April 21st, 2019
Colorado to New Mexico…by car.
My parents drove me down to South Fork the day before and I spent the night there with Lisa. She was giving me a ride to Lordsburg, New Mexico – the start of the trail. Lisa is an avid thru-hiker and trail angel and was offering a ride since she was going down to visit her boyfriend Radar. He is the guy that organizes and drives a shuttle to the border, delivering hikers to their destiny. I had discovered most of this info through the CDT hiker Facebook page.
Overnight, I stayed with one of Lisa’s foster cats, who woke me up many times trying to cuddle, but it was still nice to have the company. I was up pretty early and we left for the 12 hour drive by 7 am.
Crossing into New Mexico was exciting and I marveled at the scenery the whole way. It was so much more mountainous than I remembered. Many of the peaks still had snow and the rivers all seemed to be running heavy.
We made a detour to stop at Pie Town, which is right along the trail. It consists of a few buildings but is famous for a cafe that serves pies, hence the name. I met Cathy, who runs the store. They were closed for Easter but since Lisa is friends with them, they had agreed to make 3 special pies and open the store just for her. Cathy also included 2 pieces of pie for us for the road. They were delicious. I can’t wait until I come through again.
We also visited the Toaster House, where I dropped off a resupply package. It’s a house where hikers and bikers can stay for free. I met a few thru-hikers that were there already. They were Mercury, Hakuna, and Reallysorry. There were more but I didn’t catch all their names. I will be in Pie Town again in about 2.5 weeks, if all goes well.
We still had about 5 hours to get to our destination so we plugged on. It was a long drive but very scenic. Plus the conversation with Lisa was great. We crossed the CDT several times, so it was like looking into my future…kind of like when I took the bus north from Auckland to start the TA.
The sun was going down just as we arrived at the hotel in Lordsburg. I could see all the hikers hanging outside and was immediately initiated into the herd. Some were just starting, like me, and others had already hiked the border/bootheel section.
I found the guy that I had arranged to share a room with – Relentless is his name. But then there was another guy, Capt’n, that was by himself and had a spare bed, so I stayed with him instead. He is Canadian and just did the PCT last summer. I didn’t get to chat with him much because I still had to eat dinner. Radar took Lisa and I to the Dennys, the only place open on Easter Sunday. I ate a very underwhelming salad, just to have some greens before switching back to my junk-food hiker diet.
Back at the hotel, we had pie with the hotel managers, Lisa and Ray. They take good care of all the hikers. Then it was finally time for bed. Tons of hikers were still partying outside but I avoided them and snuck into the room. I needed sleep before this grand adventure!