Bye, bye Gila River. I wadded across you 184 times as I hiked 42 miles of your length. You were beautiful in every way. Cliffs, trees, canyons, winding course and abundant water. Now onto the rest of New Mexico, dry and flat, but beautiful in its own way.
Holy smokes! Did it get cold last night? The forecast was for 32°. I checked my water bottles periodically throughout the night. It wasn’t until about 6:00am that they started to freeze, about the time I was getting and packing. I used the mittens Julie Fogde knit for me to keep my hands warm as I stowed my gear. We followed faint roads and trail up into the hills. It was now 6:30am and it seemed colder. We were on the bottom of ravines where the cold air settles, so perhaps it was colder. About two miles from where we camped we found Aaron (Full Send) cowboy camping. Kelly was there to. He said his thermometer read 9° this morning! No wonder it felt so cold!
Yesterday the hiking was through tall pines and junipers. Today it was primarily grasslands. Gorgeous! Instead of down in a river valley the trail was up on a mesa with an expansive view. Of the 20 miles we walked today, 17 of it was on gravel or dirt roads. The scenery was not marred by hiking on a road. It does have advantages. For one, you can make better time on a road than on a trail. You don’t have to be as careful with foot placement. But most importantly, you get trail magic, mobile style!!
I was walking down the road, ear buds in, listening to “Collapse” by Jared Diamond when I heard a truck approaching from behind. He slowed as he passes, then stopped and asked if I wanted a Gatorade or a Coke. I immediately said yes, please. He jumped out of his truck and from the bed of the truck handed me two Gatorades, a can of Coke and two 16oz waters. We talked for a minute as I downed the Coke, and then he was off. I had just been thinking about how thirsty I was getting and had been about to reach back in my pack for my water bottle when he stopped. I downed the Coke and both Gatorades before he was out of sight. I instantly went from slightly dehydrated to content. I stuffed the empties in my pack along with the two waters and kept walking. The world is full of incredible, kind and generous people!!
About two miles further on was our only water supply for the afternoon. A huge open water tank (40’ diameter) about a quarter mile off the road. The weather was perfect. Air temp about 60-65 degrees with full sun and a slight wind. Wonderful for walking. Instead of a liter every five miles, one per ten seemed sufficient.
We dropped our packs off in the shade of a pine tree, grabbed a few empty bottles and hoofed it across the open field to the tank. There was a smaller tank in front. It was full, but the water was kind of green. We walked up to the larger tank and found a generator operating, providing power for the well pump. Fresh water was pouring into the huge tank from a pipe. Clean, no bugs, no algae. Aaron was with us and we all three filled our bottles. Not to take chances with sickness and health, we filtered or purified the water when we got back to our packs. This all happened at mile 96.3. Since we camped at 80.3, we had about four miles to go to get our 20 miles in. The road ran straight as an arrow for three long miles. We lugged our water until we reached 100.1 and a nice place to camp off the road. It was now about 3:30pm. With the sun still shining brightly I had my solar panel work at charging my satellite peraonal locator beacon device and applied Shoe Goo to the bottom of my shoes to slow their wear. It is so nice to have a few hours on the afternoon to rest and relax and let my body recover after pushing through 20 miles. I am not as fatigued at the end of the day as I was a couple weeks ago. Maybe I am starting to get my trail legs under me.
I’ve covered 60 of the 140 miles before my next resupply. This is one of the longest of the whole CDT. To date my watch reports I have walked 279.7, a good distance but there is still a long way to go.
The trail was this faint double track heading up the hill.
A cairn marks the route through the grassland.
It was sooo cold. About 10° at this time an place of the morning
So different now than the Gila River just a few miles back.
Open prairie all around. This is at about 7300’.
The trail is this double track. I guess this is the price you put for walking the Magnificent Gila. Miles and miles of road walking. It was all beautiful.
After about five miles the trail became a substantial gravel road. This we followed for nearly ten miles.
The cattle watering tank is visible in the distance. Here we are taking advantage of the dry air, sun and wind to dry the frost from our tents that accumulated over night last night.
The smaller, murkier tank in the foreground with the big one behind.
The big tank was filling, giving us a fresh source of pure, clean water.
This is the road walk we faced after adding 6.6 pounds of water to our packs. All the way to those mountains.
Why did your watch say 279.7 at the 100.1 mark? What do the marks mean?
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