I was up early, showered, and then down for a good Hampton Inn breakfast. I packed up my cart and checked out of the room. I had to walk about 3 miles to meet Sonya and Mickey Stovall to give them the cart. After about an hour, met them at the Home Depot , put the cart in their truck, and planned to meet them later in the day.
After turning off Hwy 70 onto Hwy 82 which would take me into Cloudcroft, I noticed a sign saying Cloudcroft was 16 miles. One of the first things I passed along the road was a pistachio tree ranch. The road was uphill but without the cart, the walk was pretty easy. I also didn't notice any shortness of breath as the altitude increased. After walking a little further, I started hearing a lot of gunfire. I walked to the other side of the road and looked down into the valley and there was a bunch of folks doingtarget practice. It looked like some law enforcement people and some regular citizens. It's a good place for target practice since there is very little chance a bullet would escape the valley and harm anybody.
After resting for a while, I started back up the hill. At about the 6 mile mark, the desert changed to forest.......as if there was some invisible line on the earth. There were all kinds of deciduous trees.....oaks, cherry, birch, and most any type we have in the East. Just recently my friend Wayne and I were discussing when the desert would turn to forest and he hit it about right.
At the 8 mile mark, I reached a little place called High Rolls. I stopped in the High Rolls Trading Post and ordered a hot dog, a fried apple pie (made with local apples), and a drink. This area is a big producer of all types of fruit.... apples, pears, cherries, which also reminded me of home. While waiting on my order, one of the women behind the counter asked where I was headed. As I was telling her about the trip, a guy sitting in a booth nearby said he was also a walker, and asked me to join him. That was my introduction to Joe Ben Sanders.
If you looked at Joe Ben, you would think he was a cowboy. He was sitting there in a black cowboy hat and looked exactly like Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn. But he is really an archaeologist and an author, and one of the most interesting guys I've ever talked to. Joe Ben did his walking looking for archaeological sites for gas and oil companies, and doing research for universities. He would sometimes walk a whole state and if he found a site, it would either have to be moved, or the company would have to relocate their project. He was a very interesting guy to talk to.
Eventually I left the trading post and headed up the road. There was an apple festival in progress this weekend, so there was a lot oftraffic . I stopped at one booth and bought a bag of kettle corn and then another booth and bought 2 pears. I left High Rolls and got back to walking. As the altitude increased, the leaves on the trees had started changing colors, and again I was reminded of home because I know the trees are changing there also. I passed a spring coming out of the side of a mountain, and I also found an almost brand new motorcycle helmet and a pair of gloves.......not sure what they were doing there.
As the altitude increased and I neared Cloudcroft, there were fewer deciduous trees and increased numbers of conifers and other evergreens. This reminded me a lot of the area around Grandfathers Mountain in North Carolina. Around 3:00 I reachedthe village of Cloudcroft, and stopped by a convenience store to get a drink and ask about a campsite for the night. I was told that tents are not allowed within the village limits and I would have to put it up somewhere outside the village . I walked over to the police department to ask if they knew any place I could set up camp. I met the Officer on Duty, David Black, and he suggested I put it up on a trail near the village which was in the National Forest........which I decided to do.
Before long,Sonya and Mickey, along with granddaughter Morgan and Mickey's mother, arrived with the cart. I invited them to dinner and we went to a local place to eat and talk for a while. After dinner, we unloaded the cart from the truck, and they headed back to Alamogordo. I headed over to the spot the policeman had told me to put my tent, set it up and got ready for the predicted low of 36 degrees tonight.
The walk today was one of the nicest ones of the entire trip. Although traffic was heavy due to it being Sunday, plus the apple festival in High Rolls, walking without the cart was a pleasure. The scenery was beautiful, and watching the landscape change from desert to forest, was amazing. I hardly noticed the climb.
After turning off Hwy 70 onto Hwy 82 which would take me into Cloudcroft, I noticed a sign saying Cloudcroft was 16 miles. One of the first things I passed along the road was a pistachio tree ranch. The road was uphill but without the cart, the walk was pretty easy. I also didn't notice any shortness of breath as the altitude increased. After walking a little further, I started hearing a lot of gunfire. I walked to the other side of the road and looked down into the valley and there was a bunch of folks doing
After resting for a while, I started back up the hill. At about the 6 mile mark, the desert changed to forest.......as if there was some invisible line on the earth. There were all kinds of deciduous trees.....oaks, cherry, birch, and most any type we have in the East. Just recently my friend Wayne and I were discussing when the desert would turn to forest and he hit it about right.
At the 8 mile mark, I reached a little place called High Rolls. I stopped in the High Rolls Trading Post and ordered a hot dog, a fried apple pie (made with local apples), and a drink. This area is a big producer of all types of fruit.... apples, pears, cherries, which also reminded me of home. While waiting on my order, one of the women behind the counter asked where I was headed. As I was telling her about the trip, a guy sitting in a booth nearby said he was also a walker, and asked me to join him. That was my introduction to Joe Ben Sanders.
If you looked at Joe Ben, you would think he was a cowboy. He was sitting there in a black cowboy hat and looked exactly like Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn. But he is really an archaeologist and an author, and one of the most interesting guys I've ever talked to. Joe Ben did his walking looking for archaeological sites for gas and oil companies, and doing research for universities. He would sometimes walk a whole state and if he found a site, it would either have to be moved, or the company would have to relocate their project. He was a very interesting guy to talk to.
Eventually I left the trading post and headed up the road. There was an apple festival in progress this weekend, so there was a lot of
As the altitude increased and I neared Cloudcroft, there were fewer deciduous trees and increased numbers of conifers and other evergreens. This reminded me a lot of the area around Grandfathers Mountain in North Carolina. Around 3:00 I reached
Before long,
The walk today was one of the nicest ones of the entire trip. Although traffic was heavy due to it being Sunday, plus the apple festival in High Rolls, walking without the cart was a pleasure. The scenery was beautiful, and watching the landscape change from desert to forest, was amazing. I hardly noticed the climb.
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