{"id":147,"date":"2016-05-18T05:54:59","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T05:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=147"},"modified":"2017-05-19T15:16:40","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T15:16:40","slug":"lotsa-mud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/18\/lotsa-mud\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday, May 18 Lotsa Mud!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"may-18-10\"SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>We sure are grateful for our nice pine-needly campsite last night.\u00a0 It rained and rained, so all the ground around us became a sea of mud…except where we were.\u00a0 We spent all morning slipping and sliding along a very muddy road, with rain so cold that it actually snowed on us for awhile.\u00a0 But by lunch time, the sun began peeking through, and we reached “El Malpais” lava fields, which meant walking a paved road.\u00a0 Goodbye, mud!\u00a0 But yikes!\u00a0 Ahead of us lay some of the blackest clouds I have ever seen, with thunder rumbling.\u00a0 But as we walked along, the blackness gradually disappeared and tonight our little blue tent is perched by Hwy 117 on a nice gravel area out of the mud (which is everywhere!)<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>It rained for much of the night, and we made another new discovery about staying in a tent instead of under\u00a0our usual tarp: in a tent, when it rains, condensation builds up INSIDE the tent\u00a0and then when raindrops strike the OUTSIDE of the tent, it knocks the condensation droplets\u00a0loose and pretty soon it’s “drizzling” inside the tent.\u00a0 Yuck!\u00a0 With a tarp, there was no condensation and the underside of the tarp (where we were) stayed dry.<\/p>\n

Because it was still raining in the morning,\u00a0we ate breakfast inside the tent (braving the condensation drips).\u00a0 Fortunately it let up a bit when we had to crawl out and start packing up.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We sure are grateful for\u00a0our nice pine-needly campsite!\u00a0 All the ground\u00a0around us\u00a0had become\u00a0a sea of mud except where we were.\u00a0 We’ve heard stories about “New Mexico mud” and now we know firsthand what they’re talking\u00a0about!\u00a0\u00a0 But I was worried about Fixit.\u00a0 Last night we had some troubles with the tent, and he went out in the rain to FIX it, while wearing his down jacket.\u00a0\u00a0The jacket\u00a0ended up soaking wet, and is still wet, on a cold and rainy morning.\u00a0 Not good.\u00a0 Both of us kitted up with full raingear and walked off down the very muddy road in the pouring rain.<\/p>\n

A few miles along and we reached the Thomas Ranch.\u00a0 Our info said it was near an historic building along the road.\u00a0 Last night we had seen such a building and hoped we’d reached the Ranch, but now we\u00a0know that it’s the SECOND historic building that marks the ranch location. For about a mile before we reached the Ranch driveway, we were being escorted by a pair of dogs who cheerfully ran along next to us, being very friendly.\u00a0 One was a pit bull and the other was a dark colored mutt.\u00a0 They accompanied us right into the Thomas’ yard, then disappeared.\u00a0 As far as we could tell, nobody was home, but since it was 7:00 am, maybe they just weren’t up yet.\u00a0 There was a collection of trailers and campers in the yard which are available to hikers, but all we wanted at this point was water.\u00a0 I filled up all our water containers from the faucet, with the rain still coming down.\u00a0 Brrrrr, it was cold and getting colder.\u00a0 My hands about froze.<\/p>\n

Back to the muddy, slippery road we went, and continued our trek.\u00a0 We discovered that usually the best place to walk was right in the center of the road–it’s a bit higher and less wet than the sides.\u00a0 The air grew colder, a freezing wind was blowing,\u00a0and soon the rain turned into big wet SNOWFLAKES that melted as soon as they hit the ground.\u00a0 Then the snowflakes started to accumulate into a frosting of white on the mud.\u00a0 I was seriously worried now about Fixit.\u00a0 I was wearing all my layers (including down jacket) under my raingear and I was still a bit cold.\u00a0 Fixit’s jacket was still wet.\u00a0\u00a0I began to pray, “Please, Lord, for Fixit’s sake, please give us some sun.”<\/p>\n

Finally the\u00a0snow turned back into rain, and the rain began to slow down.\u00a0 A pickup truck came along, with CHAINS on the tires so that it could travel in the mud.\u00a0 Fixit said, “Aha!\u00a0 That explains why the cattle guards on this road are so beat up!\u00a0 It’s from people driving over them with chains on!”\u00a0 A little while later, we crossed a county line, and the road instantly improved–it went from rutted muddy mess to a nice gravel surface.\u00a0 The rain stopped and hooray–by lunchtime a bit of sun broke through!\u00a0 We had been walking all morning with no snack break because it was too cold and wet, so being able to stop and eat in the sun (sitting on some grass, out of the mud)\u00a0was wonderful, and we had plenty of water from the Thomas Ranch and from another cache later on near a windmill.<\/p>\n

It didn’t take much longer before we reached Highway 117\u00a0at the edge of the huge Malpais lava flows\u00a0and cheerfully\u00a0began walking on nice clean, solid pavement.\u00a0 So much better than mud!\u00a0 But\u00a0up ahead lay a wall of the blackest clouds I have ever seen, and we were headed straight for them.\u00a0 They looked rather daunting, and we were also sobered by the fact that we have 38 more miles of this before we reach Grants.\u00a0 But we faced the black clouds, determined to chew into as much of that 38 miles as we could, and by 6:00 pm, the clouds started to break up. Whew!\u00a0 But now\u00a0we were concerned about where\/how we were to camp.\u00a0 The highway was thoroughly fenced in with barbed wire and\u00a0No Trespassing signs, and thick mud was everywhere.<\/p>\n

But a short time later, we found a nice turnout by the highway, with a big gravel pile in it, and gravel all over the ground.\u00a0 The wind was blowing, so we said, “Hey, let’s set up our tent here (no mud!) and let the wind blow on it till it dries out (it was still wet from last night) while we eat some dinner!”\u00a0 So that’s what we did.\u00a0 The tent dried\u00a0 quickly, we took off our very muddy shoes, rolled out our sleeping bags, and now we are snug and dry, with a magnificent view of high cliffs right across the road and dramatic clouds\u00a0behind them.\u00a0 I\u00a0‘m glad the clouds have contented themselves with just LOOKING impressive–they\u00a0are not dumping\u00a0any more rain on us!<\/p>\n\n\t\t