{"id":143,"date":"2016-05-16T20:39:10","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T20:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=143"},"modified":"2017-05-16T14:37:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T14:37:13","slug":"pie-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/16\/pie-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday, May 16 PIE TOWN!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"may-16-15\"DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>We were up ‘n at’em early on a cold morning, thinking, “Get to Hwy 60, go to Pie Town!”\u00a0 We still had no idea where we actually were, but took every dirt road that went north or nor’east.\u00a0 Hours went by–no sign of the highway.\u00a0 Our water was running low.\u00a0 Then a gift from God–“Talus”, a bikerider, came pedalling along and told us, “Only 9 1\/2 miles, and you’ll be in Pie Town, and by the way, there’s a water cache in 3 miles.”\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 Tired, sore feet, too bad–we turned on the afterburners and made it in by 2 pm, dumped our packs at the “Toaster House” hostel, and got a good meal, showers, laundry and lots of hang-out time with other hikers, and locals, too, sharing trail tales.<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>Last night I was wondering if we’d have any wild critters coming by in the night to get a drink from the cow tank, but the only critters we heard were several owls hooting to each other.\u00a0 It was a cold night, though!\u00a0 At 5:20, when we started to pack up, it was only 30 degrees.\u00a0 Our ZPacks sleeping bags once again did a great job of keeping us warm–it was hard to leave them and head out into the cold.\u00a0 Brrrrr.<\/p>\n

We were in high spirits, thinking it would not be too much longer till we reached Hwy. 60 and started the roadwalk into Pie Town.\u00a0 The northbound\u00a0dirt road we were on took us among several cinder-cone-type little volcanoes that were dotted here and there below Mangas Mountain.<\/p>\n

At every rise, and at the top of every hill, we looked eagerly for Hwy 60, but by 7:30 (breakfast time) there was still no sign of it.\u00a0 It was still very cold, even in the sun, so we gobbled down our granola and kept going on a roller coaster route over low hills and shallow valleys.\u00a0 Still no Hwy 60, and we began to be faintly concerned.\u00a0 Our water was running low because we’d\u00a0drunk a lot, assuming it wasn’t far to the highway.\u00a0 We passed a herd of happy cows\u00a0at another cow tank.\u00a0 No way would we drink their water!\u00a0 Gross stuff!\u00a0 Up on the hill above the tank was a magnificent log house.\u00a0 Seems like when we were south of the Gila, the “in” look for houses was “pueblo\/adobe” and now we’ve\u00a0reached “log cabin” country. The big house had a name, it turned out.\u00a0 When we passed the driveway, there was a sign, “Robber’s Roost.”\u00a0 Well, the robbers must have done very well for themselves.\u00a0 What a house!<\/p>\n

Now we were actually worried, though.\u00a0 Where\u00a0was Hwy 60?\u00a0 We walked as fast as we could,\u00a0taking every road that headed north or northeast, and having no idea where we were on our maps.\u00a0\u00a0There was a big “table mountain” off to the side that gave us some idea, but we still weren’t sure.\u00a0 Then way up ahead in the distance we saw a wonderful sight–a bike rider!\u00a0 Coming toward us!\u00a0 (Talk about a gift from God when I really needed it!)\u00a0 When we met up, he stopped, and I said, “Hi! Hey, we’re trying to get to Pie Town….how much farther to the highway?”\u00a0\u00a0 He paused a second, looking at his bike computer, then turned and pointed back toward where he came.\u00a0\u00a0With a big grin, he said, “Well, you guys have exactly 9.5 miles\u00a0and you’ll be at Toaster House.”\u00a0 We were shocked and amazed.\u00a0 “Um, then how much farther is it to the highway?”\u00a0 He said, “Oh, that’s beyond Toaster House.\u00a0 Just follow this road and it will take you straight there.\u00a0 And oh, by the way, there’s a water cache at the\u00a0animal shelter\u00a0 3 miles from here.”<\/p>\n

It turned out that the biker’s trail name was Talus, and he’d just finished hiking the CDT as far Hwy 12.\u00a0 Now he was switching to biking instead. He had a big “biker map” that showed the whole area, and he pointed out to us where we were.\u00a0 Amazing!\u00a0 Somehow we’d muddled our way along and lost the Bear Route, but ended up back on the Ley Route.\u00a0 Not sure how that happened, but whatever!\u00a0 Thank you, God, for Talus!\u00a0 He came along just when we needed the encouragement.\u00a0 Only 3 more miles to water, then 6 1\/2 miles to Pie Town!<\/p>\n

We decided to skip eating lunch and just hike, since we’d heard that the 2 restaurants in Pie Town were closed around 2:00.\u00a0 (Turned out later that yes, one of them was; the other was open all day)\u00a0 So even though we were very tired (we’d been pushing it all morning), we turned on the afterburners to reach the water cache.\u00a0 It turned out to be a big cooler by the animal shelter gate, and the jugs of water inside were COLD!\u00a0\u00a0 Awesome!\u00a0 There was also a note saying, “We’re glad to provide hikers with water, but don’t linger here.\u00a0 We have a lot of dogs at the shelter, and we let them run loose.\u00a0 If they see you here at the gate, they’ll follow you, and it will be a lot of work for us to bring them back.”\u00a0 So we filled our water jugs up quickly and moved on.\u00a0 Not till we were well out of sight down the road did we stop to mix up some Emergen-C and have a nice cold drink.<\/p>\n

After that, we pushed on as hard as we could, hoping to reach Pie Town before 2:00.\u00a0 And we did it!\u00a0 Up ahead we saw the “landmark ” from Yogi’s town guide–a sign that said, “Speed Limit 15”.\u00a0 Pie Town!\u00a0 It didn’t take long to locate the Toaster House hostel (yes indeed, it really does have lots of toasters!)\u00a0 Nobody was there, so we claimed a bedroom by putting our packs on the bed.\u00a0 It was 1:45 pm.\u00a0 We hurried to the Pie Town Cafe and ate a huge lunch of big sandwich, fries, and of course, PIE.\u00a0 It wasn’t cheap, though.\u00a0 We had a bit of sticker shock at the prices of everything.\u00a0 Ack.\u00a0 Good food, but ouch!\u00a0 Not cheap.\u00a0 The Cafe folks warned us that they are closed tomorrow (Tuesday) so we went across the highway (yes, FINALLY, Hwy 60!) to the Pie-O-Neer to find out what their hours were.\u00a0 Great!\u00a0 They are open all day!<\/p>\n

We walked the couple of blocks back to Toaster House, enjoying the views.\u00a0 Pie Town is up on a rise, so you can see for miles around.\u00a0 The next item of business was to get clean.\u00a0 But there was no hot water at Toaster House–the hot water heater was not working.\u00a0 Fixit does not mind cold showers, but I do, so I took a towel from Toaster House and went next door to the RV Park for a nice HOT shower.\u00a0 Man, it felt so awesome to be CLEAN again!\u00a0 Laundry chores were next.\u00a0 Our socks were so filthy that I took a large pot from the hostel kitchen and prewashed them before putting everything in the washing machine.\u00a0 While the machine did its thing, I lay down on the couch, covered myself up with an afghan to stay warm, and read a fun book on homesteading, starting with how to cut trees down to get logs for your house.<\/p>\n

Once things were washed, I took them out on the porch and hung them in every convenient spot I could find to dry, since there was no dryer.\u00a0 So the porch rails, chairs, etc. were covered with our damp stuff.\u00a0 Fortunately, though it was 5:00 already, it was warm, sunny and breezy, so no worries about things not getting dry.\u00a0 By now, various interesting people were starting to arrive.\u00a0 One was a guy who just likes to hang out with the hikers.\u00a0 Another was a lady who was trying to catch the wild kittens living in the shed behind Toaster House.\u00a0 Right now she is feeding them in hopes that they will come to trust her\u00a0 and will let her pick them up.\u00a0\u00a0 Other CDT hikers (including Stummy and Masshole) and another biker\u00a0drifted in and claimed their spots in the house.\u00a0 I should say that Toaster House is really fun.\u00a0 It’s funky and hippy and it’s like time warp back to when Fixit and I were in the “Jesus People” era of the 1960’s and early ’70’s and we lived in a “Christian house” where a bunch of us shared a house and provided hospitality to lots of other people every day.\u00a0 At Toaster House, the final total was 7 of us spending the night.\u00a0 The local guy who was visiting said that sometimes there are as many as 50!<\/p>\n

I concocted something for supper by rummaging in the “pantry”, and we all hung out talking (everyone is an experienced long distance hiker\/biker, so there were many stories to tell) and admiring Stummy’s cartoon drawings of their CDT adventures.\u00a0 All of us agreed that on the PCT, we would wake up thinking, “All right!\u00a0 Let’s see what will happen today!”\u00a0 whereas on the CDT, it’s more like “Oh no…what will happen today?”\u00a0\u00a0It was so good to be around people again and have fun talking.\u00a0 We all also agreed that scenery-wise, New Mexico is wonderful, but the trail is\u00a0another story!<\/p>\n

By 8:00, people (including us) were heading for bed, and by 9:00 (known as “hiker midnight”)\u00a0the house was totally quiet.\u00a0Wow, it feels good to be on a BED again!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What a day!<\/p>\n\n\t\t