June 9, 2025
‘Red line’ mile marker 651.1 to 674.7
Hiked today: 23.7 miles / 38.1 km

It was quite a cold night, being at a higher altitude but with down jackets and sleeping bags we stayed warm. Unfortunately my sleep mat has a slow leak. Despite multiple attempts to find the hole by immersing it in water, we have not isolated the cause. This means reinflating it at intervals through the night. Rob has kindly swapped mats now for me to get a better sleep.

Anyway, we were a little later starting out this morning but the first 4 hours were quite easy with a descent from the mountain top. We startled a herd of cows that we passed along the track, and no doubt they had startled the other animals because we saw nothing until the afternoon. After our 10 am snack break, we commenced a steep ascent up and over a long hill. I saw a couple of elk beside the trail, but they didn’t stop for a photo.

When we finally made it to the other side, and commenced a descent, we heard the first rumblings of thunder. We took shelter under a couple of trees and ate lunch, then huddled there a bit longer while it hailed, rained, then hailed again. The thunderstorm went on for half an hour. Some of that time we took shelter, but when it seemed to have passed we continued on, now down a muddy road before we were back on a narrow trail and making a descent into the Chama River Canyon.

The trail then wound along the canyon floor swapping from one side of the stream to the other, eventually spilling us out of the canyon mouth. Here we found water from a spring feeding into a tank and, shortly after, we crossed Skull Bridge over the now deep and swiftly flowing Chama River.

There was a good spot where we could cook and eat by the river. Then along just a short step and we have set up our tent between the river and the dirt road which we will follow tomorrow.