15-05-05    Day 24.    Tevas Toast

We are in the middle of The Malpias Lava Flow…. THE BADLANDS… It doesn’t take 8 miles of hiking in a lava flow to realize why no one lived there. The Zuni-Acoma Trail was a way natives crossed the lava flow. Humm, It must have been a good reason to hike the trail.  It chewed up my Tevas to the point I had no cushion left….. Not Good. We actually were happy to hike on a dirt road.

We walked north west up Bonita Canyon, with high cliffs to the east. Then turned east on a gravel road going down the tight Zuni Canyon to Grants. While it twisted and turned, the gravel ground at my feet. I took Advil to give me some relief which helped. I had enough of the trial of hiking in sandals. The best feature of sandals are that they are light, cool, dry and don’t get smelly. I can adjust the straps as my feet swell. The bad part is that the foot bed is thin and you can feel all the rocks, big and small.

As we got closer to town we realized we could make it by 6:00 pm so Grants here we come.

We made phone calls as we hiked to use our time wisely as town days are busy days. Carol and Hugo Mumm are trail Angels. Bront, my Boulder supply angel, sent a package with the next section of maps and food to them for the next section. They picked us up at the edge of town at the campground and dropped us off at the Travel Lodge to clean up before dinner.

Problem Bear, Raven, Wagon Wheel, Phil, Sourdough and the Mumms all went to WOW for a delicious dinner.  Time for bed since we have a full day tomorrow.

Grants, NM.          26.4 miles

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