Up. Down.
Twisted trail. Up to the trees. Down to seeping water.
Cows.
Rattlesnake.
https://www.facebook.com/514025522/videos/a.10168529991980523/395770063431020 — video of the rattlesnake.
Not enough bandwidth to load pictures.
Tomorrow we will be in Silver City.
Today we had about thirty five hundred feet of ascent and about thirty three hundred feet of descent with our high point at 8,023 feet and our start near 6,000 feet.
We had a lot of elevation compared to the trail before Lordsburg and are now in an area with pine trees and very dry gravel soil.
Most water has come from caches or cow tanks but we are camped tonight near a seasonal creek that is currently a seep.
We had chicken that we shared with Skip. Would have shared with others but they are all Vegans. Been a beautiful day.
So much is controlled by where water is and not the normal hiking rhythm.
We arise around 5:00. Get on trail around 5:30 and hike with headlamps until the sun comes up. Then we hike and take breaks depending on where we can find water and shade.
Happy and I get stronger every day. Just taking a while.
Today we saw Skip, Skeeter, TBD & Trouble, Free Will and Pack Hauler (they have HMG packs that are 70 liters instead of the more normal smaller size) and some others.
Happy was buzzed by a hummingbird, I flicked a not-dead snake off the trail.
We had rotisserie chicken prepared by Jessie for dinner and some other food (our tortillas went bad).
Very little cell service except at the top of the mountain. The trail just kept winding until it crossed a cattle gate at the peak and then it started down.
We had our last 14 or so miles to hike in. On the map it looks like some gentle up and downs then eight miles straight down to town.
In reality there was a lot of rolling hills with PCT style traverses. We were glad to make it into town, checked in to the hotel which held our backpacks (our reserved room wasn’t ready) and went to McDonald’s.
Then we checked into the Econolodge and got our showers and laundry and had dinner at Rosita’s with a total of nine people.
The most distinctive was Fixit who is on his second CDT through hike at age 84. He has done the PCT twice and about half of the AT before he lost interest.
From the Terminus to Lordsburg they did it in four days. That is an over 20 mile a day pace to start the trail.
Today we got up early, had breakfast at 4:50 and were on the road at 5:08 am. It was a roadwalk for the first few miles but for a while the tread kept getting lost. We crawled under four barb wire fences.
Some of the water sources were dry today. We had water enough but from Engineer well to the next water is nine miles.
I’d like to do four miles tonight and then hike in early. Otherwise it is well over twenty miles today with a lot of it uphill.
May 1….
Well.
Mile 106.5 is where we ended up after starting at Mile 83 (the Econo Lodge).
The problem was all with where the water was.
I’m tired.
We had our last 14 or so miles to hike in. On the map it looks like some gentle up and downs then eight miles straight down to town.
In reality there was a lot of rolling hills with PCT style traverses. We were glad to make it into town, checked in to the hotel which held our backpacks (our reserved room wasn’t ready) and went to McDonald’s.
Then we checked in and got our showers and laundry and had dinner at Rosita’s with a total of nine people.
The most distinctive was Fixit who is on his second CDT through hike at age 84. He has done the PCT twice and about half of the AT before he lost interest.
From the Terminus to Lordsburg they did it in four days. That is an over 20 mile a day pace to start the trail.
Today we got up early, had breakfast at 4:50 and were on the road at 5:08 am. It was a roadwalk for the first few miles, still for a while the tread kept getting lost. We crawled under four barb wire fences.
Some of the water sources were dry today. We had water enough but from Engineer well to the next water is nine miles.
I’d like to do four miles tonight and then hike in early. Otherwise it is well over twenty miles today with a lot of it uphill.
