Pie Town, NM

We had continental brekfast at the hotel, then called Hugo and Carole from a card we grabbed from their water cache. They agreed to pick us up and drive us back to Smith's. When Hugo arrived, he offered to slack pack us 22 miles! We dropped off our stuff at their home, then were dropped off by the supermarket. We headed west through town, feeling lightfooted and hoping to grab a bite to eat at Badlands Burger. As we walked, Hugo pulled up in his work truck and asked us how we liked our burgers. Huh? He was going to bring us dinner too?! Our spirits thoroughly lifted, we didn't mind that the Badlands Burger was gone, so we ate at McDonald's. We crossed Highway 40 and walked down Zuni Canyon Road. Dogs barked and grasshoppers sprung about every which way. We walked through Zuni to Bonita Canyon, getting stopped by curious drivers who were quite impressed with our hike. Once you're in New Mexico, it's sounds more impressive when you say you hiked from the border of Canada! We got rained on for about 20 minutes, but truly enjoyed the cloudy day. We made it to the rendez-vous point with Hugo and Carole, who as promised, brought burgers, soda and beer. Even a bag of donut holes, courtesy of the restaurant. They told us of more water they had stashed for us further up the trail, and chatted about the history behind the canyons. We said goodbye and thank you, then found a place to camp under a tree.

Woke up, ate the donut holes, then headed out. We followed the dirt toad to Highway 53, crossed to the El Malpais trail head, threw away our garbage, then headed out in to the lave field. We caregully picked our way across, following posts and cairns across the sharp lava. We got the the trailhead at Highway 117, and as promised there were four more bottles of water in a juniper tree. WE took the wter, leaving the bottles to be picked up, and started walking down the road. We came to the pull off for La Ventana Natural Arch, took a picture, then scrambled up a small chute to the top of the Narrows Rim, where we took the trail to a picnic area south of the Rim. DP used the privy, and announced that his stomach bug was back. Not good. We waited out a rain squall, ate lunch, then did our road walk of 117. We got funny looks from the drivers. We turned down a dirt road to Sand Canyon looking for water. The first windmill we came to was just too nasty, but the next one was relatively pristine. We tanked up, then not wanting to sit in cow poop/piss, we sat in an empty water trough. We made and ate dinner in it, then pushed on. We took cow paths back to the dirt road, and kept hiking in tot he night. We had to use the GPS for the last three hours, but managed to not get too last and made camp in a flat spot in the middle of nowhere.

Since we hiked late into the night, it was difficult to get up early, but we somehow did it. We got to York Ranch Road and headed south. We saw cows and a few cars, but otherwise the dragged by without much incident. We stopped by the THomas Mountain Ranch for water, left a thank you note for the owners, and moved on. Clouds rolled in and we hoped it wouldn't rain, which it didn't! We eventually came to CR603, which took us to Highway 60. We were stopped by a man who would let the Pie-O-Neer know we were coming, though we knew there was no way we would make it before they closed. We crossed HIghway 60 heading to the Toaster House, and saw Rambler jogging towards us. He was letting us know the pie place would stay open for another 30 seconds for us. We all walked to the house where he gave us the tour. We ate freezer lasagna, beer, soda and a pot pie. We chatted with Rambler about the various ending points, until I couldn't stop yawning, made the bed and turned in for the night.

ZERO DAY! We woke up late and Rambler had already gone. We had breakfast at the Daily Pie, since the Pie-O-Neer would be closed for the next two days. We picked up our packages at the PO, then headed back to the house. Our friend Huff'N Puff, whom we met on the PCT, sent us a bottle of maple syrup from Maine, so we thought about making pancakes. We switched out our tent for the tarp, to help lighten the load.WE also sent home our warm gear, so I really hope we don't need it.Sorting out the food, we realized we had too much, so sent a food package to Hachita. We ate vanilla ice cream with the syrup, which we both agreed was better than having it on pancakes!