New Mexico license plates say the “Land of Enchantment” and for us as snow weary hikers dropping down from the Colorado high country it has certainly rung true.We worked our way south across the mesa tops, lava fields and arroyos the past couple of weeks enchanted by the fiery sunsets, Anasazi pot shards poking through the sandy soil, and the by the warmth of the locals.
Our re-supply truck broke down on a Saturday along a remote lava field. With a few minutes a rancher had stopped to help, called a friend an hour a way who left a family gathering to come out and haul our truck and find an alternator to get it up and running again. While the truck was being fixed we continued south along the jeep roads towards Pie Town NM.
Speaking with a woman who had a ranch along our route and remaking at how amazed we were about the amount of ancestral puebloan artifacts we were seeing as we walked cross country on the mesas, she invited us to explore an undeveloped puebloan site that was on their ranch. We hiked the 7 miles or so following her directions and found a pueblo that was last occupied possibly 800 years ago and had up to 1000 occupants. Intricately painted pots, arrow heads, walls, and rooms, whispered mysteries of the past occupants.
The day of our arrival into Pie Town (population 50 or so) was October 31st, and being well prepared trekkers we had hit the thrift stores in Chama and Cuba and were decked out in full Halloween costumes fitting for the occasion. The folks at the local café had been warned by who knows how many ranchers of our impending arrival. The pie was great, but better yet we met Nita. Off we went to her house and a few hours later we were showered, laundered, fed, filled of good stories, toured around town (to trick or treat) and feeling very loved and blessed.
350 miles to the Mexican border, and it’s starting to feel close.
