6-20-06
Start: Holly, CO
Destination: 8 miles out of La Mar, CO
Miles: 20.0
Weather: Cool Morning, Quickly Getting Hot Around Noon - High of 104!
We tried to get up at 2 am. Thankfully, we mentioned to James that we wanted to be up at that time, so he was at our tent, 2 am sharp - "Good morning ladies, is it time to get up?" So we got up and mom made coffee. A short time later, James showed up with egg sandwiches for us - how sweet! So we were on the road by 4:15 a.m. Cool, hey? Our earliest yet - and with the forecast calling for low 100's, we had to in order to get some good miles in.
We pretty much hiked hard. We were entertained by a crop-duster plane. We watched him for quite a while and caught a few pictures - what a neat job to have. We ticked off a bunch of sparrows simply by walking over the bridge they had their nests built under - oooh, were they mad! They squawked and hollered and dive-bombed our heads. Birds are just so much fun!
We got to a little town, with just about nothing but a few houses. We both needed a restroom, a minute of A/C and we hoped to top off our water. There was what looked like a granary, and a few guys in a garage talking. We walked up and asked to use the restroom - they were very nice and immediately pointed to a small trailer. We got our A/C, a soda, and the bathroom break. And on top of that, we met another trail angel - Jason. So we asked him what they did at their business, and he said natural fertilizer for farm fields - it's the "Parker Ag Poop Place." We giggled about that for quite a while.
Anyway, we were wanting a shower and needed to do laundry, but it was unlikely that we'd make it into La Mar to do that tonight. Jason offered to give us a ride and work out for someone to bring us back in the morning. We walked for about another half-hour, and Jason pulled up to get us. Thank you, Jason! We are cuddled in a very nice, very clean, and very neatly decorated motel room at the Country Acres Motel in La Mar. There's a storm a-brewin’ outside again, too. Once again, a surprise trail angel saves us from a windy night in the tent.
Our ride is going to be here at 4:30 am, and it will hopefully be cooler tomorrow. Apparently the last 7 years have been pretty much a drought around here, and 2002 was really bad, but this year is even worse. Farmers have even had to make claims on their crop insurance due to lack of water. It sounds pretty grim. We saw a sign once on the road that read "pray for rain." So far the storm outside hasn't dropped any, so we'll hope for the farmers. It should, at least be a bit cooler tomorrow.
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