June 19, 2025
Albuquerque

Today was our last full day in Albuquerque.  We spent the morning travelling by buses to a thrift shop (to get a cheap duffle bag for items that need to be checked in, like hiking poles, umbrellas, stove, tent pegs) and to REI, to get a bear canister and a few dehydrated meals. The free local bus service has saved us a lot of money

Its patrons include the elderly, the disabled, and the homeless. The drivers appear to know many of the regulars by name and we have overheard some very interesting conversations.

Tomorrow we leave early to go to the airport. Three flights will take us from Albuquerque to Fort Worth to Charlotte to Tri Cities, arriving 6pm. Hopefully our shuttle will be there to take us to their campground near the Appalachian Trail.

This will be the last blog post for now on this blog. From now on, we will add posts to our earlier blog for the Appalachian Trail at www.loudonweb.com/at.

We had a great dinner of New Mexican food at a nearby restaurant.

Breaking news: we just got a text from Amethyst to say that she just got engaged to Timber, at 12,600′! She also said that the trail is very tough with lots of mud and snow, so that supports our decision to leave the CDT for now.