Day 9 - Mission Creep

Date: Fri April 26

Start Mile: 124.2

End Mile: 157.6

Total Hike Mileage: 20.5mi

Hitch Mileage: 12.9mi

Highlights: the Burros, one snake, many cows, mission creep

This morning we listened to coyotes howling and yipping in the distance as we packed up  the tent. Luckily the evening wind had died down and most of the night was still, but the morning was still cold. I could see my breath as I hefted on my pack.

Part of the cold was due to camping in a bit of a depression, which I was excited to climb out of to warm up my body.

While it did take quite awhile to warm up, it was otherwise a beautiful morning. The trail offered stunning vistas over the Burro Mountains, birds flitted low amongst the bushes, and the yellows and greens of some of the trees almost reminded me of fall.

With a lot of shaded trail in the earlier hours of our hike, Hot Mess stopped for a moment when he hit a patch of sun. “I’m recharging,” he said. Then explained that this was how Recharge had gotten his name. Apparently he hated cold mornings on the trail and would stand in the sun to warm up and ‘recharge’. Great trail name.

This section had been completely different than the last one. From the Mexico border to Lordsburg, I could hardly believe we were hiking across anything that was associated with the parting of waters, hardly a drop of natural water to be found. Now, while there was still a lack of water, at least the Continental Divide Trail was climbing into the mountains, a landscape upon which I could at least imagine the separation of watersheds.

We chugged along through the beautiful mountain trails for eight to nine miles before stopping at a very small stream to collect water and take a break.

Walking down the stream, which was sometimes little more than a puddle, I eventually found a spot where a rivulet snaking between some rocks provided a few places where I could collect some flowing water. The flow wasn’t fast, but for the desert it was decent.

Back at our break spot I filtered water into my bottles while we chatted with Recharge, whom we’d leapfrogged with through the morning, and Jeff, an older hiker who we’d met just this morning. He was from Montana and was section hiking the CDT. New Mexico was the last section he needed to complete.

Knowing that we didn’t plan to stop for lunch for another 7-8 miles, I shoved some extra snacks in my mouth to power me through, including several pepperoni slices, which were part of my lunch. I feel like those little pepperonis were the ticket, giving me the energy I needed for a late trail lunch. I am typically not a fan of a late lunch.

See that water? That’s not your water. Also, something smells heavily of dead cow. Oh… it’s a dead cow.

While there was a bit of rocky road walking in this section, the majority was a very  pleasant, easy walking trail that gently rolled through a vast array of desert plantlife, almost none of which I know the names of. Some cactus. The odd century plant. Plenty of spikey things. (Side note: Every time I squat down to go to the bathroom, I think of that City Slickers scene. We all know which one I’m talking about.)

Only about a mile and a half before our next planned stop, we ran into Losa. “What are you doing here?!?” I asked, mostly in jest.

Losa had left Lordsburg the same day that we had entered it, so we assumed he was at least a day and a half ahead of us. He’d been struggling with his feet though and was having a bit of a slow go of it. We chatted with him for a bit, somehow covering everything from shoes to packs to picking rocks off trails. It was just nice to see another familiar face.

Not long after we’d run into him, the trail diverted onto road and then eventually led us through two different canyons, the first a bit narrower, with a trail through the center that slowly devolved into less and less of a trail… to picking our way through rock, sand, and bushes.

This canyon eventually opened to Black Hawk Canyon, a wide canyon with a very small trickle of a stream running down the center, nearly engulfed by the surrounding sand. We found a big shady tree in the area and plopped ourselves down to eat lunch and rest a bit before filtering water and moving on. While we sat, a thru hiker came by heading southbound. Her name was Trippin’ - and she was doing a bit of flip flopping through this section, but would eventually be northbound again. She filled us in on all the regular hiker chatter - other hikers she’d seen, the best places to eat in town, the bit of trail magic up ahead - before continuing on.

After a brief stop to investigate the trail magic at the head of the canyon with Losa, we continued on to Saddle Rock Canyon road, a dirt road thar would serve as the route for the remainder of our hike to the highway.

Losa and Shawn, standing around looking like badass thru hikers.

The first couple miles of the road were actually quite scenic, with interesting rock features along the road. Some of the mountains looked more like odd assemblages of boulders that had fused to each other at awkward angles, piling atop each other every which way. When I walk through these areas, I always wish I had a bit of basic geologic information for the area - so many interesting features and formations that make you go, “Huh?! Why is that like that?”

Through this section, there were also a lot of grazing cattle, some of which could be a bit startling. Sometimes I was just walking along and then “Jeez-“ - there would suddenly be a cow head poking out of the bushes. Cows are a tough audience. Sometimes they can be a little skittish, but mostly they just look at you with that deadpan stare. Faces betraying no emotion. “You don’t impress me,” their faces say.

We know.

A bit more startling - we saw our first snake of the trail today. Luckily not a rattler. But rather some striped variety that slithered into a nearby bush as it felt us coming near. The best kind of snake: the kind that slithers away from you.

Up the road, Recharge was resting under a tree. We stopped and chatted for a bit before setting off. He joined us for the roadwalk.

Just up the way, we stopped once again. We’d come to the ‘parking lot’ on the map - basically just a large dirt area. Beyond this, most of the land to the highway was private, so it was possible that this was the last place to camp. An expanse of dirt bordered by a bit of grass and filled with a lot of dry (and some fresh) cow patties. Not exactly the campsite of dreams.

Hot Mess and I decided to continue on. From the map, It looked like a bit of the land en route to the highway might cross back into National Forest land. Planning to hike (or hitch) into Silver City in the morning, we wanted to camp a bit closer to the road if possible.

Recharge tagged along, without his pack - maybe planning to return to collect his things should there be better camping option, and we also met a couple other hikers en route to the highway - Yeti and Heather. They were from Oregon and Virginia, respectively, and had hiked the CDT southbound through the Winds last year. This year they were northbounding back to that point.

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like there were going to be any good places to camp along the last stretch to the highway. And at this point we didn’t really want to turn around. We had two options: camp down along what was probably a road on private land or continue to the highway and hitch into Silver City early. I mean, a third option was to hike the road, but…

The CDT poses a real dilemma for those that want to hike a continuous foot path from Mexico to Canada - several road walks along highways. Rather than the trail routing around Silver City, for example, there is a 13 mile section of “trail” that is simply a road walk along Highway 180 into Silver City. This particular stretch has little to no shoulder, so it’s not exactly safe. And, let’s face it, a highway is not a trail. We can deal with the dirt roadwalks… but none of us came out here to hike highways.

And so, we’ve modified our goal for the CDT. We still want to maintain as much continuous footpath as possible, but we will not be hiking long stretches of highway. This is boring at best and unsafe at worst.

We had originally planned to go into town tomorrow, but if we were just going to hitch, then why not today?… Mission creep…

Tumbleweed mustering point.

Minutes later we were out along Highway 180 with our thumbs up. It was just after 5pm on a Friday and hopefully there would be some nice folks heading home from work who were willing to pick up a couple stinky hikers. If not, Greta - another hiker we’d met at the McDonald’s in Lordsburg had just hiked up and let us know that she had a guaranteed pick up coming in about thirty minutes, so if we hadn’t gotten a hitch by then, we were welcome to join.

As luck would have it, the very next car pulled over to pick us up. I had actually just commented that there was no way this car was going to pick us up. It was gleaming white and I imagined the inside to look just as polished. Not the kind of car you invite a couple dirty hikers into. Never judge a book by its cover.

Our knight in shining armor was Sonia, who was indeed on the way home from work. We piled into her backseat, mentally trying to will ourselves to be less stinky than we were. We encouraged her to roll down the windows if needed.

Sonia was super friendly, but said she didn’t pick up hikers very often. The only reason she’d picked us up was because one of us was a woman. Go me! For her own safety, she wouldn’t pick up male hitch hikers, which, as a female, I totally understand. Many male hikers have also commented similarly, that it’s much easier for them to get a hitch if they are with a female hiker.

We chatted all the way into Silver City - about the trail and the area. Once we hit the town, she turned into the most lovely tour guide, pointing out a park that hosted an annual blues festival, the best places to grab a drink, and where we should eat breakfast. And then she dropped us at a downtown hotel. We thanked her for her kindness and all of the information. People that pick up stinky hikers are saints.

After doing a quick check at the hotel for availability (no luck), we walked down the street to the Little Toad Creek Brewery, where obviously we could sort out our situation over drinks and grub.

Doing fancy things. Pinkies up!

Yeti and Heather walked in just after us. Though they had gotten an earlier hitch, we had lucked into a better drop off point. And full tour guide.

While we ordered, a guy waved at me from across the restaurant. I did one of those look left, look right things… is he waving at me? Yep, he was waving at me. He wasn’t a thru hiker (you can just tell), so it wasn’t some sort of solidarity wave, like - hey, I’m hiking too!

He got up from his seat and started walking toward me. OMG, this is so awkward… my husband is sitting right here.

It turns out he was just a CDT fan girl. Judging by our packs and, quite frankly, our looks, he figured we were hikers and wanted to come over and chat about it.

“You guys look beat,” he said, in the most positive way you can possibly deliver that sentence. Thanks, I think?

He hoped to do a thru hike soon and had all kinds of questions about the hike, resupply, etc.

“So what else do I need to know?” he said. Lol, so much more.

“Shoes?!?,” he asked. “I bet those are important.” Yes. Shoes are very important.

His name was Chris and he was in town to watch the Tour de Gila, four days of various bike races in the area, which we were also excited to just happen to be in town for. While he used to cycle competitively years ago, now he was here only as a spectator. Eventually he left us to order, though at the end of the meal he came back to show us his lightweight road bike. He wished us luck once again.

Eating something green.

Outside the restaurant, Shawn ordered an Uber to our hotel for the night, which he had booked online while we ate. Most of the hotels were on the north end of town, a little further than we wanted to walk. Waiting outside, we shivered as the wind barreled down the street.

As we waited, a woman came out of the restaurant, commenting that she’d noticed us shivering and wondering if we needed a place to set up our tent tonight. She lived just a couple blocks away and had space in her backyard. Honestly, if we hadn’t just booked a hotel, we may have taken her up on that. As it was, we thanked her for her generosity, but declined.

On our first day on trail, Guru had told us that the people of New Mexico were the nicest people you would ever meet. He hadn’t grown up in New Mexico, but now lived in Albuquerque, so had found this out for himself when he made the move here. And he was right. Every person we have met has been super friendly - from the grocery store clerks, to the McDonald’s staff, to random strangers on the street. Everyone has been so welcoming and warm hearted.

Soon enough our Uber arrived - Nathaniel. Nathaniel was apparently the only Uber in a 100 mile radius. “So if you call for another Uber while you’re here, it will be me.”  Nathaniel also helped to stock a couple of the CDT water caches on the section into Silver City. Water caches we had just used. We thanked him for that, it was a lifesaver. “It’s pretty dry out there,” he said. He also said he’d been driving a lot of CDT hikers to the ER this year. “Mostly foot problems,” he said. “Sprains, infected blisters… all kinds of foot problems.”  Yikes.

As he dropped us off at our hotel, we told him we’d likely see him again tomorrow. I’m feeling almost like a local now that we know the one and only Uber driver.

And that was our excitement for the day. All that, and showers.