Cowboy and DJ left early this morning, and I left about an hour later. Around 9:30 I stopped near a creek for some breakfast. As I was eating a couple of hunters and a dog went by and we talked for a bit before they continued on. I was dragging a bit today and an hour later I took a short nap next to a small unnamed creek in a warm grassy spot. I also stopped several times to eat snacks. I finally got on a roll and soon caught up with Cowboy who was on a hillside updating his Instagram. I stopped and ate with him and we proceeded to hike the rest of the day together. I really enjoyed his company, and he keeps me moving a bit faster than I would if I were alone.
We came to Hopewell Lake campground where we tried to get water. The lake was full of green things and nasty filter clogging stuff so we proceeded to the campground where supposedly the camp host had a working water faucet. We asked a nice woman at a fancy motor home if she knew where the faucet was. She didn’t, but offered to let us have water from their supplies which we accepted. While filling our bottles, the men-folk drove up in a pickup with a freshly killed deer in the back. A large Hispanic man emerged from the drivers side with blood on his clothes and hands and strode over to us while others got out from the other doors. This guy had long black hair and reminded me a bit of Danny Trejo (the actor in Machete Kills). I thought to myself “Uh, oh…”
But the man was soon smiling from ear to ear and announced that they had shot an elk. He shook our hands and after we told him why we were there he invited us to stay with them for dinner. He and Cowboy have similar recreational interests so they hit it off right away. Jerry turned out to be one hell of a nice guy who likes to grow roses on their farm in Chimayo. We decided to stay even though it was a bit early to stop hiking, and we spent the evening visiting with the entire family while they cooked dinner.
They made dinner in a converted circular disk from one of those tilling machines they pull behind tractors. It has a butane tank with a burner below it in a stand – in effect a huge shallow wok. In went the chicharrones – which is cut up pork fat cubes. These rendered down for a long time. Then they added some of the chopped meat from the elk that was just shot, cubed potatoes, and salt. They laid tortillas on top of everything so they would steam and finally rolled it all up into delicious burritos.
We talked for quite a while around the campfire and I told them I would try to send them some smoked salmon. We just did 20 miles today and I’m currently camped next to the Trujillo’s trailer listening to the roar of the generator. 🥴