Mileage: 14.5 miles (591.5-606)
We took it real easy this morning, waking up around 6:30am after it rained all night and catching our last meal at Ghost Ranch, breakfast burritos with all the fixin's. We had our coffee and hung out in the library reading and doing some internet stuff. We then got our monk beers from Susan, the massage therapist, and enjoyed them in the library lounge.
We packed up our camp and got headed by around 1pm, regretting we couldn't stomach enchiladas after gorging ourself at breakfast. We started north out of the green meadows and apple trees and it started steeply up towards a box canyon. It was a beautiful climb, although our packs and bellies were quite heavy after the four-day resupply and three meals at Ghost Ranch.
I found a perch which peaked down into the canyon and read while waited for the other two to catch-up. Me and Karma took off and after just a few miles we realized we'd followed the wrong road for about a half mile, right after we commented on how nice the trail was. We looked at the map and realized it was probably just as easy to cut over to the official CDT as it would have been to get back to the alternate, so we cut up a side canyon and had a great time seeing a bunch elk sign, old antlers, and even a couple elk in a meadows near sunset.
The roads seemed to wind on top of each other like a tangled mess of spaghetti, so we got lost a few times and each time would find a way to correct our path by taking the next canyon over or doing some cross-country.
After about 14 miles, we got to the water source and where the official and alternate trails met one another and setup camp, cooked dinner, and hoped Restless would catch-up before dark. Sure enough he walked in a little after 8pm, just as we'd given up hope. He'd also got turned around and cut over to the CDT. We all cowboy camped and drifted to sleep with shooting stars darting across the full night sky.
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