Meetup: Zero: Day 59 – Wednesday 9/9/2020 – 2213.0 – snow! I woke several time overnight as the snow accumulated on my tent. Earlier I would smack the inside of my tent to loosen the snow and have it drop off. At midnight I had to get out and hand scoop about a foot of snow from all around my tent. While doing this I accidentally tripped on my front door guy line and pulled it out. I got it back in, but it wasn’t as secure as before. At 2 am I again smacked the inside, but this time the front guy line popped out. Luckily I found the stake in the snow and replaced it with a bigger one. Using my shoe I pounded it in. At the 3:30 am I completely undressed in the freezing cold and put on my Patagonia long underwear. My feet were still cold, but I just tried to sleep regardless. Finally about 7 am I got up when Justin got up. I packed up the stuff in my tent into my backpack, but left my tent up, which now had more snow surrounding it. I sat in the Jeep trying to get warm while Justin brushed it off. We started the engine, but we needed to conserve gas so we can get out of here so turned it off. As I see it we have a few options. One, Call the hike quits – that is the hike is over. Two, wait until the snow melts and continue from here. Three, go to Chama and wait it out. Four, go to Cuba and head north. Hopefully the weather in Cuba will clear faster, because it is further south. I’m leaning on going to Cuba NM, that is, called flip-flopping. Around 8:30 am I packed up my tent and Justin closed his roof tent. Unfortunately when we put my pack in the back of the Jeep the bladder bite valve leaked and emptied its entire contents on and in the cooler and beneath. Nothing is easy today. Justin very nicely cleaned up much of the leaked cold water before he started on his own packing up chores. Finally we were all packed up. We tried to drive down the forest road. We got about a tenth of a mile and the snow made it impossible to find where the road went. So we turned around and went back to the campsite. We are now here for the next few days until the weather clears and either we can find the road down to town, or I can find the trail to move on. Justin has sent messages to family using his phone telling them we are stuck stuck stuck. I was too cold in my tent so I’ve decided to sleep in the passenger seat of the Jeep. To do this I’ve rearranged and restacked some of the plastic bins and jerry cans to make more room to recline the seat. I’ve pulled on all my warm clothes and gotten into my sleeping bag. My legs are draped over the gear shift and emergency brake so my feet can rest on the driver seat. I’m trying my best to be comfortable in our dear little cramped Jeep. Justin is again sleeping in the roof-top pop-up tent.
