PEANUT Butter

Day 58—Wednesday, September 28—Cuba to dispersed camping on the trail to Grants

50 miles

Got a late start in order to pick up the final mail drop, so I knew I was tailing Eric by about 90 minutes and TJ by about 45 mins.

The first 10 miles were on a major highway complete with tractor trailers going 70 mph and a generous shoulder. The landscape was completely different than yesterday. Eroded edges of buttes and exposed rock dominated the scene. Leaving the highway for a gravel road, the trail let up through a canyon before riding up to the top of the exposed edge and the plain above. The road rolled over the contours of the hills and it varied between soft sand, aggregate stone, mud, and a recently dried material that I have heard will turn to “peanut butter” when it gets wet. Fortunately for us, the day started blue and cloudless and no warmer than mid-70s. Spectacular fall day.

Rio Puercos with dramatic cliffs beyond 

Impassable peanut butter when wet

Wind, water, mud

Starting high and gently descending to lower elevations; long views were possible and interesting shapes of mountains and outcroppings visible. Eventually we found ourselves passing though a massively wide valley with desert-like buttes on one side and verdant grazing lands on the other. The views continued to become more dramatic.

Megetra Vittata 

Long views

Continental Divide Trail:  this is the hiking trail. Very challenging 

Typical arroyo or wash

Butte photographed like a building

Is that the old man in the mountain?

View of the valley through which we traveled

Our target destination was an artesian well of sweet and clean water where we topped off our water bottles and proceeded up the road a bit to find a dispersed camping site with long views back to the valley through which we had passed.

Big day tomorrow with 5,000 feet of climbing. This 125 mike stretch from Cuba to Grants has specific well (water) sites some of which have good water and others which do not. So hydration is definitely a concern as we move up the road.