Meetup: Zero: Day 61 – Friday 9/11/2020 – 2213.0 – sunny, snow on ground, warmer. I first woke at 5:30 am then got up at 6 am as Justin stirred above me. He came down about 6:15 am and tried to start the Jeep and warm it up. But it wouldn’t turn over. OMG! The battery is dead. What did we do to run the battery down? We don’t know. We would have to wait until Ken leaves around 8 am to jump us. We are so glad Ken and the other hunters were there or we’d be totally stuck. Kind Justin made me hot chocolate and I had a pop tart. We wait wait wait. Finally Ken drove up. We tell him our battery is dead. We jumped the batteries and off we went. Just around the corner only 0.1 miles was the first hill. Ken led and up he went. Then it was Justin’s turn and he stalled and immediately realized that he couldn’t restart. The battery is dead. OMG! Honk honk. Tell Ken we’re stuck again. Justin runs up the hill and luckily Ken had a spare disconnected battery. We tried it. Nope. Again. Nope. It’s dead too. Ken and Justin walked back to Ken’s camp and came back with another battery along with some things Ken had forgotten. We tried it. Nope. Repeat. Nope. It’s dead too. As Ken carried his extra stuff up to his truck Justin went back to have Ken’s uncle drive his truck as a jump for the battery. Finally that worked. Up the hill we went. Ken lead and Justin followed. The next hill, although it looked easy, wasn’t. Ken slid off to the side. We tried, failed and backed down. We attached tow straps to Ken’s rear end and tried to pull him straight and down. As this was happening we got blocked by a small tree and he nearly slid into us but missed. OMG! We detached the tow straps. We gave it a try next and we got to the top. Yippee! Then Ken powered up the hill on the right side of the current tracks. He almost made it but stopped. He climbs out, grabs a shovel from the back and starts digging his wheels free. After with a burst of power he makes it. A little while later and further down the road he gets to the top and we get stuck in a muddy patch. Out come all our tow straps again, but wait. Ken yells to get in our Jeep because a flock of sheep need to pass. So before he can pull us up we get in our trucks and wait as one thousand sheep, several dogs and their shepherd goes by. Finally Ken pulls us up. The worst of the road ends. It’s still a bumpy muddy dirt road but there are now track to follow. Down curves and switchbacks we drive. Then we see a vehicle with a hay bale coming the other way. We’re in the lead so we pull to the side. They go by but now we’re in a ditch and can’t get out. Ken comes over and begins to dig and pack a ramp but every time Justin tries to get out he can’t. His Jeep keeps following the ditch. Finally he tries to power further along it and gets back on the road and he does. If he hadn’t then the ditch would have forced us further off road and down a hill. Whew! Finally the worst was over. Carefully we followed the forest road to the highway. Asphalt! There we wait for Ken. When he pulls up we congratulated each other and thank each other for the help. Ken said he is going into Chama NM and we offered to buy him lunch. On the way he stopped to talk to his sister-in-law Rose who owns the Chama Station Inn. We asked if she has an available room – and she does. So after a big hamburger lunch we went to our room and both got showers. Later after saying our goodbyes and thanks to Ken we leave to have pizza at the Local Local Local restaurant. Yum! A very very exciting day. And I’m so glad it’s over. I’ve come to the realization that if Cuba NM has snow anything like what we’ve been though then the hike is over. We will see tomorrow. But tonight I’ve got an actual bed to sleep on.
