CDT mile 406, miles hiked 21
Bonita Canyon
A shiny new windmill provided us some water to get to town
The day started with me waking from a terrible nights sleep, after 400 miles my sleeping pad has finally had it and leaked all night basically being useless. I also have a super luxury item a pillow that inflates it too sprung a leak and my night was spent waking on the hard ground and deciding if I should reinflate things. One nice aspect was I laid under the stars in awe of the Milky Way and the constellations. At one moment I saw a huge shooting star streak the night sky.
We started up Bonita Canyon a wonderful broad canyon mostly walking through pine forest and meadows. Since the terrain was easy, our packs light with no food and just extra water, we made good time cruising along just over 3.5mph. We took our first break and choked down on our food, my nipples were chaffing bad and each step was like having sandpaper scrapped against them. I gave it the good old stuff lip and knew town was within reach so I just went with it.
Bonita Canyon came to an end and the next ten miles were spent rolling down the road of Zuni canyon. The Zuni Canyon was amazing giant sandstone cliffs with big lava fields below. The colors were an artist pallets of reds, grays, tans, and whites. Every mile made you feel like a cowboy heading to town for some fun.
We arrived in Grants a large spread out town of 9,000 people along historic Route 66. We hit up McDonald’s for some McNuggets and what not. The local trail Angels Carole and Hugo Mumm not only stash water for hikers along the road walk they also take time out their day to provide shuttle rides in town. Carole came and got is at McDonald’s and drove us to the post office to pick up our boxes and then drove us to the Travel Lodge so we could get a room and enjoy the pool and hot tub.
We spread out in the room, did laundry and showered. Carole and Hugo then came and got us all for a great dinner at the Wow Dinner. The two of them are so sweet they bought me dinner as a thank you for all the hard work I have done the last few years as President of ALDHA-WEST it was an honor to be treated to a meal by such giving people.
this type of gluttony should only happen on the trail
We ended the day with a long soak in the hot tub before turning in for the night.
