SUMMARY:  Yesterday took a lot of determination and patience, as we forded rivers, followed elk trails, and bushwacked through forest. Today, we put that same determination to work by pulling off a 20 mile roadwalk in 8 hours.  It was beautiful Colorado scenery, which actually has rather an “Oregon Look” to it.

But 20 miles is a long way, and it took lots of being in the moment and really looking at what we were walking by. A storm was brewing, and just before Pagosa Springs, the wind blew fiercely and it started to rain. But we made it to our motel and immediately went to work on town chores.  With the rain and wind, we were glad the motel has its own laundry, so we don’t have to face the weather in order to wash our clothes.  We are really tired.

DETAILS:  Last night I was trying to go to sleep, and for some reason started thinking about the musical “Little Mary Sunshine”, which is set in the mountains of Colorado.  All the songs began to run through my head, and it took awhile before I finally zonked out.  That’s a really fun musical, but it is NOT at all “PC”, so is rarely performed anymore.

Knowing that we had 20 miles or so to go before Pagosa Springs, we packed up quickly and headed out.  The road rolled uphill and downhill. At the bottom of every “down” it was so cold that you could see your breath, but at the top of every “up” it was warm.  Fixit and I were enjoying the scenery, and we commented to each other, “This looks like Oregon, except the trees are wrong–they should be Douglas Fir.”  We also noticed a fair amount of litter along the road, and the top two items were #1:  Bud Light bottles & cans and #2: Dead deer (most of them were already eaten up by vultures etc.  But phew, they still SMELLED!)  But to make up for that, the wildflowers were gorgeous, and all the grass was intensely green.  We stopped for a  break in a valley where there were a lot of cute houses, and each one had at least one horse in the yard.

A bit after 10 am, we reached an RV park with a store, so we went in to get some food!   Classic thruhiker stuff–ice cream (which we ate immediately, and it was so good; it was locally made), and a pizza (which we did not eat immediately, but had them fold it in half and wrap it in foil so we could carry it until lunchtime).   We lashed the pizza to the top of Fixit’s pack, on top of his snowshoes.  While we were sitting on the porch of the store eating ice cream, we had a chance to talk to some of the RV park folks–they were very interested in what we were doing.  The young guy who was manning the store particularly asked about the high lakes.  “Are they still frozen over?” he inquired.  “Totally frozen” we told him.  Turned out that he’s into fishing and he said the BEST time to fish is just when the lakes begin to thaw and there’s a little bit of open water in the ice.  At that point the fish are really hungry!

But we still had lots of miles to go before Pagosa Springs, so we couldn’t linger long.  So on we went, ticking off the miles by watching the mile marker signs by the road.  I said to Fixit, “Roadwalking takes a different kind of determination than bushwhacking.  Yesterday we had to deal with ‘Oh great, another mess of logs to climb over…fun, another gully to get down into and up out of’ and today we have to deal with not being bored, and instead finding things to look at and think about.”  A lot of the thruhikers deal with boredom by listening to music, but I prefer the challenge of being IN the moment and LOOKING at what’s around me and LISTENING to the sounds that are there.

The scenery at this point was “classic Colorado”–houses and barns with snowy mountains in the background.  We looked at all the snow and thought, “Well, we are supposed to be up THERE, but not with hardly any food.  We would never have made it.”  Dark clouds were building up over the mountains, clouds that were steadily getting bigger and bigger.  I wondered if they would affect us, down in the valley.  Finally we reached the outer fringes of Pagosa Springs, which included a big English-style place with a sign that said, “Winslow In The Shire”, and another place with a very cute, gangly-looking herd of alpacas.  At this point, the wind began to blow so hard that walking was difficult, and the dark clouds began to spread out from the mountains and gather overhead.  But we reached the county fairgrounds, (home of the Red Ryder Rodeo!)  and just before we got into town, the first drops of rain began to fall.  We didn’t bother stopping to put on raingear, and walked/ran as fast as we could to our destination, The First Inn.  Just after we got into the lobby there, the rain began in earnest.  Whew!  That was close!

But now it was chore time.  Bill took our laundry to wash (wow, was I glad we didn’t have to go to a laundromat down the street and deal with pouring rain!)  and I tackled the job of sorting out our packs, doing mending, and figuring out what to buy to resupply for the next leg of the trail.  We didn’t send a box here because it’s only a short run to the next town of Creede, but I have learned my lesson–carry a LOT of extra food!  We also were able to phone a “friend of a friend” who lives here in Colorado, to figure out a way we might be able to see them while we’re in the state.  Looks like maybe we could meet them at Monarch Pass in a few days.

We had a great dinner, and then I went and bought a bunch of stuff at a gas station convenience store.  Expensive. Ouch.  But we are out on the edge of town, and the nearest regular grocery store is far enough away, and I am so tired that we decided not to make the long walk in order to get cheaper food.  I really am tired.  Colorado is seriously tough.   Back at First Inn, I was thinking about “Tomorrow we head back into the mountains and the snow,” and I was worried, to the point of wondering if I could handle it.  I thought about how God had promised He’d see us through–yes, so far He definitely has!–but I really was tired and discouraged, almost to the point of despair.  So I pulled the Gideon Bible out of the drawer in the motel room and reread Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea…the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”   And I told God, “OK, I believe You.  I know You love me.  Please give me the strength I need.”  And I had to sort of laugh at myself, because when I was a “selfsufficient” (hah! nobody is–we delude ourselves if we think we are!) atheist/agnostic, I used to look down on the Christians for being “weak”.  Now I realize that to run around depending on myself is certainly do-able, but the end product is a hardness of heart that spills over into other things.  Not good.  That’s one of the reasons the world is in such a mess.  It’s a lot better to live life in a close relationship with God and be part of what He is doing to help the mess in the world, rather than blowing God off.

And just for fun, before we collapsed for the night, I took a look at the yellow pages listings for churches in Pagosa Springs.  Whoa!  This is not a big town, but it has a zillion churches–all kinds!  And a nationally known Christian youth camp, too.  Wish we had more time here!  But tomorrow it’s time to head back up the hill!

 

 

 

(more to come–I am still working on this)