{"id":137,"date":"2016-05-13T20:30:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T20:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=137"},"modified":"2017-05-15T14:31:39","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T14:31:39","slug":"little-tent-on-the-prairie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/13\/little-tent-on-the-prairie\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday, May 13 Little Tent on the Prairie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"may-13-2\"<\/strong>SUMMARY: <\/strong> Our little blue tent stood bravely last night in the midst of miles of beautiful golden prairie with distant dark hills.\u00a0 Coyotes howled around us, but we slept well and warm.\u00a0 This morning while we were packing up our little “tent on the prairie”, an elk came and stood on a nearby ridge to watch us.\u00a0 Amazing!\u00a0 Elk are usually very shy.\u00a0 We spent the rest of the day doing miles of roadwalks through prairie and forest.\u00a0 Great views!\u00a0 Dramatic clouds today.\u00a0 Tonight we are back on trail, camped on a rocky ridge.\u00a0 So now I guess we’re the “Little Tent on Rocky Ridge.”<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>Our little blue tent stood bravely last night in the midst of miles of beautiful golden prairie with distant dark hills. It made me think of\u00a0a book I loved when I was a kid–“Little House on the Prairie.” \u00a0\u00a0Coyotes howled around us as I studied the maps to figure out where we missed the CDT turn yesterday and how to get back to the CDT. Finally\u00a0we fell asleep, but we slept well and warm.<\/p>\n

When we woke up this morning, brrrr!\u00a0\u00a0 There was frost INSIDE the tent as well as outside, but our shoes (tucked inside the tent) did not freeze, hooray.\u00a0 As we were doing our final packup, we could hear coyotes howling again (Or were they those nasty Mexican wolves?\u00a0 Who knows?) when an amazing thing happened–an ELK came and stood on a nearby ridge to watch us. Wow! Elk are usually very shy, and as one hunter we met on the PCT put it, “They have Romulan cloaking devices.”\u00a0 You normally do NOT see them.<\/p>\n

After about 15 minutes of walking, we reached a hilltop where I could look out over the terrain and pinpoint us on the map.\u00a0 It didn’t take much longer, and we were back on track with the CDT, following a dirt road headed north.\u00a0 Canada, here we come again!\u00a0 And it was beautiful–mile after mile of prairie all golden in the early morning light.\u00a0 Once it warmed up a little bit, we stopped and had some granola for breakfast and just soaked up the incredible views.\u00a0 Coyotes were still howling all around us, but we never did see any of them.<\/p>\n

After breakfast, we cheerfully resumed our NORTHward trek, noticing that there were an awful lot of elk tracks and scat on the trail.\u00a0 Sure enough, we did catch one glimpse of an elk herd, but they spotted us and instantly disappeared.\u00a0 We reached FR (Forest Road) 28 where it actually crosses the Divide itself, which was sort of a big deal, because we haven’t actually had much contact yet with the REAL Divide.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then it was miles & miles along FR 28, which meant we got a lot of miles in, but it’s a bit hard on feet.<\/p>\n

Water is scarce on this stretch of the CDT, and it was turning into a warm day with big puffy clouds.\u00a0 We met some horse packers getting ready to head out, and they kindly gave us some water to supplement what we had.\u00a0 At 11:00, as seems usual around here, the wind came up and really started to blow.\u00a0 Again, I dared not try to cook at lunchtime with all that wind,\u00a0so we settled for rehydrating our freezedried dinner by just adding water, putting it in an outside pocket of Fixit’s pack, and hiking on. \u00a0By suppertime it would be\u00a0ready to eat.\u00a0 In the meantime, we ate our “supper” food for lunch.<\/p>\n

When we finally reached Cox Creek, we got out the AquaMira (cows were everywhere; we dared not drink that water without treating it!) and\u00a0we took on FULL loads of water–heeeeeavy in the packs!\u00a0 Now we were headed into the Tularosa Mountains, and the scenery changed again.\u00a0 Today so far we’d had golden prairies, dry forests, and now we were into GREEN forests, and really climbing–when we got a view through the trees, we could see we were really up high.\u00a0 And of course there were cows everywhere, happily eating the green grass.\u00a0 There were plenty of cute calves, and very calm, too.\u00a0 Instead of spooking and running away, the calves\u00a0stood curiously to watch us pass by.<\/p>\n

By suppertime, we were really up into the Tularosas, and looking forward to being back on CDT trail instead of dirt road.\u00a0 And we were awfully tired–we did\u00a0so many\u00a0miles today (but I don’t know the exact figure, because there are no handy mileage charts like we had on the PCT).\u00a0 This morning’s pretty, puffy clouds have turned dark gray, thicker and ominous.\u00a0 We eyed them and wondered if they were planning any rain.\u00a0 But the half hour break and a good meal were very reviving, and we felt energized to get in a few more miles before camping on a ridge at around 9,000 feet elevation.\u00a0 We rigged the tent for possible rain, and turned in.\u00a0 Wow, it feels good to be horizontal!\u00a0 But it also feels good to know that we ARE on the CDT!\u00a0 And I guess tonight we are the “Little Tent on Rocky Ridge.”<\/p>\n

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