Day 8 - Burro Peak

Date: Thu April 25

Start Mile: 106.5

End Mile: 124.2

Total Mileage: 17.7mi

Highlights: first climb of the trail

The full cloud cover must not have lasted long last night, as the next time I woke up it was to a spotlight beaming into our tent. The moon.

Lucky for us, the night had been still. According to the forecast, the wind is supposed to pick up today and continue for the next three days. This could be a good thing for hiking through hot days, though it could also be an annoyance for tent set up and sleeping in general.

Setting out, it was chilly. I wore my rain pants, coat, and gloves to keep warm. Not far down the trail, we went through a warm pocket… like when you’re swimming and suddenly go through that warm spot. It feels nice, but also kinda creeps you out. This was less creepy, more welcome. The first several miles of hiking would actually include a lot of temperature shifts, but mostly as sudden drops in temperature.

Hiking out, the moon was still high in the sky to my left while the sun was slowly coming up over the mountains to the right. It’s hard to have a bad morning out here. It’s also nice to have a little visual confirmation that you’re heading north.

Through the first eight miles of the hike, the trail weaved its way around and over the mountains, gently climbing through the rollers. The trail was frequently shaded and the sun filtered through the leaves, splashing across the trail. It was perfect hiking weather, cool but not cold. A bit of sun here and there. Some shade. Beautiful trail.

Since we had enough water to get us through the morning, we decided to continue hiking to a cache that was about eight miles into the day. As I approached the cache, I ran into another hiker, who stepped off the trail for me. He was an older gentleman, deep creases across his face telling a story like the rings of a tree. “Good morning,” we each greeted each other. “Water is just around the corner,” he said. I thanked him and continued on.

Arriving to the cache, Shawn told me about his own encounter with the older man. He had joked to him that he was going the wrong way. The man had said that he was just out for a day hike, and now that he was 93 he couldn’t do as much anymore. 93!!! I just hope I can get out of bed at that age. Currently, I’m just happy to pull myself out of bed in the morning.

At the water cache, we settled into a shady spot for a short break. In addition to gallons of water, the cache also had a bucket of assorted snacks - mostly pop tarts and sunflower seeds, a few medical supplies like bandaids, and even a bag of dental picks, in case anyone passing through was REALLY in need of a floss.

I grabbed a bag of sunflower seeds to munch on while we rested, mostly for the salt. Recharge appeared not long after we’d arrived and joined us for the break until we were all too chilly to sit around in the shade anymore. We topped off our waters and set out again.

The next five-ish miles would be up the first significant climb of the CDT. I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point we had entered the Burro Peak Wilderness and now we would be hiking our little behinds to the top of its namesake peak.

I let the guys go ahead, knowing I would be a bit slower than them on the climb. Less than half a mile in, I saw the large shadow of some sort of bird of prey cross over me, wings extended as it glided through the sky. Looking up, there were actually two (unknown birds of prey) - gliding through the sky together in circles. “I’m not dead yet!” They soared southward until I could no longer see them.

The climb up Burro Peak mostly wasn’t that bad. There were some sections that were steeper and rockier than others, but there were also some nice flat bits to give the legs a break.

Shawn waited for me at the halfway point and, after confirming I was still alive and plodding away, continued on. Then it was just me again until…

With maybe one and a half or two miles to go, Groot came walking up behind me. “What are you listening to?” he called out as he walked up.

I stepped aside to let him pass as he got closer. “The Smartless Podcast,” I said, “Have you eve-“

“I’m not much of a podcast person,” he cut me off. “I got some Red Hot Chili Peppers going.” He continued to hike on by, his 6’5” frame striding quickly up the trail. He said something else that I couldn’t hear as he walked off.

Okay, good share! Bye.

Groot seems nice, though is a hard guy to talk to. Before you even get a sentence out, he’s already talking again. Eventually your responses must get shorter and shorter until you’ve settled on nodding or “mmm hmmms”.

The last mile toward the top was mostly chill until the last final bit, and I cruised along under the shaded canopy, loving life. But also wondering where the top was.

Finally, I went up the last bit of rocky incline to find Shawn taking to four older women from Silver City. They all seemed very relieved to see me, not that I was late or anything. I thanked everyone for waiting for me and we all had a good laugh. The four were out on a day hike from Silver City and now heading back down the mountain.

We were not heading down the mountain yet. Instead we posted up in the least windy spot we could find, the wind having picked up during the latter half of our climb. The air was heavy with the scent of the juniper trees scattered around the peak.

After eating our lunches, we stretched out on our mats and relaxed in the sun. We only had about five and a half miles left to go today, so there was no rush.

Eventually Groot and Recharge decided to push on. Groot was still toying with putting in bigger miles for the day. We were fine to let him get far ahead.

Once we finally peeled ourselves up and off our foam mats, packing up, and hoisting our packs back on, less than fifty meters down the trail we had to take it all back off again to duck under a barbed wire fence. I went through first, barely escaping without getting some snags in my shirt. Hot Mess passed me our packs over the fence and then ducked through himself, much more eloquently than I, which is pretty typical.

The final five and half miles into camp consisted of a long downhill from Burro Peak followed my several miles of gentle rollers. Overall it was easy hiking, again with plenty of shade and breeze, though I was still moving at a fairly relaxed pace, slower than the morning. My feet had some aches and there was no hurry.

I think it was still before 4pm when we rolled into the area we had planned to camp. Recharge was resting under a tree. “You just missed Groot,” he said. Oh darn.

After relaxing for a minute, the next chore was to collect water, which was a bit of work. There was a very tiny trickle of a stream nearby, which mostly had some stagnant pools and tiny rivulets that barely trickled against the rocks. I found the best little trickle I could and positioned my water bag to collect as much as possible, settling in for what would be a very slow fill.

About three hours later, I emerged with a little over a liter. Okay, it wasn’t three hours, but it felt like it.

The rest of the evening was camp chores and dinner. Hot Mess and I found the flattest tent spot possible and decided to put the rain fly up tonight as well. There was no rain expected but we figured it would help with the wind and also block out some of the very intense moonlight we’d been waking to over the last several nights.

Having arrived to camp pretty early, we also ate dinner pretty early and, since it was a bit windy, decided to retire to our tent. Cell service had been good enough earlier in the day that Hot Mess had been able to download the most recent episode of Survivor, which we now watched on his phone. Nothing like a little TV before bed to make you feel right at home.