Waking from the cold night sleep in the wash north of Lordsburg, we filled water from the nearby cattle tank and waved good morning to two other CDT hikers, Rabbit and Leopard and were on our way. I passed some very protective cows and their nursing calves and then started a long slow climb up a small set of mountains and eventually on a beautiful single track trail.
We met an older gentleman from Silver City and his dog Max, out for a hike along the trail. He recommended eating at Jalisco’s, and the New Mexican enchiladas (which Twisted wound up ordering two days later). We dropped down to another solar powered cattle tank after about 9 miles and topped off water. We took a break after dropping down again to the Jack’s Peak trailhead and met an intrepid young woman with a newly converted van with her dog off on a road trip adventure. In the heat of the afternoon we climbed 5 miles to the peak up to a dry cistern, then to Burro Peak – our first real mountain climbs of the trail. A free more miles down and we reached Mud Spring around 6pm where we met Bear Sweat and Tough Broad, and made camp for the night.
In the morning we chose to stay on the CDT original route and not the road walk shortcut to Silver City. It was up and down hiking on good trail combined with abandoned dirt roads…fairly pleasant walking. We had to carry water 20+ miles today to reach our next water source, and in mid afternoon after a few breaks got a bit of a second wind. I scared a pack of javelinas who were right on the trail and one protective adult male watched and sniffed for me as I stopped to show Twisted what these 25-40 pound rodents looked like. Ugly for sure!
We got a tip from CDT hiker Nemo that hotels were booking up completely so we stopped for an hour to research and book. Luckily we were in view ow a cell tower to do this task. We booked one hotel room at Murray Hotel and I booked a night at an old convent turned into a retreat which is located by the trail.
We hiked on, put in some music and then missed a junction which wound up adding two more miles but took us over a gorgeous set of ridges that revealed layers of mountains to the west.
We dropped down through a big heard of angus cattle grazing around a muddy water hole and down again through rock formations that gave us a preview of what we’d be hiking through in a few days in the Gila. My legs were aching and I was pacing myself slowly at this point just waiting to get to water and camp.
The next day was a short two miles on dirt road and a 15 mile road walk to Silver City. Rabbit and Leopard passed us on the highway as we took a short break, then we blasted past them as they did the same :). We walked into Silver City via the west side of town and past Western New Mexico University where the CDT Trail Days kickoff event will be taking place about 10 days later.
We hit town, passed the local newspaper (picked one up), and hit Jaliscos for lunch before checking into our hotel for the night for some rest and then a zero day tomorrow (day off 🙂
This is so fun to read! You’re doing great!
With so many thru hikers on the trails for days/weeks, the CDT TDK will have fewer attendees. I wonder if a few will ride back?
Thanks for sharing your trek with us!
Way to go Jason!
mom
Go mom!