{"id":141,"date":"2016-05-15T20:35:03","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T20:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=141"},"modified":"2017-05-16T14:32:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T14:32:18","slug":"start-ley-finish-bear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/15\/start-ley-finish-bear\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, May 15 Start Ley, Finish Bear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"may-15-9\"SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>One thing about the CDT–to get from Point A to Point B, you often have several choices of which way to go, and those choices can overlap.\u00a0 Today we began on the “Ley Red Route” from Hwy 12 to Pie Town, but finished the day on a different route–the “Bear Survey”.\u00a0 This change was accidental–the two routes came together for awhile, and we went with “Bear” even though we didn’t mean to.\u00a0 This happened way up high on Mangas Mountain, with fantastic views for miles around, and lots of trees (aspens, too!) and wildflowers.\u00a0 Tonight we are cowboy camping down at the base of Chavez Canyon.\u00a0 Pie Town tomorrow!!<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>It pitterpattered rain much of the night last night and this morning when we started hiking, the trail was covered with raindrop prints, while everything else was still dry as a bone.\u00a0 At 6:45 am, when we reached Hwy. 12 (where you can hitch into Reserve, NM),\u00a0 we found a little note\/ad “We’ll come get you; Resupply; Rooms”\u00a0 We were filthy dirty, tired, and hungry, but with Pie Town only 2 days away, we kept on going.<\/p>\n

As we were hiking, I was trying hard not to worry about losing the trail again today. Man, do I miss the PCT!\u00a0 It was such a friendly and welcoming trail that it\u00a0soon felt like home.\u00a0 The CDT is like a lurking enemy waiting to trip you up.\u00a0 But I have learned one thing so far: if we stay with the Bear Creek Survey route, there’s a much better chance there will be rock cairns or blazes or something to show which way to go.\u00a0 If you choose a Ley Red Route instead–all I can say is “Have fun!\u00a0 Good luck–you’ll need it!”\u00a0 The problem is, the Ley Red Routes are often much shorter or more sensible, so despite the difficulties, we often “go Ley” anyway.<\/p>\n

After Hwy. 12, we arrived at a magnificent “CDT gateway”.\u00a0 Very impressive! There were horse corrals, signs with maps, and nice trail.\u00a0 The only problem was, we only wanted to do the official CDT for about .4 mile, and then switch to the Ley Red Route.\u00a0 I was concerned about locating the point where we would make the switch, but when we got there, no problema!\u00a0 Somebody had scratched in the dirt a very large “L R”, with an arrow pointing right.\u00a0 (“LR” = Ley Route)\u00a0 After so much time being lost, I watched the trail (well, forest service roads, really) and maps very closely.\u00a0 It took us through a variety of forest and pastures.<\/p>\n

The CDT here is giving us a great sampling of New Mexico ranchland.\u00a0 There are cows & calves everywhere.\u00a0 We’ve crossed lots of cattleguards, gone through all kinds of gates, crawled under barbed wire so many times that I’ve lost count, while at the same time we’ve been\u00a0enjoying the incredible blue sky, white clouds, golden pastures, and wide variety of trees and wildflowers.\u00a0 There is a distinct difference in the kind of trees, depending on your elevation. Again I wish we weren’t trying to beat the snow to reach Canada, because I would love to stop and just enjoy all this for awhile.<\/p>\n

By noon, we’d reached a very nice campground, and we got to sit at a TABLE to eat!\u00a0 But there was no water, and our water is pretty low.\u00a0 If we severely ration, we might be able to make it to Pie Town.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0Our maps showed the possibility of a spring (named “Tio Vences Spring”)\u00a0not too far from the campground, up a side road off the CDT.\u00a0 When we got there, at first glance there was no sign of water.\u00a0 But there was a barbed wire fence around some decrepit looking concrete boxes,\u00a0worn out\u00a0hoses and broken faucets.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fixit crawled under the barbed wire to have a look, and came back very happy.\u00a0 “Water!” he said.\u00a0 “But it will be hard to get at.\u00a0 I’ll have to rig some way to reach down into the box.”<\/p>\n

So we took ALL our remaining water, added electrolytes and just blew it down.\u00a0 Man, it was good to be able to drink our fill!\u00a0 Then Fixit took some string and 2 trek poles and a water bottle and rigged them all together to reach the water.\u00a0 While he was doing that, I set up our “AquaMira kitchen” to “cook” some AquaMira, ready to treat the water he was pulling out of the box. This is the system we’ve figured out in order to save a bit of time:\u00a0 Fixit gets the water, while I set up the AquaMira in a collection of bottle caps.\u00a0 It takes 5 minutes to “cook” AquaMira before putting it in the water.\u00a0 We both took on 4 liters of water, which is the most we can COMFORTABLY carry.<\/p>\n

At this point, we started the big climb up Mangas Mountain.\u00a0 The views became more and more amazing, and soon we were up in what felt like\u00a0“high mountain” air, with high mountain trees.\u00a0 Even though it was mid-May, the aspens were barely even beginning to leaf out.\u00a0 And it just felt more like “home” back in the Sierras of California.\u00a0 I was really enjoying myself!\u00a0 We have plenty of water now, it’s beautiful–what more could we want?\u00a0 But up close to the top of the mountain, we lost our way again.\u00a0 Sigh.\u00a0 We thought we were following the Ley Red Route, but when the trail and the map started to disagree, we realized, “Oh no!\u00a0 We’ve wandered off onto the Bear Route!”\u00a0\u00a0Ley’s Route went east, and here we were going north instead.\u00a0 (The direct reverse of the time we messed up at Sapillo Creek!)<\/p>\n

We debated what to do, and since we’d come DOWN quite a ways, we decided it was not worth climbing all the way back up the mountain again, just to find Ley’s route.\u00a0 So Bear it was.\u00a0 Oh well, it means a road walk to Pie Town, but that’s OK.\u00a0\u00a0 (With Ley, we could have avoided the road walk).\u00a0 We are both so dirty (all that crawling under fences) and so tired and so hungry, but we’ll make up for that at Pie Town tomorow!<\/p>\n

Once we were down off the mountain, we stopped to camp at the base of Chavez Canyon, near a “cow tank” (artificial pond).\u00a0 The water in the tank was totally disgusting.\u00a0 So glad we didn’t have to get water there!\u00a0 Today was a great example of the multiplicity of choices we hikers have on the CDT, but I do wish our Guthook was working so we’d be able to do a better job of choosing which way to go!<\/p>\n\n\t\t