In Pie Town, New Mexico — a dot on the map best known for its pies and its position on the Continental Divide Trail — sits a house that has welcomed thousands of hikers for free over four decades. It's called the Toaster House, named for the dozens of toasters once displayed along its fencerow, and it has long been the emotional midpoint of any CDT thru-hike. Its future, though, is looking shaky.
The house was opened to trail users in the early 1980s by Nita Larronde, a wife and mother of five, back when only a handful of people attempted the CDT each year. As thru-hiking grew, so did the house's role: bedrooms became bunkrooms, extra bunks went upstairs, and hikers made it a pilgrimage stop. But Nita eventually passed away, and without her stewardship the place has struggled.
A recent account from a group of southbound thru-hikers paints a sobering picture. Arriving in late 2025, they found most of the toasters gone after what earlier hikers dubbed "Toaster Gate" — a dispute that involved the local sheriff and the removal of a supposed caretaker who was, in reality, likely a squatter. One room held ashtrays, empty bottles and blood-crusted rags. The hikers cleaned it, smudged it with sage and shut the door.
Their response says a lot about trail culture. Over several days they deep-cleaned the kitchen, bathroom and living room, sorted through mouse-chewed resupply food, set traps and even found and buried a bag of what appeared to be methamphetamine, wanting to keep the house from becoming known as a meth den. Then they played chess and Blokus at the kitchen table, wore their puffy jackets against the cold desert night — there's no heat, though the power and water still work — and reflected on a hard truth: things that belong to everyone often end up belonging to no one. Without someone actively caring for it, a place like this slowly decays.
Why does this matter to travellers? Because the Toaster House is one of the last of the great informal trail institutions — free lodging, overflowing hiker boxes, total trust between strangers. If you're hiking the CDT or passing through Pie Town, it may still be open, but go with realistic expectations and, more importantly, leave it better than you found it. These places survive only through the volunteer labour of people who use them.
For anyone planning a Continental Divide Trail hike, Pie Town remains a key resupply point about midway through New Mexico's stretch, with the famous Pie-O-Neer cafe nearby and a tiny, friendly post office handling hiker boxes. Whether the Toaster House continues in any recognisable form may depend entirely on whether the next wave of hikers treats it as theirs to protect rather than just theirs to use. Source: The Trek.
