Will hold packages 30 days.

Subject: 5/15, day 19, 31 mi., 7600'
We spent last night at Nita's house and met 2 of her 5 children. She lives in Pie Town right on the trail and found us as we arrived in town and immediately offered showers, phone, internet, etc. She is also the pie baker at Pie-o-neer. We hadn't heard of her as a Trail Angel but she took in her first hiker in 1980.

We checked on the Internet and found the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests are closed. I guess we will find out in Grants if this includes CDT hikers.

We've road walked along the divide due north out of Pie Town at a steady 3 miles/hour. We started in a juniper and pinon forest and a huge blue sky, a blue that we don't see in CA. As we walked the forest got sparser and white fluffy wooly sheep clouds appeared (in cattle country ;-D) A "tea break" sounded good so we're lying on our Tyvek at a windmill (spinning merrily in the wind) with the cows and are thinking that possibly we will filter some of their water out of their stock tank. Hard decision. It's nice to be out of the sun. Then we walked until sunset.

The guide says that the good thing about the road walk today is that it is the shortest route between the start and finish of this section. That is true - but the road is straight, well graded, and has little elevation change. All that contributed to making a big mileage day.

... Gottawalk

Subject: 5/16, day 20, 23 miles
Okay 23 miles doesn't seem like many miles after yesterday. Tell our feet that! The last 7.5 miles were the Acoma-Zuni Trail. More about that below. It was 7.5 miles of torturous lava beds. Hot, Dry, very interesting.

We ate lunch in a new picnic ground at the south end of The Narrows. The construction crews had already taken the picnic tables and the shade so we sat on rocks in the sun. We were envious of one young workers bottle of coke. A few miles later we stopped at Ventana Arch for pictures and a brief rest in the shade.  A BLM worker offered us his water. The New Mexicans are treating us very well. Cars stop and offer water, rides, ask if we have broken down. Very hospitable people!

In mid-afternoon we arrived at the western end of the Acoma-Zuni Trail.  The Acoma-Zuni Trail is a 700-year-old trading trail between the 2 Pueblan tribes.  Coronado's Conquistadors were in the area in 1540 and some may have been guided across the trail. It is a series of rock cairns across 3 different, overlapping lava flows. The trail is a series of rock cairns zigzagging across very rough lava terrain. Getting from one cairn to the next was difficult at times. It took us 4.5 hours to cross the 7.5 miles. It was dark when we got out. There was no place to camp except on lava chunks. We set up our tent along a walkway in a picnic area near no camping signs.

We were excited to see & use a trail that old.

... Gottawalk

Subject: 5/17, Day 21, 17 miles
After 2 hard days we decided to go directly into Grants via hiway NM 53. It was 17 miles of paved road with a fair amount of traffic.

We hit San Rafael just before noon. We stopped at a convenience store that was just being opened. Thank God their sodas and water were cold! They were having trouble getting the water turned on (no toilets), no ice cream machine, cash register did not work. The people were really nice and helpful though. We wish them well in their new venture.

Made it into Grants at about 1:30 pm. First building was McDonalds. Of course we couldn't pass it up. After eating we walked to the post office (it had moved since we were here last July). We got 6 packages. The PO lady asked if we had a blow-up person in our packs to help carry them all.