Day 1 - Fresh Off the Couch

Date: Thu April 18

Start Mile: 0

End Mile: Road/Water Alternate mi 3.6

Total Mileage: 17.4 mi

The Highlights: shuttle to the border, trail misery, beautiful sunset

This morning we were up early once again. Packs hefted on our shoulders, we walked through the dark morning. The occasional street lamp splashed into the street. Dogs barked.

Checking in for the shuttle, we met the hikers Mogul and Pungo. Mogul was from Pennsylvania (Philly?) and was on ski patrol, hence the name. I believe there was also a double-meaning to the name, but I missed or quickly forgot this.

Pungo was from… Pungo, which we only happened to know because it is a small community near Virginia Beach, where we had each lived for 10-15 years. Located out in the sticks, away from traffic, it was an area we had cycled a lot.

Once everyone was checked in, around 6:30a we loaded up the shuttles, which were two pick up trucks. There were nine hikers taking the three hour journey to the southern terminus this morning, including ourselves.

Ready to load the shuttles.

Shawn and I hopped in a pickup with Pungo, Losa, and Scout - the latter two of which we’d met on the bus yesterday. All of our gear was loaded in the back of the truck and covered by large stretch tarps to keep away the dust, a practice that was gracious though ultimately probably unnecessary since my pack would be covered in dust by the end of the day anyway.

Our shuttle was driven by Danny, a friendly guy that worked for the CDT Coalition. While the CDTC was headquartered in Golden, he’d come down here to help with the shuttles for the season.

Along the drive, Danny chatted about the trail and asked us what other trails we’d done. As we made our way south, he pointed out some of the water cache boxes that could be seen from the road. Whatever airwaves he wasn’t filling with useful information, Pungo was filling with … other information.

Quite the chatterbox, I think the entire truck was surprised when he mentioned his hiking buddy Mogul, saying “that guy will talk your ear off.”  Really.

I tried to imagine the two of them walking down the trail together, neither able to get a word in.

Driving toward Big Hatchet Peak

At one point, bears came up. Danny said that we should definitely carry bear spray when we entered grizzly territory. Don’t mess with grizzlies. Then he mentioned that there was a grizzly fatality last year. “A trail runner, not a hiker. That’s why I don’t recommend running.” lol.

About 45 minutes into the ride, we made a quick stop through Hachita, the last town before the border. Most everyone grabbed a small homemade breakfast burrito here, the last town food we’d have in several days.

Back in the truck, we trundled on.

Danny pointed out Big Hatchett Mountain, noting that he wished he would have climbed it back when he did the trail and encouraged us to bag the peak if we had time. I don’t think anyone in the truck intended to do that. One of the nice things about starting in New Mexico is the beginning miles are relatively flat. We planned to walk our way into fitness and that walk did not begin with a mountain summit on day one.

About an hour in, we turned off the highway and onto dirt road for the final two hours of the journey. “Is the road maintained by Hachita or the federal government…or…”, Pungo trailed off.

“This is BLM land, I think. But the roads aren’t maintained.” Danny said. “You’ll see.”

The ride had some ruts and bumps, but overall it didn’t seem that bad to us. I had braced myself for what I thought would be a horror show of a drive, so this was a nice surprise.

Tim provides us with a brief water cache tutorial.

Around 7:30a, we made a pitstop by the first water cache box on the trail, which would be around mile 14 of our hike. The first section to Lordsburg (around 84 miles) are dry desert, with only occasional water sources - mostly livestock troughs and cisterns - though they aren’t always reliable. For this season, the CDTC and volunteers maintained five water caches, housed in bear boxes through the BLM land. Each bear box contained a number of large jugs of water as well as a trail register to sign. Some also had misc other items like sunscreen and hand sanitizer.

Here, Tim - the driver of the other pick up shuttle, provided us with a brief tutorial on how to fill our water bottles.

“It’s pretty simple shit, but people keep fucking it up, so I gotta tell you.”

I liked Tim’s no-shit dry sense of humor. He was a bit of a legend at this end of the CDT, helping out with shuttles in the spring and providing most of the pick ups for southbounders later in the fall.

Indeed it was quite simple. If you can’t fill water bottles and get the jugs back into the boxes properly, this adventure may not be for you.

After bumping along the road for a while, a couple hours later we would clamber out of the trucks one more, this time at the Crazy Cook plaque, the namesake of the southern terminus of the CDT.

Here Tim regaled us with the brief story of the how this area got its name. Basically there was a work camp here in the early 1900s. Each work camp had a cook. As the story goes, in 1917 a fellow named Frank Evans made the unfortunate mistake of grumbling about the food and ended up with an axe in the face, compliments of the chef. Hence the name Crazy Cook.

Not far down the road from the plaque commemorating this misfortune, we reached our final destination: the southern terminus of the CDT.

April 18 hikers, ready to head out. From left to right: Pungo, ? (don’t know), Butters, Hot Mess, Mogul, Guru, Recharge, Scout, Losa.

Like the other long trails, this was marked by a very nice monument. After a group photo, we each got individual photos to mark our start. Hot Mess and I also paid a visit to the U.S./Mexico border, basically just a flimsy wire fence here.

U.S./Mexico border.

After a bit more chatter and photos, everyone set off on their own time. Already 9:45a, we were anxious to get going before it got too hot. And so, we set off into the scrub, mountains in the distance.

Our day of hiking would alternate between trail, gravel road, and - the worst - dry river beds of rocks and thick sand, which was hard on the feet, a bear to walk through, and a real energy suck in the heat.

I too feel like a dead cow.

The day in general would prove to be an energy suck… and a good reminder that a lot of thru hiking is about managing misery, particularly at the beginning. Everything was sore, especially my neck and back. The sun was roasting my legs and any other skin it could get its shiny little rays on, and my feet felt like they were melting into my shoes.

Occasionally we passed some trees that were throwing enough shade for a cool break, and finally, a little after 1pm, we decided to post up under one for a lunch break. This particular tree had actually been marked on our mapping app, that’s how important shade is in the desert.

A shady spot for lunch and examining my life choices.

Not long after plopping down under the tree, Guru arrived. We had been playing leapfrog all morning with him, Recharge, and Pungo, whose names and stories we were slowly collecting.

Guru was from the Albuquerque area, the CDT practically passing right through his backyard, a huge part of his motivation for being here. He’d hiked the Colorado Trail before, but this would be his first longer thru hike. He was hiking ultralight, his pack the size of a school backpack. I was too afraid to ask him what was (and wasn’t) in it. It didn’t look too much bigger than my food bag.

As we chatted with him, we ate a quick lunch. Just some salami, cheese, and crackers for me. Yes, you can hike with cheese in the desert.

Many rocks. Many misery.

After our break in the shade, we continued on.  It was only a couple more miles to the water cache at mile 14, but man… these miles felt like the took forever. Dragging my feet slowly through the rocky wash, I willed myself not to look at my watch every five minutes to see my terrible progress.

The sun was now quite high and hot and Hot Mess and I had our sun umbrellas out. I’m not sure if mine was helping, but I tried to convince myself it was.

When we finally reached the water cache, we plopped down to the ground, sharing a small patch of shade with Guru, Pungo, and later Recharge, when he emerged from the wash just as weary as the rest of us.

Looking much happier than we feel.

We sat in the shade here for what felt like a long time, drinking the last of our water before refilling from the cache. Sharing our first day miseries with each other as we slowly got back into the thru hiking groove. I was feeling much worse than I wanted to. Very fresh off the couch. Too tired.

We had hopped to make it about 22 miles today, but had forgotten that we’d be getting a late start with the shuttle ride. Now we decided to play it by ear, continuing our hike one water source at a time until we decided to pack it in for the day.

Hot Mess hiking with sun umbrella.

This decision came sooner than later. We’d zapped ourselves hiking in the heat of the day and were waving little white flags by the time we reached the next junction for a water source. We decided to camp here for the night, a little over 17 miles in.

Hot Mess napping with sun umbrella.

Exhausted, we plopped our foam mats down and each promptly fell asleep, taking naps before we finally peeled ourselves up to set up our camp.

The rest of the evening was filled with camp chores. We ate our dinners. Shawn took a walk to the nearby cistern to top off our water bottles. And we lay outside out tents as the colors in the sky changed from blues to pinks and purples. Through the sun had mostly hidden behind clouds come sunset, the colors in the sky were still beautiful.

Our first tent site.

We made some rookie mistakes today: mainly hiking way too long in the sun. We should have taken a much longer break in the shade at some point and continued on in the cooler hours of the evening. Tomorrow we’ll be planning our day much differently, mostly to take advantage of the cooler hours of the day.

*As a reminder, as I post this two days late, while I write the blogs each night, sometimes it is awhile before I get adequate cell reception to post them.*