We woke up at Cumbres Pass, and although I was feeling a lot better than the night before, and at first hoped I could ride, once I spent some time on my feet I realized that I was not as strong or well as I first thought. It was also complicated by the fact that I was supposed to go on another overnight packing section, and I just didn’t think that I could handle loading Takoda’s panniers the way I was feeling, not to mention that I didn’t want to have a renewed attach of vomiting and sickness that might threaten to leave me stranded again after my mother had just hiked in to rescue me the previous night. So I had to take a rest day, and since we had made reservations at Hopewell Lake in New Mexico again, where my mother was going to stay at the camp while I was riding and which was the ending destination of my overnight section, we decided to drive there and then I would ride northbound instead back to Cumbres Pass. But then another curveball appeared in our plans . . . a flat tire on the Ford. So first we had to get that fixed, and then we drove to Hopewell Lake to set up camp with the horses.

#2018CDT