We hike a few miles to NM96, then hike four miles east on the highway. It’s memorial day, Ann realizes, and there seems to be some holiday traffic. The dirt shoulder is good though, and the Ponderosa forest is pretty. The sky is clear today, but that icy wind keeps us in our sweaters.

As we start the climb up the next mesa a small calf stares at us and moos. It’s funny and noisy, so we try to talk to it in bovinese. This may not have been a good idea, because it starts following us. It circles when we stop for a rest, and follows me into the bushes when I head out for a pit stop. We’re just starting to discuss what our duties as proxy cow parents might be when a little brother calf appears from somewhere, and they wander off together.

The forest roads make for good walking, but Ann’s feet are getting blisters again. This is doubly depressing for her now that she knows what good shoes can feel like. She says that her shoes feel like they lost some springyness after getting wet yesterday. She mentions that the prospect of more foot problems makes her want to give up. I can’t blame her, and it worries me. I feel drowsy and unmotivated today, and it’s hard to keep going.

It doesn’t help when I miss a turn out of laziness and have to backtrack a ways. We make the descent into Ojitos Canyon with no more problems and camp by the creek at the bottom. Ann seems to take comfort in the babbling little stream, and I take comfort in her.