I walk out of the desert one last time, climbing for hours above the mesas and slick rock of the Georgia O’Keefe landscape below. False summits as I climb from 6,000 to over 10,000 ft.

The trail turns into meadows interspersed with willow trees. The climbing creates an appetite and I eat all my good food on day one.

I start to hit snow up here, and I have views of snow capped peaks just over in Colorado.

I get to the border on Tuesday. The border isn’t really anything… Just some imaginary line… But it makes me think back to that first day putting my foot into Mexico, the freezing nights, the gallons of sweat, the cow screams, the the gallons of ice cream, the falls, the blistering sun, the ghost towns, the cow shit water, the road walks, the bloody legs, the gas station coffee, the night hiking, the postholing, the sleep deprivation, the people I’ve met etc etc etc.

(CO border!)

After the trail crosses into Colorado, I hitch back to New Mexico (what a tease) to Chama for resupply. My hitch is a couple that belong to “Twelve Tribes”. I Google this group and the first autocomplete result is “Twelve Tribes cult”. Nice folks. Gonna visit.
Where is the trail… Let’s just pick a direction.

My wonderful parents (two of my four readers of my blog!) sent out my snow gear for the San Juans to Chama. Micro crampons, snow shoes, ice axe, warmer clothing…

I hiked most of New Mexico solo, camping solo, and meeting up with hikers in town. I’ll change my style as I enter the San Juan mountains, go in with a group of 4-6, lean on each other for added safety, learn from each other’s mistakes, aggregate our mountaineering experience. Everyone has a mish mash of snow gear, we’ll see who’s got the best kit.

Excited, prepared to be humbled, nervous, fired up, craving the intensity, respecting the mountains. We’re up against a beast. The range is currently sitting at 242% of median snowpack for June 6. People are making it through but we’re aware of all bail out options.

Loving it out here. Talk to me in a week. 🙂

Oh and I’m in town for a basketball game!! Hooray!