Days 23-28: Albuquerque Respite & Change of Course

Date: Fri May 10 - Wed May 15

Start Mile: NA

End Mile: NA

Total Trail/Alt Mileage: NA

Highlights: ukuleles, art, science, saunas, & liquor store steak

And, we’re back! Kind of.

As promised, Hot Mess and I spent the last week relaxing in Albuquerque, mostly sleeping in and laying around, trying to catch up on all those Zzzzs we had been unable to manufacture on the trail thus far.

In between sleeping and relaxing, we also explored a bit of Albuquerque and Santa Fe. We traveled through this area briefly in 2021, though mostly as a stopover en route to Arizona, so it was nice to see a bit more.

Most of the street art themes in downtown Albuquerque focus on Native American ancestry and history.

Over our week here, we entertained some diverse interests from music to science to art. It was an eclectic week.

For example, early in our week here, we went to the historic Kimo Theater for a ukulele concert. That’s right. In case you ever wondered if that was a thing, it is. The ukulele virtuoso/composer on show was Jake Shimabukuro of Hawaii - and he quickly brought to our attention that ukulele music extended beyond acoustic strumming around the campfire to the fast and complex finger work of electronic rock, his own repertoire including elements of jazz, blues, rock, bluegrass, flamenco, funk, folk, and classical. Quite the mix.

Anyway, it was actually a really good show. Since we were not previously ardent ukulele fans, we were not familiar with his name, but apparently he has collaborated with a number of more well known artists including Willie Nelson, Ziggy Marley, Jimmy Buffet, Jack Johnson, Bette Midler, and many others. Worth a listen if you want to expand your music library with a bit of ukulele.

We also took a couple hours to take part in a favorite new hobby that we picked up on our travels in Norway: sauna + cold plunge on repeat. Hot Mess found a little spa not too far from downtown which had a dry cedar sauna, cold plunge pool, and hot tub, and so we spent two hours roving between the three, sweating out all of our toxins before turning into human popsicles in the 45° cold plunge pool, then back to the sauna to thaw once again. No really, it’s very relaxing.

Immersed in the quirky, colorful artistic chaos that is is Meow Wolf.

Earlier this week, we rented a car to drive down to Santa Fe and take in a little art, getting lost in the maze of the original, very eclectic, Meow Wolf, and then slowing down a bit for a wander through the well curated Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

Wandering through the galleries of O’Keeffe’s work, much of which features natural scenes from the state, I wondered if I’d been too hard on New Mexico. While there had certainly been beautiful little pockets along our hike on the CDT, I’d also found long sections of our hike to be uninspiring. Generally speaking, I can find a bit of interest and intrigue in any landscape, but there were times New Mexico was stretching my imagination. Especially along the long road walks.

Special, Georgia O’Keeffe

New Mexico was a landscape that revealed itself to you slowly. Very slowly sometimes. Examining O’Keeffe’s abstract paintings of the state’s landscape - the mountains, trees, flowers, and desert twilights - I could understand her inspiration. The still moments she had captured and rendered across the canvas. New Mexico was a state best captured and appreciated in fleeting moments. Subtle scenes. The ‘Land of Enchantment’ unfurled without hurry or fanfare, but beauty was tucked amidst the scrub brush and rock if you were looking.

Trees in Autumn, Georgia O’Keeffe

Back in Albuquerque, we visited a museum that was a bit less abstract: The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. If you’re going to dig into this, New Mexico is the place, hosting the world’s first nuclear test site (open to the public only twice a year). The Los Alamos National Laboratory north of Santa Fe continues to serve as one of the primary nuclear weapons design and production agencies in the U.S., in addition to a number of other roles related to nuclear science, security, technology, and engineering.

The museum included exhibits on nuclear science history from early atomic theory through WWII and the Cold War, as well as modern uses of nuclear energy and medicine. There was also an outdoor area with several decommissioned military planes, a reconstruction of the Zero tower from the Trinity site, and other related military vehicles/equipment. Overall the museum was bigger than I thought it would be and I was mostly worn out after reading through the history, much of which I already knew through school, movies, books, and many other museum visits over the years.

Interestingly enough, I’ve visited the a-bomb site, museum, and Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan three times now, the first as part of a foreign study abroad in college, years later with my father as a side trip after a business trip in Tokyo, and finally in 2017 with Shawn (aka Hot Mess). Each time it hits the same. The tears really come when you see the photos of charred tricycles and children’s clothing. It is interesting seeing the events chronicled from different perspectives, though the overriding message of the museum and sites in Japan is peace and “never again”.

The remainder of our time in the area was spent doing a few errands, buying a few pieces of normal clothing, and eating some tasty meals. These included an old timey steakhouse tucked into the back of a liquor store (I kid you not), plenty of smothered burritos, and a very delicious belated birthday dinner at a ranch of lavender fields where a proud peacock entertained us throughout dinner.

Views from Los Poblanos, where we had a delicious (belated) birthday dinner.

Wait, rewind. Back up. We bought normal clothing? BUT WHY? Well, I needed something a bit nicer than hiking clothes for my birthday dinner. But that’s not the only reason. We have an announcement:

We are not returning to the CDT.

Peacock be peacockin’.

I know what you’re thinking. “But you just bought that new cook pot!” I know. I know. Fear not, the cook pot will still go to good use.

This maple caramel and butter pecan semifreddo was so delicious, I didn’t even get a picture before it was gone. Also the first time I’d ever heard of a semifreddo, which is a form of frozen icecream-ish dessert.

It was a difficult decision to quit the trail, but for now, it is the best one - really for all of the reasons mentioned in the last blog, but mostly we are a bit mentally checked out from it. It’s likely that scenery, etc. gets better continuing northward from Grants. And maybe someday we will return and see this for ourselves. But for now, we are sitting in the wrong head space to continue forward. Some of the struggles Hot Mess and I had were the same and some were different, but overall, it’s not something that we want to continue at this point.

New clothes and pretty drinks.

It’s hard for me to quit, mostly because I know that struggle - both mental and physical - is part of the journey. Is three weeks on the trail a fair shake? Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s drained us enough that we are moving on to something that excites us a bit more at this juncture. Maybe we will return to the CDT some day, either as thru hikers - restarting once again - or as dirty section hikers, picking up where we left off and abandoning it wherever it annoys us once again, as it surely would. 🤣😬

If you were here solely for CDT-related blogs, we are sorry to disappoint. This said, we are moving on to a new, very different, hiking adventure - which I also plan to chronicle daily, so if you’re simply here to read about any hiking adventure - stay tuned! We will be announcing our next journey within the next couple weeks!

Thank you all for the personal messages you have sent about the blogs - the kind words about our stories, commiserations with our exhaustion, and laughs about specific quips - all of your messages were deeply appreciated and have meant so much over this last month. We hope you will be equally entertained with our next adventure…

More to come soon!