Tuesday, May 20th

We got an early start today for two reasons, one, we had to drive 45 miles to our starting point and the other to beat the heat. We did something today that we had not done in the past. We took Jolie Blonde with us. For those who don't know Jolie, she is a 7 year old yellow lab, although she is mostly white. She is a good tempered dog and loves to be outside. The highpoint of the day may have been driving to our starting point. We have seen a few elk and antelope on our walks, but today driving to our starting point, we saw dozens of elk and antelope. And just about 30 minutes into our walk and it wasn't totally daylight yet, we spotted just up ahead a herd of antelope crossing the highway. So did Jolie Blonde. I didn't think she would chase deer, antelope or elk, boy was I wrong. She took off after the antelope and probably chased them for a quarter of a mile. She finally gave up and joined us again. We saw another small herd of elk and a lone antelope the remainder of the day. It then started getting hot and Jolie started feeling the effects of her long chase. She was getting tired. I had carried two bottles of water for her and she drank the first bottle at our first break. The remainder of the day I had to ration her water or we would have run out. Carol met us at mile marker 30 and two walkers and one tired dog was glad to see her. Fifteen miles for the day. I found a dime and a wrench. Later that day, we met Heesoo Chung. Heesoo was walking the Continental Divide Trail. I need to add here the Pie Town, New Mexico sits astride the continental divide. The town motto is, " It's all downhill from here". Heesoo is a geophysicist, is not presently employed and wasn't even looking for a job. Hiking the CDT was more important to him than any other thing right now. He needed a ride to the post office and I offered to take him and on the way I told him about what John and I were doing for Habitat. As he got out of the car, he handed me a $20. bill and said this was for our fund raising effort. Thanks Heesoo!

Also, we are parked next to Truman, his wife Cathy and Cathy's brother, John. They are all in a 5th wheel and Cathy and John are hiking the CDT also. Truman is the support team. They had a black lab, Grizzly, that played with Jolie Blonde most of the time. We explained what we were doing for Habitat and they made a generous contribution to Habitat. Thanks! We also met Nita that day. Nita was a long time resident of Pie Town, was one of the pie maker of Pie Town and owned two homes in Pie Town. She has turned her old home into an overnight rest stop for hikers on the CDT. There is no charge, the house is open, just come on in, rest, clean up and visit with other hikers. Pretty neat. Stay tuned ....