Trekker's Log, June 6-7, 2007

6/6 & 6/7, Wednesday & Thursday, hiking days 28 & 29, Segment 18, Valle Tio Vences Campground to Pie Town: Mangas Mountain

If you look in the dictionary for a definition of “Trail Angel,” and find a picture, that picture will surely be of one Nita Larronde of Pie Town. On June 3rd we drove over from Datil to Pie Town, planning to hike Segment 18 from north to south. We had actually come off Segments 16 and 17 two days ahead of schedule, and were planning to stay at Nita’s house in town for three nights instead of just one. We had laundry to do, web log entries to submit, and other things we wanted to do.

We found the key to Nita’s trailside house as directed, and made ourselves at home. Nita arrived back from a trip to California on Monday afternoon and greeted us with hugs and a warm “Aloha!” She made sure we were comfortable, told us a few things about the house, and left for her home in the country. We learned that her house in town is there just for hikers!

On Wednesday Nita rode with us to Valle Tio Vences Campground, then took our vehicle back to Pie Town. We got acquainted and had a good visit as we rode along together.

Pem and I saw one CDT sign on the edge of the Forestry Service land through which we would start our hike of this segment. We soon figured out that this entire segment is on roads, so the hiking was fairly easy. We hiked the 29 miles in two days instead of the scheduled three, and saw the next CDT sign when we got back to Nita’s house.

All said and done, we stayed at Nita’s trailside house in Pie Town a total of six nights. What a wonderful time we had getting acquainted with a group of other great people in that village! Most notable among them are Kathy of the Pie-O-Neer Café, Michael Rawl of the Daily Pie Café, Nita’s husband Don Kearney, Tucker McHugh, Uncle River, and Mikka. There were other friendly faces, but these are the people with whom we really felt a kinship. We had dinner at Nita’s country home one evening, and Nita and Don hosted a community pot luck dinner another night. Sixteen new friends attended that dinner.