{"id":326,"date":"2016-05-28T23:11:05","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T23:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=326"},"modified":"2017-05-25T14:46:47","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T14:46:47","slug":"creek-and-river-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/28\/creek-and-river-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday, May 28 Creek and River Walk GHOST RANCH"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"may-28-15\"SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>The day began with a long switchbacking downhill through spring-green forest to Ojitos Creek.\u00a0 At that point, for some way, it was a creek walk with multiple crossings, just like the Gila River, but very cute and no wet feet!\u00a0 Then out through a spectacular mesa-rimmed valley to a long walk by the rushing, roaring Chama River.\u00a0 Groups of kayakers were riding it, though!\u00a0 We finally reached Ghost Ranch and immediately felt the peace of this place.\u00a0 Lots of hikers are here, and we are all being made very welcome.<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>The CDT decided to play hide ‘n seek first thing this morning.\u00a0 Only 20 minutes after we started hiking, down a dirt road,\u00a0we lost the trail and could not figure out where it went.\u00a0 We knew it turned off the road, but had seen no sign of the turnoff.\u00a0 We fired up\u00a0Guthook,\u00a0 and it led us to what was obviously a totally abandoned trail that no one had been using.\u00a0 Frustration!\u00a0 I had an idea of a place back towards where we started that might, maybe be trail, so I ran back to take a closer look.\u00a0 Fixit sat down and kept wrassling with Guthook, trying to figure something out.\u00a0 By the time I got back, he had finally found the trail turnoff, not far from where we’d stopped and gotten frustrated.\u00a0 We are finding that when the trail disappears, Fixit and I continue to have a totally different approach to the situation.\u00a0 Fixit sits down and studies.\u00a0 I like to run around and look.<\/p>\n

But hooray, we were back on the CDT after the delay, and the trail took us down, down many switchbacks to Ojitos Creek. There were lots of oak trees just starting to leaf out, and we were walking on a soft carpet of last year’s brown leaves that covered the ground and the trail.\u00a0 Ojitos Creek canyon turned out to be sort of a mini-Gila River canyon, with multiple crossings, but everything so small and shallow\u00a0that we never had to get our feet wet\u00a0 The only problem crossing we encountered was a place where the creek was in a narrow but somewhat deep chute, too wide to jump across, but a hassle to climb down into and up out of.\u00a0\u00a0 But the whole canyon was so pretty that we really enjoyed ourselves!\u00a0 It sort of felt like back home in California, with a springtime oak forest.<\/p>\n

Finally the creek left the canyon and we found ourselves in a much wider, sagebrushy valley surrounded by spectacular views of brilliantly colored sandstone mountains.\u00a0 I kept just having to stop for a second\u00a0and take it all in, it was so spectacular.\u00a0 But then I’d hurry on, because now we were headed for the Chama River!\u00a0 Hopefully we would easily make it to Ghost Ranch by tonight!<\/p>\n

When we reached the River, wow!\u00a0 It was a roaring, raging, muddy brown torrent, just tearing along.\u00a0 Good thing there was a bridge–it would have been totally unfordable.\u00a0 On the other side\u00a0of the river, we began a 12 mile roadwalk\u00a0 to Ghost Ranch.\u00a0 What immediately amazed us what the amount of traffic on the road, in both directions.\u00a0 The problem was the road at this point\u00a0was a narrow dirt road–\u00a0so narrow that it was very hard for cars to pass each other, and they had to sort of take turns.\u00a0 On multiple occasions, we had to stop and stand well off the road, patiently waiting while a bunch of cars squiggled by each other.\u00a0 Looking at the people in the cars, our best guess was that most of them were tourists.\u00a0 The spectacular scenery might be a tourist draw, but we soon discovered there was more to it:\u00a0 kayaking!<\/p>\n

Groups of very colorful kayaks were bobbing down the rushing Chama.\u00a0 As the road went up and down near the river, at times we got a pretty good view of them, and for lunch, we stopped and ate overlooking a kayak pull-out called “Big Eddy.”\u00a0 The parking lot was full of cars & trailers and kayakers were everywhere.\u00a0 We had a lot of fun watching them.\u00a0 After that, the road moved away from the river and we couldn’t do any more kayak-watching, but a few miles later, along came a guy with a kayak on his car roof.\u00a0 He stopped alongside us and said, “I just came from Big Eddy, and I’m done for the day–wish I had a beer to give you guys, but here, take these!” and gave us two granola bars!\u00a0 We scarfed them up as we walked along, headed for Hwy. 84.\u00a0 Trail magic!<\/p>\n

The plan was that we’d take Hwy 84, then turn off\u00a0onto\u00a0a nature trail that\u00a0made a nice shortcut\u00a0to Ghost Ranch.\u00a0 But when we got to the visitor center where the trail was supposed to start, we discovered to our dismay that the center had obviously been closed for a long time.\u00a0 Big weeds were growing everywhere; the parking lot was chained shut, and there were very emphatic “No Trespassing” signs.\u00a0 Bummer.\u00a0 Now we would have to take the longer route of walking all the way along the highway till reached the side road to Ghost Ranch–two legs of the triangle instead of just one.\u00a0 And we were so tired.\u00a0 Sigh.\u00a0 (We found out later that other hikers had ignored the No Trespassing signs, found the nature trail and reached Ghost Ranch that way, anyhow).<\/p>\n

But we kept putting one foot in front of the other, and finally made it to the Ranch.\u00a0 So beautiful!\u00a0 And so hiker-friendly!\u00a0 There were several large hiker boxes full of stuff, and there are lots of different options for CDT hikers who want to stay there.\u00a0 We opted to rent a room and eat at the cafeteria, but started out with an ice cream from the store!\u00a0 Then a shower, a short rest, and DINNER!\u00a0\u00a0 It’s all you can eat and the food was wonderful, and we were with the other hikers, including The Beast, but we found to our amazement that we couldn’t eat anywhere near as much as we thought we could.\u00a0 Have our stomachs shrunk?\u00a0 We’ve been so hungry so much of the time that we thought we could eat lots!\u00a0 But we didn’t waste any food, fortunately, because we’d started with ordinary amounts, thinking we’d go back for more. The hikers said they heard that Newt Gingrich was staying at the Ranch tonight, but we saw no sign of him.\u00a0 There did seem to be some groups on retreats (this is a Presbyterian retreat center).<\/p>\n

After dinner, we did a little bit of wandering to find out where things were, and decided we were so tired that we might as well stay all day tomorrow.\u00a0 That way we could go to church, and then do “town chores” without feeling rushed.\u00a0 Back to our room we went, and bed felt so good!\u00a0 Plus this whole place is so beautiful and so peaceful and welcoming.\u00a0 It is good to be here.<\/p>\n\n\t\t