Day 4: The First Trail Magic!

April 24: The wind finally died down during the night, so today was the first day with little wind. Evenstar and I woke up and hit the trail, but Sprout and Paddles hung back waiting for a friend who was going to pick them up at the road crossing for a quick trip into town to resupply.

The lack of wind, however, was not compensated with lower temperatures. Temperatures were still hitting highs in the mid-80s. I recognized that it could be worse, but it was still hot and I took breaks at every shady place I could find. Today's stops included once behind a water tank and twice under random trees that somehow managed to thrive in this harsh environment. At the last tree, I took a whopping 2-hour break during the hottest part of the day. I was in less of a rush today than the last couple of days, planning to complete only about 16 miles, which also gave me more time for breaks. Especially during the hottest parts of the day.

The terrain was mostly flat and easy. It was a little amusing to me when I heard other hikers complain about the "rugged" terrain. What would they think when they had to hike through the mountains in Colorado? It's true that the ground wasn't Kansas-flat, but compared to what we'd have further up the trail, this was be a cakewalk. The difficulty in this section wasn't the slopes, but rather the heat and lack of shade and water.

A dust devil sweeps through the cattle

 

Evenstar and I typically walked at our own comfortable pace which meant I would pull ahead, then she would catch up when I took a long break in the shade somewhere.

Late in the afternoon, I reached the fourth water cache. My initial plan had been to stop and camp somewhere near the water cache, but I revised it when I found a bucket with a note saying that there was trail magic 1.5 miles ahead. It seemed legit. Often times, I'd hear about trail magic ahead, but it was gone or ran out before I arrived, and Evenstar said that she wasn't going to get her hopes up until she actually saw it.

I believed in the trail magic because of this bucket. I figured whoever was providing trail magic would have retrieved it before leaving if the trail magic was gone. Evenstar wasn't going to get her hopes up, though. She was more skeptical!

 

But I believed there was a good chance of it still being there because of the bucket. Whoever set up the trail magic probably would have retrieved the bucket after it had ended if it had, in fact, ended. Believing in the trail magic, I pushed onward. Hoping for trail magic, Evenstar did the same.

And a half hour later, I arrived near another road crossing where Apple had set up a trail magic rest stop. It was a slick setup that included a hexagonal sphere that provided shade and lightning protection, and he had a large ice chest with ice cold drinks. Oh, cold drinks! My hero! And shade! My hero! =)

A shady oasis!

It didn't even really matter what the drinks were. Anything cold in this dreadful heat was welcome! I wound up lounging around for about an hour during which time I drank two ice cold Cokes and a Gatorade.

Cold drinks weren't the only thing on the menu, however, as Apple also provided some food. I basically ate dinner here which consisted of two hot dogs, Cheetos and a small apple pie. Apple explained that his trailname came from his fondness of providing small apple pies to hikers. He often did trail magic for people on the Appalachian Trail and the Colorado Trail as well, and as it turned out, Evenstar remembered meeting him before during her own thru-hike on the AT.

Apple said he'd been waiting all day for thru-hikers but had only seen one earlier that morning. He was about ready to pack up and go for the night when he sent out a drone to check if there was anyone coming up the trail soon and discovered me taking a break under that last tree where I sat around for about two hours. According to Apple, almost everyone hiking the trail takes a break under that tree. =) He might not have realized that I was going to sit around under it for two hours, though, and reported only seeing me. I never noticed a drone watching me, but he must have used it before Evenstar had caught up with me since he didn't know she was coming.

Anyhow, I was quite happy running into him. =) We weren't there for long before more hikers started arriving. Sprite and Paddles caught back up, this time with their friend, Guru. And not far behind them came Fraggles and Tumbleweed. It was quite the party!

A photo of me with Apple, while I was eating one of his trail-famous apple pies. =)

When I first arrived at the site, I planned to stop here for the night. After all, I got my needed miles in by the time I reached the water cache 1.5 miles back. But then all these other hikers arrived and it started feeling a little too crowded for me. They all seemed nice enough, but after more than 3 or 4 people, it started feeling a little too crowded. I didn't really want to be camped among such a large group.

Neither did Evenstar, so eventually the two of us picked up our packs and pushed onward. We didn't go far, though, mostly just wanting a quieter camping experience. I found a nice place to set up camp, and I assumed that Evenstar would join me when she arrived, but she decided to push on even further and passed me by. 

Which was fine--it just meant that I didn't need to use my earbuds while watching Netflix shows tonight. I could be as loud as I wanted. =)

When I took off my shoes and socks, I was surprised to discover a small blister on the long toe of my left foot. Where did that come from?! I hadn't even felt a hot spot when it was forming. At least it didn't hurt, but now I was left trying to think of a name for the blister. I thought I'd somehow avoid them on this trip since I was starting slow so I hadn't started the trail with a plan for naming blisters.

I was shocked--shocked, I tell you!--when I discovered this small blister on my foot. I hadn't felt any problems with my foot and had absolutely no idea it was there until I took my shoes and socks off at the end of the day.

I liked the idea of using local landmarks of wherever I was located when the blister formed, and the idea popped into my head that I could call it Apple. He was the last major landmark I saw before discovering the blister, after all, but it felt somehow wrong to name a blister after such a nice trail angel.

But the name appealed to me for a second reason--it started with the letter A. I liked the idea of naming my blisters like hurricanes. The next blister would start with a B, then a C, and so on. If I went with a fruit-themed naming system, I could call my blisters Apple, Banana, Cranberry, etc. I liked that idea.

So, apologies to Trail Angel Apple, but I named my blister Apple. =)

And that was the end of my fourth day on the trail.....

Evenstar and I play some shadow games at a road crossing early in the morning.

Evenstar looks out over the trail ahead. She doesn't seem excited or inspired by the barren terrain. Or maybe it's just that her feet are so sore from blisters.

Often times, there wasn't any real trail to follow. You just aimed for those signs in the distance.

Giant tires were often used as a way to supply water for cattle.

This particular tire hosted a hive of bees!

Bzzz! Bzzz!

It's a bird nest! Cool!

Salt lick for cattle

Another rare, shady place for a rest. I probably spent about an hour enjoying the shade here. =)

I imagine the person who put this up realizing it was upside-down after he finished and thought, "Well, crap. Ah, who cares? They can still tell they're on the right track!"

Evenstar and I enjoy a little shade. I spent about two hours under this tree. When I started, I set up at the edge of the shadow so when the sun moved, I'd stay in the shadow. Evenstar is beginning to move into the sun, though, and is putting her shoes and socks back on to continue hiking.

The fourth water cache

Shiny, reflective umbrellas were very popular on the desert portion of the trail. I could see Evenstar's shiny umbrella a mile away!

After it got dark, I had an unexpected nocturnal visitor.

Day 3: Desert Wildlife

April 23: I woke up and hit the trail. Evenstar got a bit of a head start on the rest of us, and Pez was moving a bit slower than myself, so we all left camp at staggered times. That was okay, though, since we all needed a little privacy to dig some holes in the ground that would need filling. ;o)

Pez slept on his tent after the wind tried to blow it away last night. Here, he's getting ready to leave camp.

I caught up with Evenstar after a couple of hours, and while walking together, I spotted what looked like wild hogs up up the trail. Hogs are out here?! Who knew?! Evenstar missed seeing them the first time I spotted them, but saw them later when we rounded a corner and they were still visible. They were not, however, particularly social and ran off long before we could get close enough for a recognizable photo. 

Later, while talking to other hikers and describing the animal, they said we had probably seen javelinas, an animal I don't ever remember hearing about before but apparently looked much like hogs.

Another hour or two later, Pez caught up with us, but Addie was still missing. We had assumed that we'd catch up with her sometime after leaving camp but by noon, we started wondering if she had camped out of view of the trail and we had missed her completely and she was behind us. Maybe other hikers would catch up with us and confirm that she was, in fact, behind us. 

Pez was beginning to walk a little slow and reported that his knee was hurting. There wasn't really anything we could do about it at the moment, but we suggested taking it slow and listen to his body.

The morning had been cool, but temperatures rose throughout the day until it was uncomfortably hot by the afternoon and every bit of shade was a precious resource. The wind continued to blow strongly, however, which was pleasant in the hot afternoon but an annoyance in camp.

Later in the afternoon, the three of us started drifting apart, hiking at different speeds. I took the lead while Pez with his hurting knee took up the rear. Evenstar was in the middle, but she was struggling from massive blisters on her feet. Despite the blisters, however, she still kept up a punishing pace.

We didn't expect to reach the next water cache until the end of the day, about 18 miles from where we camped the morning before. That was a little more distance that I wanted to do so early in the hike, but we really needed water! There was another water source several miles before that, however, pumped from underground for the cattle to drink. The area was surrounded by cattle who watched me like I had no business being there.

The cattle are watching. The cattle are always watching.

I kept my distance, walking around them, and rested in the shade of an old windmill. It was located next to a stagnant, ugly pool of water, but fortunately, there was a facet from a nearby tank where we could get much better, cleaner water.

While sitting in the shade reading my Kindle, I saw Evenstar in the distance approaching. She carried a large, shiny umbrella to protect against the sun and it flashed in the sunlight every time it shifted in my direction. But then I noticed her bypassing the water. This water source was perhaps a quarter-mile off the official trail, and Evenstar blew right by it. I wasn't sure if this was deliberate on her part or she just didn't realize the water was here, but it concerned me a bit as this was the one and only reliable water source between the two water caches and she hadn't picked up more water since yesterday's water cache.

So I filled up an extra bottle with a liter of water to give to her in case I could catch up and she needed it.

I took a break in the small amount of shade cast by this dilapidated windmill. Fortunately, I did not have to drink the water from that ugly pool behind it!

 

Pez soon arrived at the water and told me that he was going to stop there for the day to give his knee a rest. We chatted for a bit and I was tempted to camp with him, but I also had only so much food to reach Lordsburg so I couldn't slow down too much. And anyhow, Evenstar might soon die of thirst if I didn't arrive with some extra water for her. 

So I parted ways with Pez, but with the hope that he'd catch up again soon.

Not sure why this photo ended up so blurry, but this tank was where I got water from.

 

Another hour or so later, I caught up with Evenstar again and gave her the extra liter of water I carried. She told me that she chose to skip the water not wanting to do the extra miles off trail to reach it and that she'd be okay without it as she was rationing her water and could make it to the water cache without it. 

I told her that I wasn't going to carry a completely unnecessary liter of water and if she wasn't going to take it, I'd pour it out on the ground to save weight. I literally picked it up just for her. I had more than enough for myself and there was no good reason for me to carry the extra liter if she didn't want it.

Once she realized that she wasn't taking water from my supply, she was happy to get the extra water and not have to ration it quite so much. And I was happy to get rid of the extra weight. =)

We pushed onward, eventually reaching the third water cache of the trail not long before sunset. Two other hikers were already camped there, Natalie--who I had met before at the first water cache--and Paddles, her significant other. I was also informed that Natalie now had a trail name as well: Sprout. 

Privately, I thought that wasn't a great name only because I had met multiple different Sprouts before. As far as trailnames go, it wasn't particularly unique--but I didn't bother to say that. There's no rule that trailnames needed to be unique or special out here, and what were the chances I'd run into another Sprout nearby? All-in-all, I hadn't really been meeting a lot of people on the trail. At this point, I could still count them on my fingers.

As the sun set, Evenstar and I set up camp. Once Evenstar had her tent up, she went to work on popping her blisters--which were absolutely massive! I was stunned that they hadn't already popped on their own, and I asked if I could take photos and videotape her popping them. No problem! So I did. =)

You might have have heard of Old Faithful Geyser, but this is its lesser-known cousin, Old Faithful Blister.

 

The biggest blister, however--I'm sorry to report--I missed getting a video of. I thought I had hit the record button and gave Evenstar the signal to pop away, but when I check the video, I realized that it recorded absolutely nothing. I was heart-broken! Noooo! When she punctured it, the blister juice shot out like a geyser, arching several feet from her foot. She named it Old Faithful because it shot out so well.

But she had a second large (but less impressive-looking) blister so we tried it a second time, and this time the juice in her blister shot at me getting on my hand and camera. Come on! That was gross! I'm pretty sure she wasn't trying to hit me with her blister juices, but ewww! And I did get all that on video. *nodding*

Once the sun set, temperatures plunged quickly. It was going to be another chilly evening. Once it got dark, I pulled out my black light again and scanned the area for scorpions, joking with the other hikers that I should start charging for performing a "scorpion check" around their campsites. I imagined walking around from camp to camp and whispering, "Ten bucks for a scorpion check! You'll sleep better knowing there are no scorpions around your campsite!"

And if I could actually find a scorpion, I could trap it in a jar and release them during the night for anyone who didn't take me up on that offer that they shouldn't have refused... ;o)

Anyhow, all joking aside, I did go out looking for scorpions, but given how cold it got, I didn't think my odds were good. So imagine my surprise when, just a few minutes into the hunt, I found a scorpion! It was a tiny little thing--I'd never seen such a small scorpion before. The thing looked like it was a quarter-inch long (or about a half-centimeter). I shouted out to the other hikers that I had found one, and Evenstar came out of her tent to check it out. Sprout and Paddles chose not to.

I tried taking photos, but it just didn't work. My camera just couldn't focus on something so small in the darkness. If I moved the camera too close, it was out of focus. If I moved it too far away, it was too small to see. I took about a dozen photos but could immediately tell none of them clearly showed a scorpion. It was really frustrating for me, but the trail ran through New Mexico for over 700 miles. There would be more, I was certain.

I just couldn't get a good photo of the scorpion. It was so small and tiny! If I hadn't had a black light, I'd never have found it to begin with!

 

"Now that I've actually confirmed there are scorpions around here," I joked with the others, "I'm charging $20 for a scorpion check." =)

And that was the end of the third day of hiking. It was a good, satisfying day of hiking, but I had already lost 2 of my 3 hiking companions from yesterday.

I take a break in a rare patch of shade

Day 2: Howls in the Night

February 24: It was about 2:30 in the morning and I was dead asleep. Then.... HOOOOWWWWWLLLL! An ear-piercing howl echoed through the dark woods. I woke up immediately, the crap officially scared out of me. The howl sounded like it was coming from maybe a hundred feet away. I didn't think wolves were out here, so I wasn't sure what it was. Coyotes? A wild dog? Bigfoot?! It was nearly a full moon. Maybe it was a werewolf?!

Somewhere, something howls in the darkness....

If it was properly scared of people--and why wouldn't it be? Hunting was allowed in these woods, why did it sneak up so closely to me?  Maybe it didn't even realize I was here and just happened to howl. I looked through the dark woods but saw nothing. It was dark, but a nearly full moon filtered through the trees so it wasn't pitch black either. I held my breath and listened some more, but heard nothing but the wind filtering through the trees.

I wondered if I should shout at it. Let it know I was here and maybe scare it off--whatever it was. On the other hand, if it didn't know I was here, maybe that was the better option? Hmm... I wasn't sure what to do. I kind of wished I had my bear spray from the PNT. If I had that, I'd certainly make sure it was prepped and ready.

After the heart-attack-inducing wake-up call, I had trouble falling back asleep and pulled out my Kindle to read. About a half hour after that first howl, I heard another one, although this time is was much further away, and even more howls that seemed to answer in reply that were barely discernible. What was causing them?!

While reading my Kindle, I noticed a large shadow moving just in front of me. It was the moon casting the shadow from behind me, and I distinctly remember thinking, "I hope that's a tree overhead blowing in the wind."

I turned around and looked over my should and saw... nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was the wind blowing the trees. I went back to reading, but the moving shadow was still disturbing. It reminded me of something from a horror movie.

In all, it took me about two hours before I could finally fall asleep again, but I didn't sleep well after that.

The sun eventually rose and I had survived the night. Well, actually, the sun didn't rise per se. Grey clouds had blown in leaving the sky overcast and gloomy. I slept in late, though. Having only planned to hike about 10 miles for the day, I was no rush to get moving early and I needed the extra sleep! So I slept until about 8:00am.

 

When I finally woke and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, I noticed that my sleeping bag was inside out. It was quite warm the evening before and I hadn't actually pulled out my sleeping bag until long after dark, and I totally didn't notice the difference in colors from the inside and outside in the darkness. No harm done, but I was amused. After getting out of the bag, I pulled it through the opening by the head to make it right-side out again.

As I broke down camp, a few drops of water hit me. It wasn't rain, exactly. More like a thick fog that feels a little wet, but it wasn't foggy either. I assumed that maybe water had condensed on the tree branches and leaves above me and that's what was falling.

Anyhow, I finished breakfast and breaking down camp, then hit the trail.

Later in the afternoon, temperatures warmed up to something that I found uncomfortably warm. Not hot per se, but hotter than I preferred! Sections of the trail had puddles of water and one particularly swampy area required that I get my feet wet. There was no avoiding it! 

I took a couple of two-hour long breaks. With only 10 miles or so scheduled for the day, I was in no particular rush and took my time.

The day's hike was uneventful, though. I didn't run into a single hiker on the trail. Not a day hiker, not a backpacker. Absolutely nobody.

I finally set up camp shortly before a road at mile marker 16. I deliberately stopped short of the road. There was a bridge out ahead and I knew I'd have to follow the road for several miles on a detour around the closure, and I felt much more comfortable sleeping in the woods than along a potentially busy road.

I could hear traffic from the road in camp so I knew it was fairly busy, and I was glad not to be on it. =) But I was also far enough away that the noise from the road wasn't particularly bothersome.

The weather forecast also called for a chance of rain during the night. I wanted to cowboy camp, though, so I didn't set up my tarp. I did, however, select a location that was next to a tree I could use to tie a tarp over my campsite quickly and wouldn't pool water. I wasn't going to set up my tarp unless it started to rain, but at least I was prepared to set up my tarp quickly if needed.

And that was the end of the day. A nice walk in the woods.... =)

This bridge as a pretty big defect....

I find palmettos to be so fascinating! Like little palm trees without the trunk.

Caney Creek

Texas wants to hurt people!

Through this area, I had to get my feet wet for the first time. Very swampy!

You'll find quite a few pipelines across the trail.

This tree needed some iron, so it ate a blaze. =) (Unlike the AT and many other trails, these blazes are metal rectangles nailed to the trees rather than painted on.)

Setting up camp for the night again!