SUMMARY:  We started today at 10,800′,where winter is only reluctantly loosening is grip.  The meadows are still brown, and were covered with frost–the many snowmelt puddles were iced over, and hooray–the muddy road was frozen!  But before long, we were descending into spring–brilliant green grass, and creeks roaring with snowmelt.  There was no “Welcome to Colorado” sign, but we made it to Cumbres Pass, hitched a ride to Chama, and now we are at Foster’s Hotel, built in 1881, and it is great!

DETAILS:  We were expecting a freezing cold night last night and had protected our gear, but turned out it was not too bad after all!  But up here, winter is only reluctantly losing its grip. The meadows are still brown, and only the tiniest bit of green is occasionally showing through the ice and snowmelt mud.  We started hiking just before 6 am, and the sun was already well up (it’s June all right) and we had a clear view of the grand, snowy mountains up ahead.  But Cerveza had told us that every day, hikers are leaving Chama and heading into the snow and making it through, so we intend to join them and give it our best shot.

The further we walked, the colder it got.  We could see our breath, and all of the brown meadows were covered with frost, while the snowmelt puddles were covered with ice.  But hooray–that meant what would have been a muddy, slippery road was frozen solid and much easier to walk on. No more dealing with our shoes turning into mudballs!  It was a rather barren world of brown, with only a few trees, but the views were amazing–not just the snow mountains up ahead, but the gorgeous green valleys down below.

Finally the road took us down, down, down–into spring!  Creeks were roaring with spring snowmelt, the wildflowers were carpets of color, and there were great, sweeping, intensely green meadows.  There were no signs or any indication of where the New Mexico/Colorado border was, but we figured we had crossed it and cheered a bit!   One state done, and four to go!  Actually, the area reminded us of the California/Oregon border on the PCT–green meadows and trees.   We were glad to be on a road with bridges, though, because the further down we got, the bigger the creeks and rivers were, to the point of unfordable.  Finally we reached our first goal–the railroad tracks.

The info we had from reading hiker blogs plus the notes on our maps was “Follow the tracks to the train station at Cumbres Pass.”  So we started to do that, and a little while later, along came the train!  Wow, it was great– a real oldtime, coal-burning engine chuffing clouds of black smoke!  We moved over onto the embankment to watch it go by, and had fun waving at the engineer and passengers.  But it was still a long way to Cumbres Pass, so we finally sat down and ate the last scraps from our food bags and did a “garage sale” to air and dry our gear.  ( We figured that it might be hard to do that in town, and we were right).   It was the first time in 2 days that we weren’t dealing with rain at lunchtime, and everything dried very quickly in the sun.  Nice!

But walking along the tracks was a bit of a pain, so we decided to scramble up and walk along the highway instead.  Much easier going!  When we reached the train station, we found Freebird sitting there having something to eat before he headed out, and he also confirmed that a number of hikers have made it through the snow to Pagosa Springs.  He himself was geared up with snowshoes and ice axe.  Ours are waiting for us in Chama!  Poor Freebird, though–he said he got really sick and had to hitch into Chama from Hopewell Lake, then spend almost a week collapsed in bed.  He’s feeling OK now, and is determined to carry on.

We had no trouble at all hitching a ride into Chama, with a “gangbanger” guy and his girlfriend.  He dropped us off at Fosters–Freebird said that was a good place to stay, very hiker-friendly.  Yes, indeed!  It’s an old hotel/saloon, built in 1881, and still looks and feels like time has not changed it.  We got a room upstairs, ate a big meal (we were ravenous) and then tackled “town chores.”   Fixit went one way with our dirty clothes, headed for the laundromat, while I headed the other way to do the grocery shopping.  It was a 1 1/2 mile walk to the grocery store, but worth it–a great selection of food.  What I have found about New Mexico stores is that they have LOTS of meat, at very reasonable prices, but not much by way of produce or fruit.  Sort of the opposite of California!  I was worried about slow going in the snow, so I got extra food just in case, and as I headed out, I was thinking, “I so do not want to WALK all the way back, carrying this stuff.”  So I looked around the parking lot to see if I could hitch a ride with someone.

I spotted a young guy putting bags of groceries into his pickup truck, so I walked up to him, explained who I was, and asked for a ride back to town.  He very kindly said, “Sure, no problem” and made room for me.  As we drove back, he said he was the manager of a large ranch nearby, and that THIS week was elk calving season, so Fixit and I should soon be seeing a lot of baby elk!

Back at Fosters, I spread all the food out on the bed, sorted it, and loaded our packs.  Downstairs, things were getting pretty lively!  The saloon has a pool table, and there is always a game going on, plus the porch was full of jolly folks.  We had another big meal (very good!) and then tried to do some phoning.  No luck.  The only place we could get a signal was out in a parking lot, and even there, it was pretty weak.  So we gave up, and wandered off to look at the Cumbres-Toltec railroad stuff.  Very impressive!  Many of the old buildings and the equipment were in full working order, and well-cared for.  There was a sign that said basically, “If you don’t want coal dust and cinders on your car, DON’T park anywhere near the railroad!”

I love railroads, and I am so excited about riding the train back up to the pass tomorrow!  We walked around a little bit more before going back to Fosters, and I really enjoyed the FLOWERS  in the gardens.  The lilacs and the poppies were in full bloom, so the air itself was scented with sweetness, and of course poppies always make things colorful!  We climbed up the stairs to our room and collapsed. Being on a bed again is so welcome, and it’s been a great day!