Plans, plans, plans. We wanted to get out early and we did, sorta. Guess it depends on how early, early is? We were stirring around at 6 or 6:30 and on trail before 8am. But everyone is telling us how cushy this part of the trail is. It’s easy breezy, so fifteen miles should be a piece of cake.

The morning was fabulous. We finished up our roadwalk to the Rio Chama Bridge then headed south into the Chama Wilderness. It was fairly flat with such diverse terrain. We had brown, tan and red rock walls in front of us. It reminded me of Neapolitan Ice Cream. That tells you where my mind goes. To the west of us were Guardians that were watching over us as we passed through. Tall and majestic, weathered by thousands of years of wind and rain. They call New Mexico the “Land of Enchantment” for good reason.

The trail tried to hide from us from time to time, but we kept finding it. That was until we hit the river. Canada Garule is more like a wash that gets too much rain from time to time. The last couple of weeks with the barrage from the hurricanes down south, turned this river into a loud and menacing torrent of water. The trail was literally washed away and all that was left was either walking up the creek or bouncing back and forth from sand bar to mesa to sand bar and back again.

After an hour of this game of “where’s the darn trail” we resigned ourselves to hiking straight up the Canada Garule. We tried our best to keep our shoes dry but we all know how that ends up. Finally we saw the trail exit the river and started up the mountain. I’ve never been so relieved to climb.

The trail headed up to the Chama River Canyon Wilderness which welcomed us with pine forest, shade and a flat plateau for a couple of miles. We ran into Turtle Tracks who is probably the only person on trail that I could easily pass. We had met back in East Glacier and this is the first time I’ve seen him since June.

We shared stories of the trail, who we’ve been hiking with, what’s our goal for camp tonight. Just the normal stuff. As we were talking, I realized we had passed our last water for the next fifteen miles. I backtracked a bit and found the game trail, moose, elk and deer prints that led directly down the ravine. The water was a small supply but the only one for quite a while. We filled up and moved on.

Turtle Tracks caught up with his hiking partner and they stopped for camp. Fearless and I had high hopes to make it our fifteen miles but after our river fiasco, and the fact the sun is setting much earlier, we stopped just short of our manmade goal. But we did find a perfect spot with nice piñon trees and cedars, and I have a perfectly level place to pitch my tent. As far as I’m concerned, that equates to a perfectly fine day. And we have had sunshine, glorious sunshine for two days! That’s some kind of record for us. Thank you Lord for your unfailing grace and love.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.” Psalms‬ ‭100‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬