In Pie Town, I get incredible southern hospitality from a Trump supporting Iraq war vet who once hailed from Kentucky. We don’t agree on much but we do agree that listening to Jimmy Buffet on a porch drinkin bud heavy isn’t really a bad way to spend an afternoon. He just wants to help out hikers and help me gain back some of my lost weight. His wife bakes some of the pies in pie town – where police are 45 minutes away, no store, no gas, just three pie restaurants and some nice folks who want to live off the grid.

Walking through the backbone of America, I anticipate more of this – gaining perspective in each tiny town I pass through.

Trail in this area isn’t as developed so I’m on some dirt national forest roads for a bit. My maps have great bits of information like this one, “South of here along the road, there have been reports of drug smuggling activity. Specifically someone flies a plane overhead, drops a package, and someone else drives by and picks it up. Of course it’s possible this activity will move on to some other location now that it’s more common knowledge, but who knows… It’s probably best not to camp in this area and speed on through.”

Then the next day I’m on another forest service road that goes deep into the wilderness and at 7:30 pm a creaky ’93 Buick Regal lumbers by me on the rutted 4×4 track. No idea where they’re going or coming from.

There are Pueblo houses in El Malpais that date back to 1200 AD.

From the top of the rim we see the Zuni-Bandera volcanic field which we will eventually cross. There is no trail on the basaltic rock, just some cairns I follow up and over flows of various sizes, jumping over cracks that go deep into the earth.

I pick my way across the lava but it’s extremely slow going. This is an inhospitable area, no water, but somehow the pines still find a way to thrive. There are warnings to not leave one cairn until you see the next one. Getting lost in this field of jumbled rock wouldn’t end well.

I’m in Grants, NM and may even take another zero here as we await the snow to melt just some 250-300 trail miles to the north. There are hikers posted up all over this town, all doing the same thing. Waiting… And reading about snow.

I almost forgot.. On one of my road walks I saw a pretty sweet Landrover in its natural habitat… Getting towed by a Dodge Ram. Hah!