This morning we woke up bright eyed and ready to climb to the infamous town of pie. We all knew that by the end of today we would be at our highest elevation of the trip. What we were not expecting was a strong head wind in addition to an entire day of climbing. I think that it is safe to say that this was among the most difficult of our days. Although it was a very hard day it was also very beautiful, we spent the day climbing through mountain passes in areas where there are no homes or towns for miles.
Even though it was a difficult day there were some attractions along the road. The first was the Very Large Array, it is a series of radio telescopes in the middle of the desert. The second was that we crossed the Continental Divide at the very end of our day!

Now a little bit about Pie Town. We all have been talking about this town since the beginning of our trip, as a town named after pie we were all intrigued. Pie Town has a population of sixty people. The only way we really knew that we had entered a town was the small post office and a series of pie shops (which were all closed). As it turns out Pie Town is on the old transcontinental highway and there are hikers that stop here along their way. In fact the house that we are staying in, called the Toaster House by the locals, is a guest house of sorts for people on this type of journey. The Pie Town Community Coalition cooked us a fantastic dinner and provided a great breakfast for the next morning. They were a great group of people who are really dedicated to making their small town all that it can be. The Daily Pie Café also donated many pies to our dinner!


From Pie Town!
Kristi