It’s my birthdaaay!

I wake, make coffee and hot oats (hot breakfast! Birthday luxury!) and we hike the 0.9 miles to Colorado! Sadly there isn’t a big border sign, just a sign announcing our entrance into the Rio Grande national forest, which is right at the border. Tigerlily left a note on the sign wishing me a happy birthday and that Colorado is my birthday present! Pretty bloody good present! I’m so excited to check New Mexico off finally!

Another 2.7 miles to Cumbres pass and the road that will lead us to town and food! It takes a long time to get a hitch, finally a nice lady in a rental car takes pity on us and drives us the 20 ish miles to Chama … back down the highway in New Mexico. Doh! Can’t escape this state!

We share a hotel room between 3 of us, which us good because the prices are all sky high thanks to a movie being filmed in the mountains close by with Hugh Jackman in it. The whole town is booked up with crew members – we were lucky to find a place! We collect our packages from the post office, eat a greasy breakfast, and walk the 2 miles down the highway to the hotel. Blergh spread out towns are rotten for hikers!

I have a package from a gorgeous friend Cookie I met on the PCT last year, filled with all kinds of delicious snacks, amazing toiletries and all kinds of useful hiker things! It’s amazing. I take a shower and come out smelling amazing with all the little pots of cleansers, moisturisers, shampoo and conditioner. I’m like an actual human. She also included a razor, so I lose about a pound off my base weight by shaving my legs – my poor legs have been covered in scratches, cuts, rashes and scabs since the start of the trail so I haven’t touched them. Only now have they healed enough to attack them with a skinny piece of metal. So smoooooth. Fancy birthday legs!

I eat a bunch of things that have no business mixing together and pay the price, lying in discomfort on the bed while watching the Olympics. I had no idea they had started! So oblivious to these strange real world happenings!

With all the chores finally done, and somehow the day nearly over, we watch sporty people doing their sports and finally fade away.