INTO GRANTS
CDT Day 22: CDT Mile 524.6 – 536.2 (11.6 miles – 18.6 km)
Wednesday May 8, 2019
So good to wake up and find that the tent is still standing and best of all it was dry. As I drank my morning coffee, I wondered if the owner of the property we were camped on uses camera drones to monitor their cow herds. Our orange Big Agnes tent would really stand out. But no one came and we packed up and were on our way around 6am. We got under the fence and back on the road.
The sunrise was illuminating the mountains to our left. The darkened skies were creating a visually stunning contrast with the sunrise lighting up the hills. It was a beautiful start to the day. And as we had only a short hike to Grants, a town where we planned to take a rest day, we had a spring in our step. We were in good spirits, miles seem to fly and the rain held off.
We could hear the traffic from the I-40 from our campsite, so it was very nice to finally cross it and see that Grants was within striking distance. As we got closer the roadside rubbish, especially alcohol containers, seem to increase. Grants seemed like a really spread out town.
We had booked at Motel 6 on the advice of yesterdays trail angel Solo. The motel is close to Walmart to shop for resupply and it had it’s own laundry. So there will be no need for us to walk long distances between town services.
Just before we got into town we met two other Continental Divide cyclists, Karry and DJ who were from BC. They were on their way out of Grants and were heading north. Hammer was super keen to check out their Surley bikes and to see their lightweight setup.
About 10 minutes before made it to the motel, the predicted rain arrived. We consider ourselves very lucky hikers today as was further proven later in the day.
We checked in, showered, did our laundry and went to Walmart to shop for our resupply.
Coming out of the supermarket it had started to rain again. Hammer was keen to wait for the rain to stop, I was keen to get back to our warm hotel room even if we got a little wet. So we went. The rain stopped, even a little bit of sun came out for a 5 minute walk back to the motel. Just as we got inside our room, the skies opened to an almighty hailstorm. How lucky are we? It was cold outside and it continued to rain all afternoon. We were two very happy hikers, we spent the rest of the afternoon warm and dry enjoying some town comforts.
