Day 13: Silver City Arrival! Civilization, at last!

May 3: I slept well during the night, but the traffic on Highway 180 started picking up around 6:00am which woke me up and encouraged me to get going. I was surprised at the amount of traffic so early in the morning. So I got an early start, anxious to get this road walk out of the way and into Silver City.

The walk itself was quick. I only had to do about 8 miles into town, and along the almost entirely flat road with a pack light from the lack of food and water, I made good time. The only real event of any note at all was the fact that I passed over the Continental Divide, marked by a big sign telling me that the elevation was 6,230 feet above sea level.

The morning's road walk took me over the Continental Divide on my way into Silver City.

On my way through town, the route I took happened to go directly by the hiker hostel. Evenstar had texted me that she arrived the night before and was staying at the hostel, so I texted her from the outside that I was passing by and she came out for a few minutes to chat.

She reported that she had already been to the post office and her package had yet to arrive, but it was expected to arrive with the 11:00am shipment--another hour or two away. Since we had both mailed packages from the same post office to the same post office at exactly the same time, it seemed likely that our packages were hanging out together and therefore my laptop hadn't arrived yet either. Oh, well....

I continued onward, but stopped at the post office anyway to pick up stamps and mail some postcards, but since I was there, I asked them to check for my package and--surprise! It had arrived! Yea! I had figured I'd have to backtrack and return later in the day to get it, so I was happy that was no longer the case and texted Evenstar about the package's arrival. Perhaps hers was ready for pickup as well.

From there, I continued onward toward the Motel 6. It was still way early in the morning, though, and definitely way too early for check-in, but there was a Denny's restaurant a couple of blocks before the motel so I figured I'd stop there for a brunch first.

That was a fiasco. I think they were severely understaffed, and the check-in process was a disorganized mess. It appeared that they had two different waiting lists for people wanting to eat. Not sure what the difference between the two lists were, I put myself on both of them. The wait for a table took about 40 minutes, and it might have been even longer except several groups got tired of waiting and left before they were called. (Which, of course, slowed things down as the wait staff called out names of missing groups before giving up and going on to the next name.)

It was frustrating and I was tempted to leave myself, except I was on foot with a heavy pack and carrying my package from the post office which was too big to fit in my pack. My options were limited to something nearby, and there just wasn't anything in easy walking distance. Easy walking distance, in this case, meant about 5 minutes. I just did not want to walk anymore.

So I waited it out, and eventually got seated. By then it was so late, though, I didn't feel like eating late breakfast, but rather an early lunch and ordered a sandwich instead of the pancakes I had been hankering for.

Lunch at Denny's! I like that my pack had its own booth to sit in. =)

I enjoyed the meal, but it was lonely without my trail family. I had a lot more fun at the Denny's in Lordsburg! Oh, well... With my tummy filled and content, I then wandered over to the Motel 6 to check in. It was still hours before the official check-in time, but I hoped I could check in early. At this point, I didn't really have anything else to do.

No rooms were currently ready, but they told me they'd have one ready in about 20 minutes. So I waited outside and surfed the web on my phone to kill time until my room was finally ready.

Once my room was ready, I immediately jumped in the shower to clean up and later in the afternoon did my laundry in the coin-operated machines available at the hotel.

The only time I left the hotel was to walk down to Albertsons for some dinner and snacks.

My home for the night! When I checked the prices online, it was only $40/night! It was an offer I couldn't refuse.... Which is why I decided to stay here rather than the hostel where Evenstar was staying.

Evenstar texted me that her maildrop had somehow ended up in Industry, a city in California! California?! Why did they send it there? It literally just had to go up the road a few dozen miles, but it somehow ended up in an entirely different (and un-adjacent) state.

So Evenstar was a bit miffed about her package going astray and seemed to feel it was totally unfair that my package had arrived safe and sound. They were supposed to be hanging out together! How did they get separated? We may never know....

The good news, however, was that they expected the package to make it back to Silver City at 9:00 tonight. The post office, of course, would be closed, but she should be able to pick it up again in the morning. But will it really be there...? We'd just have to wait and see... =)

I got another update from Addie as well who texted me that fire officials had allowed her through the area closed to prescribed burns as long as she made it through by Wednesday. (It was Monday today, so totally easy for her to do.) I was so envious! She didn't have to detour off the trail at all! She didn't think she'd make it into town today, though, since it would have required something like a 30-mile day of hiking for her.

None of us were entirely sure about Pez's whereabouts since he didn't have a phone with a SIM card that would work in the US, but we hoped his knees were doing better and that he'd arrived in town soon. Addie had hiked out of Lordsburg with him, but they had since hiked at their own pace and parted ways so could no longer provide updates about him. 

And that was the end of another day on the trail....

Sunrise during the road walk into town

Silver City--the second trail town of the CDT!

What a neat building! I had no idea if it was even occupied--it looked a bit run down, but I really liked it. =)

Downtown Silver City!

Day 12: The First Fire Detour

May 2: I woke up bright and early to hit the trail. The trail only lasted a few miles, though, since it was closed where it normally crossed Red Rock Road just three miles ahead. A prescribed burn was ongoing and yellow tape blocked the route.

Once I reached the road, my trail maps were worthless. They had no information about the reroute. I pulled out my smartphone and used Google Maps to check the route. I entered in a route for the Motel 6 in town, and Google reported back that with 26 miles away. With the three miles I had already done this morning, it meant I could reach town if I hiked 29 miles today. That wasn't going to happen, though. My longest day so far was only 17.7 miles, and I definitely wasn't ready for a 29-mile day yet! But I'd push on as far as I could and see where I ended up.

There was a water cache here. I wasn't sure that there would be anymore water until I reached town, so I filled up with a bit more water despite having several liters already. Better safe than sorry! It was a shame that Evenstar detoured off the red line when she did. If we had known definitely that there would be water here, we could have both easily have reached this point with the water I picked up from Mud Spring. Oh, well.

Water cache at the fire closure!

A big, orange sign at the road warned "Fire in progress," but I didn't see any evidence of an active burn. No smoke, no flames. But the area on both sides of the road were charred black, so it didn't seem to me like they had done a very good job of containing the prescribed burn.

Evidence of the prescribed burn was on both sides of the road, but I didn't see any evidence that it was actively burning today.

The first 4 or 5 miles of the gravel road weren't too bad and there were very few vehicles.

But then the road turned to asphalt and became busier. Not busy, but busier. The asphalt was terrible for walking on, though, and I still had 20 miles into town. Ugh.

I followed the road. The trees faded away and the heat increased as the road slowly descended in elevation. Shade become more and more sparse as the temperatures ratcheted up. Why does that always seem to be the case?

It was a generally uneventful walk. One woman stopped to offer me a ride, but I turned her down. She had thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail years earlier and understood my desire to keep my steps connected.

The low point for the day arrived in mid-afternoon, near the intersection of Red Rock Road and Mangus Valley Road, which also happened to go by what looked like an old mine. I couldn't tell if the mine was still active or not. Nothing about it looked like it was actively being worked, but the huge piles of tailings suggested that there had certainly been a lot of mining nearby at some point.

I followed Mangus Valley Road onward to Highway 180, which was a moderately busy highway and definitely the least pleasant section of the day's walk. Somewhat ironically, it was actually the official CDT. The fire closure detour was officially over once I reached this highway.

I stopped at the intersection next to a large tree that provided ample shade and someone had put in a small water cache. I wished I had known about this water cache earlier--I wouldn't have carried so much water if I knew about it--but it did allow me to guzzle an extra liter that I would have rationed otherwise.

Another water cache! Sure wish I knew about this earlier.... You can also see Highway 180 crossing over the bridge in the background.

 

While resting there, a tumbleweed suddenly rolled up and attack me! I'd been watching tumbleweeds roll hypnotically through the landscape all afternoon, but this one rolled right up to me and positively decided to go on the attack. I beat it back, eventually picking it up and throwing it off on the other side of me where the wind picked it up again and continued pushing it through the landscape. Stupid tumbleweed. *shaking head*

I was tempted to stop here for the day. It was actually a pleasant spot despite the nearby highway. I was pretty well hidden from both the highway and Mangus Valley Road, I had shade and water, and I had covered a decent chunk of trail already. But I also wanted to push on further and get a little closer to Silver City before calling it quits for the day. The road walk, although hot and miserable, hadn't been physically difficult for my feet. But I risked having to use an awful stealth camp next to Highway 180 if I couldn't find a good place to camp before it got dark.

I decided to take my chances, though, and pushed on after a short rest.

As the afternoon passed, the smoke and haze in the sky increased. At least I suspected it might be smoke, perhaps from the prescribed burns? Maybe it was the wind blowing up dust, though. The winds were quite strong and steady. Visibility was definitely falling throughout the day.

As sunset neared, I started looking for a place to camp, and eventually found a place that I really liked. It was down in a river bed that passed under the highway, making me completely invisible to passing traffic. The ground was level and clear, and the depression provided an excellent windbreak from the strong winds. The location wouldn't have worked in a heavy rainstorm, however, since it was at the bottom of a dry creek bed. Flash floods would be a real threat if there was any chance of rain. But there wasn't, so I camped there. =)

In camp, I discovered that I had another small blister on my foot. I named it Banana. It was too small and deep for me to pop, but this one I felt was a good idea to keep an eye on to make sure it didn't get worse.

And, for the first time on the trail, I didn't see another hiker the entire day. 'Twas a lonely day on the trail....  But I did have a cell signal for most of the day so I was still in touch with Evenstar and Addie. (Pez didn't have a sim card yet that worked with his phone, so he would be out of touch until he reached civilization.)

And... I shattered my longest day on the trail, having completed 21.9 miles according to my GPS. My first 20-mile day of the trail! But I was still about 8 miles from the Motel 6 where I planned to stay. I was anxious to get into town bright and early tomorrow. =)

My campsite for the night! (I'd set up camp on some dirt near where you see my pack.)

Oh, no! Not a fire! Not that I actually saw any evidence of an actively burning fire....

This is definitely a result of mining activity, but I couldn't actually tell if there was an actively-running mine nearby.

Flooding was not a problem today....

Temperatures actually felt quite nice sitting in the shade, but it felt miserably hot in the sun!

Just 10 miles to town! Almost there! Tomorrow....

That small blister near the back of my foot? I named him Banana. =)

Day 11: The Burro Mountain Traverse

May 1: When I woke up in the morning, I was a little surprised to find the temperature actually felt warmer than when I had fallen asleep the previous evening. It didn't bode well for the afternoon temperatures today!

But I had a plan for that. Today, I would pass over Burro Mountain which required climbing a couple of thousand feet up and temperatures at such high elevations would be cooler. Right? So that was my plan. I was going to go up Burro Mountain.

Some of the animals I spotted on the trail weren't particularly interesting....

It was a long, slow slog up the steep slopes. I moved slowly as temperatures seemed to soar. Evenstar seemed to struggle with it as well. We were in it together.

The vegetation changed as we climbed, eventually becoming a thick forest. Through gaps in the trees, we could see wonderful views. Except, perhaps, for an ugly open-pit mine toward the east. I wondered what they mined there. The logical guess would be silver since it was near Silver City, but for all I knew, the silver that Silver City was presumably named for could have been mined out years ago and now some other resource was being extracted. Later, when I got online and checked, it appeared that the main mineral they were mining now is copper.

Open pit mines are horrible eyesores, but I find them immensely fascinating and constantly wanted better views of the one to the east, but too many trees usually blocked the view!

It's an open-pit mine in the distance!

Just past the summit, the trail reached a wonderful overlook, so I stopped for a much needed rest. High in elevation, the temperature even got cool enough that I found myself craving the sun for warmth.

I wound up spending an hour or two at the viewpoint. I napped. I snacked. I checked email on my phone. Evenstar eventually caught up and took a short break as well, but she continued onward without me, saying that she knew I'd catch up later.

During my break, a couple of other thru-hikers passed by without even stopping to admire the views. I found this oddly weird. Why were they even out here if they weren't even interested in the views? Granted, I didn't expect them to stop for hours like I did, but it was the best view of the day by far. You'd think they might have stopped for five or ten minutes to enjoy the view. But I didn't worry about it too much. Not my problem. =)

Enjoying the view from Burro Mountain

Eventually I did pick up my pack and continue down the other side of Burro Mountain. Just as I was leaving, another thru-hiker arrived who introduced himself as Fugitive. When I introduced myself as Green Tortuga, he asked, "Did you hike the PNT in 2019?"

Well... yes, as a matter of fact. I did! How did he know this? I knew I hadn't met him on that trail. I met only one other thru-hiker that entire trail and I knew it wasn't him. He wasn't sure if he remembered me from trail registers or my posts on the PNT group on Facebook, but somewhere he had seen my name and remembered it. So we chatted about the PNT for a bit. Not my favorite trail--at all! But Fugitive said that he loved the bushwhacks. Definitely a crazy man! =) I usually didn't mention that I had thru-hiked the PNT since so few people have done it or are familiar with it. And there's probably a part of my brain that would prefer to forget that I ever did it.

The next reliable water source on the trail was Mud Spring which wasn't very far ahead, but it was located a bit off the trail and I walked by it without noticing. I had to backtrack several minutes to the spring when I realized my error, which annoyed me to no end. It was literally no more than a few minutes of backtracking, but any backtracking at all felt like pure torture.

This spring was also the last reliable water source that I knew about until I arrived in Silver City... two days from now. I wasn't even entirely sure how far away Silver City was located since I would have to follow reroutes around an area closed for prescribed burns. Not knowing for certain that there would be anymore water up ahead, I filled up with an astounding 7 liters of water. It was miserably heavy. Water weighs 2.2 pounds per liter, so that was an extra 15+ pounds of weight on my back. Despite the unpleasant name of Mud Spring, it was actually a pretty nice water source and the water wasn't really muddy at all.

Don't let the name fool you. Mud Spring actually had some pretty nice water.

I staggered down the trail under the extra weight. At least I hadn't planned to walk much further today. After cooking dinner and eating breakfast tomorrow morning, I'd knock at least a couple of liters off my back before tomorrow's hike.

About 15 minutes later, I saw movement to my left out of the corner of my eye and looked in that direction where I spotted something that looked red like a fox, the size of a beaver and a large, bushy trail as long as its body. It was running away, however, so I couldn't see its face and I only got the shortest of glimpses. I wasn't sure if red foxes were out in the wild here, but I knew about Coatimundis and thought it could very well have been one of them. Did I see a coatimundi?! I wished I had been able to see it's face clearly and made a positive identification, but if it wasn't a coatimundi, it must have been a red fox. From what I could find online, though, it appeared that this section of trail was a bit outside of their territory, so I'm leaning toward coatimundi.

Anyhow, excited about seeing a probable coatimundi, I continued onward, eventually catching up with Evenstar again. She was sitting next to a dry creek bed and informed me that there was a horrible, muddy puddle of water a bit upstream, but that the spring was dry.

I didn't much care--I already had 7 liters of water on my back. Didn't she get water at Mud Spring as well? Turns out no, she had missed it. In fact, she had thought that the muddy puddle she found up the dry creek was Mud Spring.

No, I told her, it was a couple of miles back. Evenstar hiked with a GPS, but it wasn't attached to any maps, and the devices that had maps of the trail wasn't attached to any GPSes. She had all the tools every other hiker on the trail had, but they were on two different devices which made using them together impossible, which is how she ended up here not even realizing that she had passed Mud Spring miles earlier without even realizing it.

And her GPS had some strange ideas of its own anyhow which just muddied the proverbial waters even further. Her GPS would report that we covered 25+ miles on a daily basis even though we actually only covered about 15 miles. One day, it reported over 30 miles. It had become something of an ongoing joke at the end of each night for me to guess how much her GPS reported that we had walked. ("At this pace, we'll be done with the trail in a couple of weeks!") Which all helps explain how Evenstar had blown past Mud Spring by a couple of miles without realizing it.

Note about trail closures ahead due to prescribed burns

But unlike me who only had to backtrack a few minutes to the spring, she was already a couple of miles beyond it--definitely more backtracking than she wanted to do. And she definitely didn't have enough water to get to Silver City.

I would have shared some of my water with her, except if there was no more water before Silver City, I would probably be running out by the time I arrived in town myself. I really didn't have enough to share.

That was, of course, assuming that there were no water sources before reaching town. Just because I didn't know of any reliable water sources doesn't mean that there weren't any.

But we formulated a plan B for her. And a plan C. There was a road crossing ahead that had Guthook comments about a water cache being there. At least there was water there a week earlier. Hopefully there was still water at the cache and she could just fill up. That was plan B. (Guthook is an app that takes  the entire set of tools needed for thru-hiking—a map, compass, guidebook, and water reports—and consolidates them into a single virtual location. It has become the go-to app for thru-hikers.)

If the water cache was empty (or gone), the next option was to hike out to the Old Burro Homestead for water, a mile or two down the gravel road. It actually sounded pretty nice, where hikers could take showers, buy food that they hadn't carried on their backs and so forth. We were trying to stick to the "red line" as much as possible--the main CDT route on the Guthook app was marked with a red line so we often called the main CDT the red line route--but the homestead was off on an alternate. Then, she could either backtrack back to the red line from the homestead or follow the alternate all the way through to Silver City by following Tyrone Road to Highway 90 and road-walking the rest of the way into town. 

That was plan C. There would definitely be water for Evenstar at the homestead, though, so we didn't make a plan D. 

This water cache was just before the climb up Burro Mountain. Evenstar was hoping to find another one a bit further up the trail which would allow her to stay on the red line a bit longer.

 

We continued onward, eventually reaching the gravel road with the possible water cache but found no water. I set down my pack and searched behind random trees in the area for hidden water, but came up empty. There was no water. It was down to plan C--Evenstar had to go to the homestead.

I was still inclined to stay on the red line as long as possible, though, so we parted ways here promising to meet up again in Silver City. I said, "Let's do lunch in Silver City," a throwback to my having said that about Lordsburg when we ended up spending 6 hours with Pez and Addie for lunch. Then jokingly added, "Last one to Silver City has to pay."

I was joking, and Evenstar laughed, but the alternate she was taking was probably shorter than the route I'd be taking so there was a good chance that she'd beat me into town and I wondered idly if I was now going to be on the hook for buying her lunch. She was disappointed about taking the alternate, however, wanting to continue on the red line like I was.

So we parted ways, and I continued on a few more miles before stopping near another crossing of a gravel road. It wasn't a particularly scenic or inspiring site and was surrounded with cow patties, but it would work.

And that was the end of another day!

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! =)