Glorious zero day. Did all my preparations for it yesterday. Got my shopping done, loaded my hotel room with food. Did my laundry. Actually, I have a dry bag I use for my food. I empty it out, fill it 2/3 full with water, add some dish soap I’m carrying (or hotel shampoo) throw in my dirty clothes, seal it up and shake like crazy for two or three minutes. Then just like the instructions on a shampoo bottle, lather, rinse repeat. Usually takes 4 repeats for the water to quit coming out of the bag brown.
So today I am hoping to sit on my tail end and let my body repair itself in preparation for the miles ahead. I picked the Southwest Motel because I thought it was in town, closer to services and wasn’t a big chain (support the local people). Trouble is Grants is a city built when Route 66 was the main highway so there isn’t really a downtown. It is a 4 lane divided highway about 4 miles long with businesses stretched across its length. Everything is a long walk away except Lotsaburger and a wonderful pizza place.
To save the walk to the post office, D’Anne hired a trail angel to pick her up and drive her, a distance of nearly three miles. Since I’m enroute, they picked me up, took me to the Post Office and then dropped me off again. Saved me three miles of walking.
So I lay on my bed, feet propped against the wall icing my feet studying the route and water between here and Cuba, the next resupply town 106 miles away. I sorted my food and ate some of the food I purchased yesterday.
I had agreed to meet with Dallas at the pizza place just down the road at 2:00pm. I walked in a little early to find Jean Bruno at a table. I sat with him. I loaned him my backup iPhone about 2 weeks ago when his got ruined in the Gila River. He had it on his pants pocket and one of the crossings was a little deeper than some of the others and his phone got wet. He got online and ordered a new phone from Pie Town and has it sent to the Post Office. He showed his new phone to me and said he would return my backup iPhone to me this evening. Dallas showed about 2:00pm. The three of us discussed what to do at the Colorado border. Colorado immediately rises on elevation to 11,000 to 13,000 feet and is still carrying a snow load. Do we get a ride around Colorado and come back and hike it when the snow melts or take our chances and venture into the snow? Dallas has a cousin who will fly to Denver and rent a car and drive us around to Wyoming’s Great Basin if the snow is too much. Last night when discussing this with Sally on the phone I looked at the Snow Water Equivalent chart. It showed that the snow pack has been right on the average line all winter, but since the middle of April has dropped suddenly. Does this mean the snow pack is melting off quicker than normal? For our sakes I hope so. For the communities in the area it is not so good.
Believe me when I say I will be watching that graph like a hawk over the coming weeks.
The pizza was excellent. I ordered a small, deep dish Hawaiian and easily ate the whole thing. Could have eaten two. It was pizza happy hour so I got it at half price-$6.99. Good deal.
Dallas headed back to the motel 6, I headed to the Southwest. I had a bag of stuff to deliver to the hiker box at the hostel. As I headed up town to find the hostel here came Peppermint, Kingo and Aaron down the street. They were headed to the Lotsaburger. I had stopped in for a milkshake after the pizza so I followed them back and chatted while they ate.
Back to my room. Final packing. Phone calls to Sally and the Caldwells. Lights out at 8:45. Alarm set for 5:30am. I want an early start in the morning.
All in all, a good zero day. A little too much activity for a solid zero day, but acceptable.
There is a small fire in the Gila River canyon where we were two weeks ago. I put the red blob on this map to illustrate its position. Hopefully it is small and quickly extinguished. Everything here is really dry.
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