What can I say.  20 miles on the road.  Wiped my feet out.  I almost got killed when some idiot passed another car right where I was.  I was walking against traffic and this clown came up from behind.  I could feel the pressure wave as he goes by within a couple of feet.  I was so mad.  He got the finger and I shook my trekking poles as I hopped up and down.  Stupid of me I know.  I’m glad he didn’t come back and finish killing me.

Later on some latino dudes pulled over in a beat up sedan. The window rolls down and I see 4 of them in there with beers. They say “What’s up Holmes?” I grew up in LA and usually the next sentence is along the lines of “I’m gonna kick your ass” or something similar, so I’m thinking I’m toast. I explain my hike and they “That’s cool man! All the way to Canada??? You want a cervesa?” 🙂 Wow. Nice guys.

A little further a nice lady pulled up in a pickup and asked if I wanted a ride to Grants.  I told her I had to walk, and she smiled and said good bye.

A few miles from Grants I saw Grasshopper coming the other way.  He bailed the previous day and took a ride into Grants to get out of the rain.  Now he was making it up. This is called slackpacking. It allows you to walk the section without your heavy pack and gives you more time in town, but it requires two hitches. You still have continuous footsteps though so most hikers don’t consider it “cheating”.

I finally made it to the Subway 5 miles outside of town where I downed two huge sandwiches. I met a young guy there who was interested in my gear so we had lunch together and talked  for an hour or so about trail life. I then finished the last 5 miles to meet up with Pat at the hotel in Grants.

The section from the Subway to Grants follows US Route 66 which parallels Interstate 40 about a half mile away and also parallels a very busy train track which is much closer. This train track must be one of the major east-west transportation routes because it was busy with long trains coming by about every 20 minutes or so. These were loaded with containers stacked two tall, tankers, coal, and large flat railcars filled with military equipment like tanks and Hummer-like trucks. It was entertaining to watch them go past and wonder where all that stuff was headed.