[Cdt-l] Trail Angel Robin in Grants

[Melanie Simmerman]

To all CDT hikers,
I personally am so indebted to Robin at the Chamber who swooped in and saved me in Grants. I had a foot injury (turned out my left metatarsal was broken) and she drove me to the hospital, picked me up again, helped get me dinner, let me use her computer for 3 hrs, offered to help me out in any way, and got me a ride ultimately to Sante Fe where I got a bus to Colorado so I could stay with friends to recuperate.  She was nothing short of amazing and generous. If you are passing through Grants, please be especially nice to Robin, stop by the Chamber (near the Library) and say hi and thank her for her extraordinary help to hikers. I know she helped Mr. D, JB and others while they stopped in Grants. I was not expecting very much in Grants, it seemed a bit dreary, yet I got so much help from strangers - Dennis at the Sands Motel, Robin, Bill my ride to Santa Fe, and the wonderful elderly couple who run the laundromat. It's very heartening to find so many nice
 people.

I also bumped into the Thomas' at the Arch on Hwy 117; they saw me and came over and introduced themselves. I was able to personally thank them for letting us get water at the ranch.

I'm experiencing the same outpouring of generosity in Alamosa. My friends are not even home yet, and their neighbors are helping me too. It is very humbling.  

My hope is still to be able to do my flip up to Glacier in June and salvage my trip once the foot has healed. I still have to see an orthopedic surgeon and hope that this break is pretty routine and will heal quickly.  

Hi, to all my friends hiking north. I miss you all. Be safe. As I drove up on the bus from Sante Fe, I was trying to see how much snow was in the mts that are close to Chama. The bus didn't go through Chama, so I could not see what Cumbres Pass was like. I could see more snow there than in the eastern mts which only seemed to have patches up at the summits (Santa Crista Mts?), but I was not entirely sure which route was the CDT west of where the bus went (via Antonito). But, it is around 80 degrees in So. Co. and much warmer up north. I heard on the news that there is rapid snow melt and flooding in northwestern Co. which might be good for you all once you get to the northern Colorado mts.