SUMMARY:  Back to walking the very rutted Road 293 this morning.  Fixit said, “I had no idea the CDT involved so much roadwalking.  Not good!”  But by 11:00 am we had reached Los Indios Spring, where we got lots of great water, and after that we were back on TRAIL.  The only problem was the scenery.  It was pretty–meadows and pine trees–but all the same.  I felt like I was caught in a “film loop”–the kind some churches use as background for the words of the songs.  But finally at 4:30 pm, the trail plunged over the edge of the mesa and began a 2,000 foot descent to a dramatic vallley below with canyons, rocky outcrops, and more.  Beautiful!

DETAILS:  We packed up quickly at first light, eager to be done with the very rough & rutted Road 293, and even more eager to reach the famous Los Indios Spring, to replenish our water.  The reason the road was so hard to walk on was obvious–somebody drove a truck on it when it was raining and the road (being New Mexico) was one big mudhole.  Now the mud has dried hard as a rock, and it was so messed up that a lot of the time we walked the sides rather than the road itself.  Fixit said, “I had no idea the CDT involved so much roadwalking. Not good!”

The scenery was what I call “top of the mesa”–fairly flat prairie with a few trees.  The only critters we saw were birds–crows and chickadees.  Our breakfast stop was brief–brrrr, it was cold, and we were rationing our water.  But by 11:00 am we had reached the turnoff to the spring.  And look!  SIGNS, telling where to go!  The spring itself is down in a steep, rocky canyon, so we did our usual routine–Fixit emptied his pack, took all our water bottles and went down to the water.   When he got back, he said he had to fix the spring pipe a bit (he is not Fixit for nothing), but he had lots of water.  We both immediately drank a whole liter of  “bug juice” (Emergen-C plus electrolytes) made from COLD spring water.  So good!

On the way back to the CDT, we met some hikers headed for the Spring–HoB (stands for Hike or Bike), Flying Squirrel, and Early Girl.  We have not seen any other CDT hikers for so long that it was pretty exciting to see them.

Since the Spring is at the end of the road, now we were off the ruts and back on TRAIL.  But the scenery, though very pleasant, stayed the same.  Basically you walk through a pretty,  grassy meadow surrounded by pinon pines, then into the pines for a little bit, then back into another meadow.  Over and over again.  No views, just the constant repetition.  I felt like I was caught in a “video loop” like some churches use when they are projecting songs onto a big screen and want to have a pretty but unvarying background to the words.   The only thing that did change (which I enjoyed very much) was the light.  Depending on the time of day, it was really varied.  I hiked along looking at it and thinking about “how would I draw/paint this?”

Finally we started getting a few breaks in the trees, and could catch glimpses of a whole ‘nother world down below and around the mesa we were on–a world of dramatic mountains and deep canyons.  Then at 4:30 pm, we came to the EDGE.  Literally.  The trail plunged over the edge of a precipice and headed steeply down almost 2,000 feet to the valley far below.  And what a valley!  “Awesome” does not even begin to describe it.  Immense rock formations were standing here and there, all colored by late afternoon light and some shadowed by clouds.  It was classic New Mexico.  Even Fixit was impressed.  “Wow!” he said.  “This sure looks ‘western’!”   We took our time heading down, partly to soak up the view and partly because the trail was so steep and rocky.  Halfway down we stopped and ate dinner at a spot where we could see the whole valley.  Wow.

Once we were finally really down to the bottom, we found it was very windy, and finally at 7:00, when it was time to camp, we had to hunt around for some trees, in order to hunker down out of the wind.  We found a good spot, but the cows liked it too, so we both had to spend some time clearing out a lot of old dry cow pies before setting up camp.  Now we are very comfortable, and listening to the wind roaring in the branches.  Tomorrow we get to walk across this awesome valley!