Day 28: Snowy San Pedro Peaks Wilderness

Mileage: 13.7 miles (538.7-552.4)

When we woke up it was already snowing pretty hard. Like a mid-winter blizzard in Nebraska. It's May 9th in New Mexico and the weather odyssey continues. 

Our plan was to leave this morning after getting breakfast and dropping a few things at the post office at 10am when it opened. I'm the only one who stuck to the plan. Maniac, the guy from Georgia, said there was 'no way in hell' he was hiking in that blizzard and the other two were also happy to stick around another day eating and watching TV. I was getting antsy though and really didn't want to spend any more money on the hotel and food, so I took off around 11:30am when there was a break in the storm.

Me and Maniac still had fun in the snow on the way to the post office.

It was a steady ascent out of Cuba up dirt roads until you hit Los Pinos trailhead and entered San Pedro Peaks Wilderness. Lower down the roads were pretty muddy as the snow was melting almost immediately as it touched the ground. As I got higher though the snow began to stick more and more until I was steadily trudging through it from 8,500 ft upward.

I stopped around 4:30 to cook my dinner of Mac and Cheese (with the velveeta instead of powdered cheese, which is wayyy better ... even if velveeta is kinda nasty). I promptly inhaled my dinner along with some other snacks and kept climbing, which was the only thing I could do to keep my feet warm. 

Once I reached 10,000 ft the trail flattened out, but now was totally snow-covered, so the only way I could find it was looking for a slight depression where the trail had been worn or the occasional footprint that had been frozen in the snow.

The most difficult part was the trail had become like a river in some places and it was impossible to avoid dipping my toes in the icy water. One alpine meadow had transformed into an ankle-deep pool of frigid water with no way around it. I sloshed through as fast as I could but I could feel my toes beginning to get numb. Again, I kept moving to keep my toes warm until about seven o'clock when I found a nice flat spot in the meadow to setup camp.

I stamped down the snow and did my best to get the stakes in the ground through the deep snow. I'm afraid it's going to storm tonight and I don't want to have to fix any stakes in the middle of the night.

I always get lonely when I start hiking by myself again after being with a group. But, I think the loneliness is important. It reminds me how much I love people, but also gives me a chance to reflect why I'm out here. I had been starting to feel like I needed some alone time anyways, so hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow. It always seems to snow when I'm alone.