Taos to Eagle's Nest, NM

This was one of those days....and I haven't had many of them. But I gotta tell you that when I woke up at 4:30 and heard the wind outside, looked out the window and saw sand and snow blowing around – went outside and felt that slap up against me I was like...oh man...18 miles in this? It was Arctic.

But after having a quick little whine I settled in to it.

We were talking as we were preparing for our day – getting our cold weather gear together – pumping ourselves up. After stomping around a bit someone usually mentions the Northern Route and how they dealt with cold constantly and how we've really had blessed weather throughout. Then someone mentioned prayer ... today will be a good day for prayer. Of course, any day is a good day to pray...but sometimes, when one is challenged – that is when the call for strength from your ancestors, your Creator, your Goddess...really can help get you through. And we've mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again...all the people..hundreds so far at least, that we have met and shook hands with and ate meals with, prayed with...whenever we get tired we look to those faces too. All the people who have greeted us, asked us to walk for them...take up their cause, hear their words, they help push us a little further along, stand taller and remember why we are walking.

So we set out...and you know, it actually was a very pleasant walking day. The snow was kind of fun...it was dry, not to sticky...light flurries. It wasn't very cold, even when we stopped for breaks. And the kicker was...the wind stayed mellow for us.

And by lunch time? Sunny skies.

So it wasn't the weather that ailed us after all on this day. But, there were those last 5 miles of hills that worked some folks over, including myself. I was still chugging along at a good stride at mile 16 – but those last 2 plus were a workout. We took our last break a mile and a half before the end and everyone..(except for maybe Jun-san) groaned as we saw this mile long climb we were about to do.

Like I said, it's one of those times when you have to just kick it into gear, your lowest if you have to and just push it on through.

So, we put on our packs, took some swigs of water, some bites of whatever we had and tackled our last mile (mile 18) uphill. It was a beautiful thing.

At the closing circle, Wounded Knee said he was proud of our walking day – and that a couple had pulled over to the side of the road, asking if there was anything we needed. Wounded mentioned that Patrick hadn't had any coffee yet today – and so they went back to their town of Questa (where we were heading through) and the Fire Chief turned over the station house to us for a bit to feed us juice, water, chips and hot dogs!!! Thank you town of Questa!
We were all pretty wiped, but in good spirits as we climbed aboard the Bus and headed towards Eagles Crest...about 40 miles away. Here's Kid Valance to talk about how his portion of the run went for him.

“My start was just before the village of Red River and I got to run along their main street. Then the route cut uphill for four solid miles – topped out at Bobcat Pass. 9,820 feet. Then it was fast downhill for my next 10 miles which was highlighted by a herd of at least 300 elk crossing the road in front of me. It went from blowing flurries to bright sunshine off and on., It was a cool run, a good run a very powerful run.

Thanks Kid and all the runners for crossing that pass. We took the bus up it and gave you all a shout out – I gotta say...you probably went faster than the bus!