22mi today

This morning I woke up with a long bearded hiker sleeping curled up with a pillow next to my bed on the hard wood floor with only my pillow. What a strange and wonderful place the Toaster House is. I also found that the smell of bacon is a staple in the mornings here, a few hikers were cooking up a big breakfast this time to share amongst last nights residents. At the table I met Lisa who hiked the CDT in 2005, who's was interviewed in one of the more well known guide books for this trail. An experienced trail celebrity of sorts. We were all picking her brain about the Colorado snow travel.

Once I finally left by myself, it actually snowed a good amount for the first part of the day. New Mexico is a surprising state, I wasn't expecting such a variety of conditions and landscapes, heat rash hot to freezing cold, mesa's to mountains. I crossed paths with a southbounding section hiker named Pie Man, or Lee. An older fellow who was doing a walk from Grants to Pie Town. He helped explain where to cut off the road walk coming up to Sand Canyon, which can be a junction that could be potentially missed. Some motorcycle tourers also stopped for a brief talk, they were riding along the "American Discovery" route apparently.

My day ended on the side of a dirt road not to far after a trail angel provided water source at Thomas Ranch. I chose my campsite shortly after stumbling upon, not on, what looked to be a dead cow that seemed to have melted in the desert heat somewhat recently. My water bottles froze this cold night.