On day 4 we had had enough of the wind. Two full days of it and we decided to hike 26 miles to get to town. Twisted and I were exhausted and needed some coaxing to make it all the way back. Luckily as we rounded Pyramid mountain we could see signs of town. There was a lot of nice road walking mixed with single track and quite a bit of cross country. I liked the latter parts, scanning for posts and heading over hills. Finally we passed a large cross on a hill over looking a cemetery, hit the road and walked a mile back to the Econolodge and grabbed the very last room! We went straight to Kranberry’s, the only restaurant in town and stuffed ourselves full of bad family restaurant food. I normally wouldn’t set foot in a joint like this, but for what it was and the hunger we had and the physical nature of the hiking the last two days, any hot food was welcome. Back to the motel we went to bed and would plan our resupply and errands in the morning.
The next day after breakfast we saw Gordon who started with our group onday one. He hurt his knee on the second day and went back the first water cache and waited two days to get picked back up by Radar – the guy who fills the water caches and organized the shuttle drop off. We find out all kinds of hikers who started int the past few days had completely quit the trail already. A father-son team quit, a guy who busted up some toenails quit, a couple quit and another solo hiker all quit the trail. This put things in perspective. This Bootheel start – and the trail in general is no joke. It weeds people out who aren’t prepared, mentally or physically, right away. And sometimes stuff just happens. Gordon will rest a week or two and try again.
I shopped at Saucedos which had plenty of selection but nothing particularly good. I went to the post offfice and met Twisted back at the room to sort food and pack up our bags. We chatted with incoming hikers in the lobby who had wide eyes asking all sorts of questions of us and how things went. We saw Twenty-2 arrive and Shadow and Country Mouse. I helped them fix a busted tent zipper and shared a few laughs. I’d have love to spend more time with Shadow and CM, but theyre a bit older and moved a little slower than us. I really hope I run into them again. Just really good people.
We ate lunch – at Kranberry’s again – and hit the road at 3pm. 2.5 miles of road walk later we ducked under a fence and hit a state land trust area. Lots of “gates” on the CDT are simply you getting on your hands and knees and crawling under barbed wire. I kid you not! I kind of like it. This trail is no pristine piece of work and there partly the charm of it all.
We walked 15 miles in all up very gradual terrain that turned into a beautiful grassy plain with yucca and prickly pear cactus sparsely dotted everywhere. It got dark and we hiked by headlamp the final three miles which, thankfully, was a road then a wash. We turned and watched a beautiful sunset and waved goodbye to Lordsburg and our view of Mexico. Hiking on toward Gold Hill we reached water and met Rabbit and Leopard who wet going to sleep, then threw down our gear and cowboy camped. It got down to 34 degrees tonight.
Steel (aka Jason Repko) You are my spirit animal right now!!
xo