Will hold packages indefinitely.

Subject: 5/19, day 23, high 8840, 25 miles
We had breakfast at Holiday Inn Express and walked out of Grants and up into the mountains. The divide is west of us and on Indian reservations. The official CDT climbs the Indians sacred peak, Mt. Taylor. When we were planning I had decided that I would avoid the summit out of respect to the Indians. I did avoid the summit but by far more than I had planned. We are west of Mt Taylor in a closed forest with a special permit to walk FR 239 to Cuba. This was the only option presented by the Forest Service who also provided that water be available in this very dry area. The special permit has lots of conditions attached like staying within 100' of the road.

Rain clouds had been building and we got a mid afternoon shower for about an hour. We kept walking with our rain gear on. Next time we'll cover our packs too.

Nice camp under pine trees. A few items were still wet in the morning.

... Gottawalk

Subject: 5/20, day 24, 25 miles
Spent all day rolling between 8000 and 8500 elevations.

Found a can of root beer at our first water cache. Mmmm, boy did it taste good.

Saw 1 person all day - a strange little rancher who has been mending fences for the last 10 days.

We are back on the official CDT in BLM land. It is still dry. We are supposed to have springs every 12 miles or so. We watched rain clouds all afternoon, but never got rained on.

We are camping under another big pine tree. The pine needles make a great mattress. A breeze is blowing and the sky is turning pink. A great evening.

... Gottawalk

Subject: 5/21, day 25, 22 miles, 6600'
New Mexico is as flat as a table with volcano plugs and mesas rising up and canyons and arroyos cutting down.

We had beautiful hiking today with the interesting scenery and more varied hiking. Our route is patched together from at least 4 sources with us trying to choose an interesting route. Most important, though, is water. Cabazon area has piped water for cows...and hikers.

I took lots of pictures today.

Wind started blowing before we got up and is still blowing. It’s strong enough to make walking difficult at times.

... Gottawalk

Subject: 5/22, day 26, 6800'
We arrived in Cuba at 4:45 to get to the PO and negotiate with the Forest Service for a special permit. Both were closed but persistence Ken got our box with new socks!! First motel was full and the 2nd should have been torn down 20 years ago. That's where we are and it turns out that it is the in place. As soon as we got in there was a knock on the door. It was hiker Bob and Karen (who is in one of the books that Marta has). They know us from our web site.

Hiking was great today, especially after Ken removed all the cactus spines from my hand and posterior. Not much wind and more fantastic colorful mesas. The tan earth takes a serpentine green in places. Today we saw lots of "glass in the dirt" that turned out to be mica that we could see through when it was 1" thick! Cows followed us again. I hope it is because of curiosity rather than thirst.

Got new soda bottles so the originals can be retired. They have a lot of miles on them, some of them fueled by snicker doodles. We appreciate our friends!

... Gottawalk