 2nd breakfast, because it wasn’t clear at first if I’d be allowed to eat lunch. As I sorted my box, I met Fitbit and Airbud, a married couple who already hiked the AT and PCT and were hoping to finish the CDT too, though their spirits were low. They were finding the CDT to be very different and very difficult for them.
I oriented myself to the campground area, dropped my pack in the central ‘comfort station’, and walked back to the office to get quarters to run laundry. I started my laundry after setting up my electronics to charge, and then showered, using leftover soap from past campers. While my laundry spun, I backwashed my filter, cleaned out my coldsoak jar, washed my spoon, threw out my toilet paper, and dried out my sleeping bag and tent from this morning’s dew and my overnight sweat from being warmer than usual. I chatted with a car camper for a bit while I waited for my clothes to dry.
I managed to finish all of my chores before lunch, and headed over to the mess hall to eat lunch with other guests. Lunch was old-school vegetarian, with a lot of beans and vegetables and not much in the way of salt, fat, or protein. I made the best of it, and sat with Fitbit and Airbud while I ate. We chatted a bit, but they were focused on prepping their plans for the next section.
I’d been considering my options while doing my town chores and I decided that I didn’t feel like hanging out at Ghost Ranch. The campground section was in direct sun, so it wouldn’t be cool enough to sleep or hang out in my tent until close to sundown. The food was underwhelming and not worth sticking around for. There were a few comfortable places to hang out, but not a lot. And I didn’t want to lose momentum while I had lots of daylight and energy. I figured I’d head out in the afternoon, after the heat of the day, and hopefully avoid any rain storms.
After lunch, I went to the ‘library’ where I set up my battery to finish charging. There had been thunderstorms threatening since before noon, with visible rain storms on the other side of the ridge. I didn’t want to hike out of the canyon during rain or lightening. As I sat there working on a few things, I found myself nodding off. I looked at my watch, set a 30-minute timer, and took a nice little nap. I was refreshed from the mid-day rest, and packed up my fully charged batteries. I chatted with Toby for a little while, watching Airbud and Fitbit heading out. I filled up my water bottles after referencing the next water on FarOut and then hiked out around 3:30pm, with rain threatening.
Thankfully, despite lots of dark clouds with audible thunder nearby, I only got a few sprinkles and didn’t even bother to put on my raincoat. And I didn’t get lost or cliffed out exiting the canyon, which had been a concern. Once again, people’s comments in FarOut were extremely helpful and on-point. Once I got up and over the rim of the canyon, it was flat to slightly uphill dirt and gravel roads again. On the climb up, I caught and passed by Airbud and Fitbit. Soon after, I met Shaggy from TN and we chatted for 10 minutes while hiking together before he stopped for the night at a road intersection.
I kept hiking uphill on the gravel USFS road, and skipped one trail turn-off of the road to a short alt on a different dirt road to avoid some elevation. Along the alternate, I saw 2 large turkeys and 5+ bunny rabbits! Then I had a short walk up a washed-out old ATV road to connect back with the CDT in time for sunset colors. I merged back with the trail nearby a muddy cow ‘tank’/pond (that I thankfully didn’t need water from) into a large field, where I spooked two elk, including one that still had antlers! It looked like he had 3 points on each side!
Soon after, I looked for a flat spot to stop for the night next to the trail. I found a spot up the hill from the large field and stopped for the night at 8:30pm, setting up in the growing dark. I was lulled to sleep by the faint sounds of bugling elk in the distance.
