Day 10: Nasty water! Naked hikers!

April 30: The strong winds from the day before had died down by morning, but it didn't last. By afternoon, the strong winds would resume. It seemed a little baffling to me that there weren't more wind farms in New Mexico given how constant and regular the winds seemed to be, or maybe they just aren't located particularly near the trail.

I could still get service on my phone and got updates from Addie and Pez that they both planned to resume their hikes today, and I texted Addie to watch out for the naked hikers hiking southbound toward Lordsburg. There were no naked hikers, but I felt certain that looking for naked hikers on the trail would give her something to... not look forward to per se, but something to make her day a little more interesting.

I told Evenstar about the prank, just in case Addie texted her with questions about the naked hikers. "Just play along, I told her. They allegedly passed by our campsite at 7:00 this morning."

We spent the better part of an hour on our phones trying to figure out where the reroutes ahead were. I found information about reroutes frustratingly difficult to find. Authorities knew that there were hundreds of thru-hikers passing through--you'd think they would want to provide clear information about how to get around fire closures. We had heard of a closure somewhere between Lordsburg and Silver City, but even the walking directions for it appeared to use two different routes depending on whether one was walking southbound or northbound. And it referenced landmarks and roads that I couldn't find on my maps. Argh! And there was absolutely no information about water sources or campsites along the reroutes. It was very frustrating for us. But ultimately, it wasn't something that we had to figure out today. The reroutes wouldn't affect us for another day or two.

The morning started cool, but by afternoon, the higher temperatures had resumed. Perhaps not as high as it was south of Lordsburg since the trail ascended to 6600 feet (2000 m) above sea level and we left the largely desert areas into an area filled with oak trees rather than cactus. The trail became a bit rougher and steeper as well.

A few miles after leaving camp, I reached Engineer's Well, the first reliable water source since leaving Lordsburg and I definitely needed to pick up some more water by this point. It was a little disappointing to see a dead mouse floating in the water when I arrived there, however. Nothing ruins beautiful, cold water like a dead mouse floating in it.

Yum, dead mouse water. My favorite.

There was a float in the water which, when it went down, was supposed to release water from a pump into the tank, so I pushed the float down but no fresh water came. It appeared to be broken as far as I could tell--an enormous disappointment since it meant that the only water available for taking was the dead mouse water. Yum. I'll definitely be treating this water!

Somewhere during the morning, we passed the official 100-mile marker of the trail. Well, more of an unofficial marker. And there were two or three of them as different hikers created different unofficial markers. A hundred miles down! Just another 3,000 or so left to go....

One of the 100-mile markers on the trail

A few hours into the day's hike, I spotted a javelina on the trail ahead, and this one stopped on the trail long enough for me to get a recognizable photo of it. Yes!!! Evenstar was hiking not far behind me, probably not more than about 5 minutes behind me at the time, and she missed it completely.

Javelina on the trail!

Near where the trail crossed Highway 90, there was a nice, shady trailhead with a bunch of gallon-sized water bottles tied together. Evenstar and I stopped for a rest here, a long break since we had no plans to do more than about 15 miles. We had time for long breaks.

While there, we were passed by Eagle Eye and Sweat Tea, and later passed by Kaleidoscope who reported starting the trail just four days earlier. He was doing big miles every day so I doubted that I'd ever see him again. (And I never did.)

Evenstar eventually got up to keep hiking, but I lingered back for a bit longer to hide a letterbox. I wasn't more than about 10 minutes behind Evenstar when I finished up and started hiking down the gravel road to where it crosses Highway 90 when a car pulled off of the highway and stopped next to me. A woman sat behind the driver's seat and rolled down the passenger side window to talk to me.

Evenstar takes a break in the shade at the water cache.

She told me that she maintains the water cache here and has some McDonald's fries--fresh from the Lordsburg McDonald's, a cold Coke (from a can, not from McDonald's), and some tangerines if I was interested. 

"Well, sure!" I was interested.

She got out of the car and popped open the trunk where all the goodies were stashed. The trunk was mostly filled with full-gallon water containers, but she gave me a bag with the McDonald's fries, the Coke and a tangerine.

I went back to the trailhead to the shade and sat down to eat the fries and drink the Coke right then. The tangerine I put in my pack to eat later. That would be fine storing at room temperature. I wanted to eat the fries while they were still warm and drink the Coke while it was still cold. Those had to be consumed immediately. *nodding*

An hour or so later, I caught up with Evenstar and told her about the trail magic. "Fries! A cold Coke! It was wonderful!" I exclaimed.

She retorted that she got some pretty nice food at a taco truck at the last road crossing. The thing was, I knew there was no taco truck at the last road crossing. There weren't any road crossings since Highway 90. And I suddenly realized--she didn't believe me. She thought I was yanking her chain.

"You don't believe me, do you?" I asked.

"About as much as I believe there are naked hikers heading southbound. I know you're a prankster!"

That was fair. She wasn't wrong about my being somewhat of a prankster, but the trail magic was real and I had proof: trash.

The trail angel had driven off immediately after giving me the fries, Coke and tangerine, so I had to carry the trash including the McDonald's bag that the fries came in, the empty Coke can, and the still uneaten tangerine.

Proof! Proof that the trail magic was real!

I dropped my pack and pulled it all out, saying that I had planned to share the tangerine with her, but now.... maybe not. She didn't think it was real, after all. =)

She apologized for not believing me and wanted to eat the tangerine then and there. "You can't blame me for not believing you. After all, you did convince Addie to spend the whole day looking for naked hikers on the trail!"

"Well.... you do make an excellent point, and while I might joke about naked hikers, I'd never joke about something as serious as trail magic," I said with a straight face. "Even I have some standards." Okay, I might have had trouble keeping a straight face when I said that last part. =)

I peeled off the skin of the tangerine and handed half if over to Evenstar to enjoy, then we continued hiking.

At the end of the day, Evenstar and I camped near another water source, a solar-powered well, located a short bit off the main trail. I didn't go to the actual water since I carried plenty from the water cache, but Evenstar described the water as "chewy." It didn't sound appetizing.

And that was the end of our 10th day on the trail.....

I also enjoyed the break by the water cache! =)

Day 9: The Long Walk Out of Lordsburg

April 29: After I finished fixing the last known problem on Atlas Quest, I finally packed up, checked out of the motel, and continued my adventures! It was, perhaps, 10:00am and temperatures were cool and comfortable.

Evenstar checks out a board with information about the CDT on our way out of Lordsburg.

 

Before leaving the motel, I knocked on Pez's door and gave him a bag of popcorn that I had trouble fitting into my pack. Him and Addie decided to both take an extra day off, but I had already had a double zero and wasn't anxious for a third consecutive zero day. Not this early in the hike, at least!

I had barely started my hike when I heard Evenstar shout out to me from the other side of the road. She was just leaving Kranberry's after picking up a giant cinnamon roll. She gave me a small piece of it to taste and I gave it two thumbs up. Delicious!

We walked together to the post office, both of us wanting to mail our laptops ahead to the next trail town. Mine was already packed up and ready to go, but Evenstar hadn't picked up a box beforehand so she'd just pack it up at the post office, coping the address I used on my own box for the Silver City post office.

Then we headed out of town together. We hadn't planned to leave town at the same time, but I was pleased with the happy accident to have company for a bit. I knew later on the trail, I'd be so very lonely. No reason to rush into that any sooner than necessary!

The trail followed paved roads for several miles out of town, but we missed the turnoff and walked an extra 5 or 10 minutes past it before I looked at my GPS and realized we had veered off-trail. We backtracked to the turnoff and immediately saw why we missed it. It was essentially unmarked and blocked with a barbed-wire fence we'd have to get through. The official CDT required us to jump, crawl through, or crawl under a barbed-wire fence. There was no stile or gate to help. It was an easy turn to miss, and we missed it.

The trail followed this highway out of town for several miles.

 

We crawled under the fence and from there, the trail went cross-country across a flat, open field. There was no distinct trail to follow and we relied largely on my GPS to make sure we were going in the correct direction. How did people hike this trail before the age of GPSes?!

The wind blew strongly throughout the day, and with clouds often blocking the sun overhead, it turned out to be quite cool throughout the day. I had carried a boatload of water out of town but wasn't drinking it very quickly and eventually realized that I had way more than necessary. At one point, I stopped and dumped out 10 pounds of water. It seemed like something that should have been a criminal offense in a desert, but I just didn't need much water today. I was barely drinking anything--it was by far the coolest day of the hike so far.

Evenstar and I took a short break at the bottom of a dry creek bed to help escape the wind, and it was a nice place for a lunch break. She did a little blister maintenance. I did not, however, since there weren't any for me to deal with.

Evenstar checks out the blisters on her foot while taking a rest at the bottom of a dry riverbed.

Later in the afternoon, we started spotting markers marking the trail, and eventually reached a point where an actual trail was visible once again. Evenstar was still limping from her blistered feet but moved remarkably quickly. I think the two days off-trail helped her immensely, even if she was still feeling the pain.

And we ended up hiking about 4 miles beyond my original plan, covering about 14.4 miles according to my GPS. Later in the day, when it was clear that we were far ahead of schedule and making such good time, we decided to shoot for the next water source, but we wound up coming up a couple of miles short as the sun was about to set. It wasn't a big problem, however, since I hadn't planned to reach it tonight to begin with and even after dumping 10 pounds of water, I still had plenty of water left to cook dinner and eat breakfast the next day. Dry camping would not be a problem.

Evenstar and I eventually stopped to camp at the bottom of another dry creek bed to help avoid the wind. It wasn't entirely successful, but at least it was a bit more protected than in the open.

And that was the end of another day of hiking.

Sunset from our campsite!

The trail passed under this railroad through this pedestrian tunnel under the bridge while leaving Lordsburg.

Evenstar checks out the barbed-wire fence that we had to get over, through or under. In this case, we decided to go under.

No sign of an actual trail through this desolate terrain!

Now this barbed-wire fence had a gate for us to pass through. Much easier!

The trail had been largely flat all day, but we knew we'd be heading into those mountains in the north...eventually! Tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow.

It was a gruesome discovery....

The hunt for a campsite is on!

Day 5: Blistering heat, blistering feet....

April 25: I slept well, despite the mouse running through camp during the night. At least the little guy didn't chew through any of my gear or food.

Sunrise in the morning!

I managed to get hiking by 7:00am, my earliest start-time yet! I had planned to start at 7:00am or earlier each day to get as much hiking in before the heat of the afternoon settled in, but it seemed like I always fell a little behind in breaking down camp. At least today, I finally hit my goal.

The weather forecast called for a high of 85 degrees--certainly on the hot side, but I knew it could have been much worse.

The day's hiking was largely uneventful for me. I soon caught up with Evenstar and her blisters continued to be a massive problem for her. Today, they mostly managed to pop on their own just from walking which saved her the effort of popping them herself, but they gave her so much trouble, she couldn't even get one of her feet into a shoe and walked with a Croc on one foot instead for half the day.

Evenstar hiking with one Croc due to the blisters on that foot.

Several times during the day, I managed to lose the trail but quickly realized whenever I veered off track and corrected. I did, however, use the opportunity at one point to dig a hole and poop. It seemed very unlikely that another hiker would catch me in the act when I had actually lost the trail--they would have had to have lost the trail at the same place that I did which seemed unlikely. If I tried to go somewhere near the trail, the chances of being caught on this very exposed terrain would have been much higher. =)

Throughout the day, several hikers passed us, including a second hiker named Sprout. Only my 5th day on the trail, and I've met two Sprouts. They joked that one of them should call themselves Sprout 1 and Sprout 2. Or maybe one could be Brown Sprout and the other Small Sprout to distinguish themselves from each other. (The one had a darker complexion, perhaps with some sort of Latino heritage, but that's just a total guess on my part.)

Another hiker, Sweep, swept past Evenstar and me while we were stopped under a shady tree like we were standing still. In fact, we were sitting still, but even if we were walking, I still think it would have felt like we were standing still. He started the trail only a couple of days earlier, I believe, pulling in 30-mile days for who knows what reason. It didn't sound like fun to me, but he seemed in good spirits.

Initially, my goal had been to camp near the last water cache before Lordsburg, but I later decided to stop before then because it sounded like almost every hiker who passed us was planning to camp near there and it sounded like that area might be a bit crowded tonight.

So Evenstar and I set up camp before then. Evenstar stopped before then because her feet just couldn't carry her any further. I stopped to keep Evenstar company and avoid the crowds at the water cache.

Then we set up camp and watched the sun set. I wrote in my journal and read my Kindle while Evenstar did, well, I'm not sure what she did. She might have just gone to sleep. In any case, we were done for the day!

Perhaps a warning to thru-hikers?

Definitely a warning to thru-hikers. *nodding* You can die out here!

Yum... nasty scum water. =) Today, we had no water caches to enjoy so instead we had to use stuff like this for our water supplies.

Shade! Precious shade!

More nasty cow water....

The best water of the day came from this tank. In the photo is Sprout, Paddles, Guru and... I think Fraggles and Tumbleweed? I'm actually having trouble connecting faces with names since it was so long ago I met these folks and I never really saw them again after today. They were hiking much too fast for me!

Evenstar attends to this blister on the back of her foot during a break.

Don't confuse this photo with the first one on this post. That first one was the sunrise. This is the sunset.