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New Mexico - Pie & Flash Floods

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Cuba to the Gila National Forest 26th October 2025 It’s  five in the morning and the alarm will go off in half an hour.   Snug in my sleeping bag I’m looking up at Orion, Pleiades, Taurus and the 400 billion stars of our galaxy, the Milky Way, the 30 minutes of time, in this infinite universe some 13 billion years old, gives me time to think on the past days, the people, the land, my thoughts, feelings and the journey. After nearly 3,000 miles and nearly 6 million steps each the journey is coming to an end and there are two feelings that Special Agent Sally (SAS) and I share.    One is of excitement and relief to be finished, free to return to our lives.  The other, one of great sadness and loss to say goodbye to one of our most gruelling, challenging and varied adventures to date. Leaving the town of Cuba, we travelled through flash flooded desert, where rivers torrent milk chocolate and paths and roads turn to clay.    Slip or slide mud builds on you...
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New Mexico - the Land of Enchantment

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  NM - the Land of Enchantment I’m always sceptical of signs that announce a welcome.    My home county’s algae covered ‘Welcome to Bedfordshire, A Progressive County’ was the foundation of the cynicism. A promise made which fizzled the moment the sign was erected. The first steps into New Mexico, The Land of Enchantment however did not disappoint.    Turning around at the Colorado / New Mexico State line was a bittersweet moment.    The Rockies on the near horizon stood majestic in the morning sun.    We waved goodbye to them, relieved to be free of their dangers and sad to say farewell to our home for the last month and 800 miles. Colorado - New Mexico border The change came swiftly, maybe over the course of the day.    Aspen gave way to Oak with leaves of gold.    And although the mountains were high, we were still at 10,000’, they were less rugged; rounded    with long sloping descents.   It was the...
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Colorado the end bit

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We lay on our backs, deep inside our sleeping bags looking at the night sky.   Our faces are cold in the frosty air.     Our beaming smiles are not frozen, they are warm, as we take in the thick twisted cloud of billions of stars that make up the galaxy.     The vastness is deadly quiet. Camped at 13,000’ we are in the final section of the hike in the state of Colorado; the San Juan Mountains. From the beginning we have been in a race against time.    An urgency to beat the autumn snows that have been known to arrive as early as mid September and abruptly end any attempt to complete the journey on foot from Canada to Mexico following the Continental Divide Trail. The Great Divide, a watershed that determines rainfall’s destiny.    Whether a raindrop follows a path to the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Arctic, the Hudson or the Gulf of Mexico. Just this morning we made a cup of tea at our 1130 nut break from a trickle of a stream, known as the Rio...
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