Could I, Would I, Can I, Will I?
Last week we needed to go to town to get a few items that are part of an experimental project we’re working on. We wanted to see if it’s possible to cool our house using a passive system that has no motors or generators, uses no electricity or other energy source other than wind, doesn’t make noise and only requires filling with water when it runs dry. The wind part won’t pose a problem. Even on days when there’s almost no wind we get a nice breeze at night. Our home is so well insulated that overnight cooling generally lasts through most of the next day, even during the hottest times of year. It works and I’ll be posting another article with photos soon.
The wind factored into our decision…which day of wind, dust and blowing sand would be the least likely to close the road? The weatherman only had bleak forecasts, so we took our chances on Thursday. Even though there were times when it appeared we were destined to stop and wait, we were glad we went.
On our way to town, we passed a man at about the 20 mile marker, here that means it’s 20 miles from the border, who was walking south, facing traffic and had the look of a person traveling the Continental Divide Trail or other long haul, enduro trip. I’ve done quite a lot of hiking, trekking, long distance cycling, kayaking and transpacific sailing, but I had to ask myself whether I’d have the mental toughness to walk on a day when the road might disappear at any moment behind a windblown cloud of stinging dust and sand.
By the time we finished in town, it was even more doubtful that we’d get home without sitting behind a Department Of Transportation truck waiting for a break in the weather. We made it past the really bad spots with only a few inches of blowing sand obliterating the shoulders and center line.
South of the Border Patrol checkpoint, we passed the walker again. Celinda asked me if I thought we should stop to see if he wanted a ride. Having been in those situations, I knew if it were me and I’d gotten that far from wherever it was that he’d started, there would be no way I’d want a ride the last few miles, even if it meant pulling myself along by my fingernails. She asked if we should stop and see if he needed water, which made sense but by that time we were a half mile down the road. Our conversation on the subject lasted another seven and a half miles until it was decided that we should go back and ask.
When we got to where he was, we chatted for a few minutes, gave him some water, our name, phone number and an invitation to come to dinner. I had my camera with me, but I’m still making the transition from writer and photographer as two separate entities, to photojournalist. After lunch, I went back out into the not-so-nice weather to get some pictures. When Lynne got to the car where I was parked next side the road, we talked for a couple of minutes before he again headed south. About an hour later the phone rang and Celinda was off to find our dinner guest.
We talked about hiking adventures, life views, many things. Lynne has done the Appalachia Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and had left Grants, NM on the 5th of May to do his first leg on the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). His plan is to do the CDT as time permits, hoping to be able to do at least half this summer. Lynne Whelden makes videos about lightweight backpacking which he sells, plus other backpacking related items, on his website, www.lwgear.com. This trip will be on his website sometime in the future. I shared my El Camino de Santiago walking adventure across Spain and what little bits I’d done on the PCT. After a great dinner, that was filled as much with talking as eating, it was too late, too dark and too windy to set up camp at the local state park, so we offered a hot shower and the floor in the living room.
We all had a lot in common, the call of physical and mental challenges (whatever that means to us), not being dependent on someone else for entertainment, treading lightly on the earth and using the Internet to conduct our businesses.
It was a rewarding experience. We can now claim the title of “Trail Angels” and, like Donal Ryan whom I met on the Camino in Spain, we probably have a friend for life. On my 4 month, 4000 mile, solo, hike, bike and kayak odyssey, chronicled in my book Yol Bolsun, May There Be A Road, the wind was in my face the majority of the time. Could I, would I do it again? We’ll see what this summer’s new adventures bring.
Since that time, through some of my articles, we’ve been contacted by other trail angels and look forward to personally meeting them in the weeks and months to come.
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