60: San Francisco Mountains
It makes perfect sense, but is also a bit funny that I could describe the CDT route almost entirely in terms of familiar ski resorts. While this extent of the CDT is entirely within New Mexico (and is all entirely new to me) it approaches the border of Arizona and is part of the same chain of mountains that includes Pine Top and the Sunrise ski resort.
Today’s miles were the toughest since the Wyoming Range. The trail is infrequently used (I’ve seen one hiker on the trail since Cuba, five days ago), older, and cut through a volcanic mountain range (granite ranges tend to yield the nicest trails; volcanic the gnarliest), and infrequently maintained. I didn’t bother counting, but certainly set a personal one-day record for the number of downed trees I lifted my bike over yesterday. Other stretches of trail have had greater concentrations of downfall, but only in short sections. The bushes here are stout and have thorns, causing me to revise my usual “stampede through” approach to overgrown sections of trail. (I included a photo of one particularly bad section of trail.) A heavy bike also makes the travel more ponderous, being freshly resupplied and generally carrying far more water now than at any point prior.
As slow as today was, it was no slower than I had expected, having been warned in advance about the trail condition in this section. And, fortunately, I finally seem to be over whatever little stomach bug I picked up after Cuba. Though strenuous, I enjoyed today’s ridgeline travel.
