For something that is nearly non-existent here it sure commands all decisions. If it weren’t for the trail angels paid by the CDTC to deliver this scarce resource, there would not be enough to permit this route. Of course I am referring to water. It determines what distances we will walk and how heavy our packs are. It influences where we camp. It is everywhere and yet nowhere.
This morning our alarms woke us at 5:15am, about an hour before first light. I have a sandwich bag containing 3/4 cup of granola and 1/6 cup of powdered milk. I pour in about half a cup of water, squish the bag around and then shove spoonful of the milk moistened granola into my mouth while I stuff my sleeping bag, deflate my sleeping pad and put everything into my pack. I finished my soggy bag of granola at about the same time as my packing so I step from the tent, collapse it, stuff it into its sack then rearrange everything in my pack to balance the load. A thorough search for items left behind and I am ready to go. Time elapsed, about 30 minutes.
This morning Lighthouse, D’Anne and I left simultaneously and walked together for an hour or so, chatting and watching the sun rise. Lighthouse videos about 45 minutes of footage a day, then edits it at camp and posts it to YouTube. (Here is his introduction to his CDT hike - https://youtu.be/q22aW2R2MMk) For this reason he usually falls behind to film sequences. D’Anne and I hiked most of the nine miles to the 2nd water cache together, although one or the other of us stops for potty breaks, equipment adjustments and clothing changes while the other continues on meaning we can be up to 1/2 a mile apart.
I discovered I had good phone service during this stretch and FaceTimed Andy with instructions to change the address of my resupply box going to Silver City. As my schedule looks now, I will arrive on Sunday. The Post Office is closed on Sundays so I would have to hang around town an extra day to get my resupply. It is now being shipped to the Triple Crown Hostel, run by triple crown thru hikers. They are always open. I also FaceTimed with Sally and showed her the desert I am hiking through.
So hiking together isn’t really hiking together. I reached the 3rd water cache about 10 minutes ahead of D’Anne and 20 minutes ahead of Lighthouse. As is my routine at a rest stop, I immediately remove my shoes and socks and let my feet and socks dry in the very dry and warm desert air while sitting on the ground and rummaging through my pack for a snack. Today, I had another goal in mind. I wanted to wash my other pair of socks. I have a water tight nylon bag. I dumped a liter of water in it, dribbled in a bit of Dawn detergent and shook the bag violently to agitate the socks and water. I wrung out the socks and attached them to the back of my pack to dry as I hiked.
Radar, a thru hiker that helps in the spring to keep the water caches supplied was at the cache checking water levels. All of us chatted with him as we filled our bottles and had a bite to eat. Magic Mike and D’Anne left about 10 or 15 minutes before me and Lighthouse followed by another 5.
I FaceTimed with the Caldwells for a bit while walking, then put in my earbuds and continued my audio book “Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doer. The trail eventually went up a rise to a saddle. There a well, a large storage tank and a huge tire on its side for a watering trough are placed to water wildlife and cattle. It also waters CDT hikers. D’Anne and Mike were just finishing up a snack. We chatted for 10 minutes before they packed up and took off. Lighthouse had arrived and we chatted a bit. I realized this was an excellent time to wash clothes since there was nearly unlimited clean water. I took off my shirt, washed it in my bag that I filled with water from the tire watering trough and hung it to dry on some branches while I finished packing up.
Lighthouse got out ahead of me while I got dressed.
The next 3 and 1/3 miles was rolling “high country”, or that is what it felt like. Most of it gravel road, it reminded me of alpine meadows before they come to life in the spring. I stopped under a tree (a tree!) and sat on an old discarded tire with a plank across it to alter my left shoe. My Salomon shoes have what could be described as speed laces-very thin tough laces that are a loop. You pull on the loop and all the eyelets feel the same pull and tighten uniformly. This is convenient, but not good for me. I need the toe box area to stay loose to give my toes more room. On normal shoes I back the laces out thru the eyelets down to one set above the toe box, pull the shoes wide apart and then tie a knot in the laces at that point so when I yank on the shoe strings at the top to tighten them up, the toe box doesn’t get tightened and my toes have more room. You can’t do that with these laces short of cutting the lace loop.
My left little toe was feeling the squeeze and I feared a blister might form. I loosened the shoe at the toe box, then glued the laces together with super glue and baking soda (yes, I have both in my pack) to form a knot of sorts that kept the toe box open. It was a successful operation and the pressure on my toe vanished.
About a mile further along I came upon an elderly woman (early 70’s maybe-sorry “elderly” friends) on the trail carrying a very used vintage ultralight pack. As I always do, I introduced myself as Coach and asked her name. “Marmot”. She is kind of a legend in the thru hiking world having completed all the thru hikes multiple times. She seemed concerned about her water supply, thinking she might be running out. She was carrying a 2 liter bag hidden in her pack with a tube and mouthpiece extending outside so she can suck down water whenever she wants. Problem was, not much water came and occasionally air bubbles, indicating her bag was nearly empty. It was still 5 miles to the next water. I offered her half a liter or more if she needed it as I was now carrying nearly two liters, more than enough for the five miles (I find I do great at about 1 liter per five miles). She declined. I said let’s look in her pack and see how much water she had sloshing around in her two liter bag. She dropped her pack and we found a good liter and a half of water. Her water bag was laying horizontal in her pack with the tube attached at one end so when the water sloshed back and forth she would occasionally get some air in the line. That coupled with a kink in her tube accounted for her symptoms of low water. I walked with her for about 5-10 minutes afterwards. She seemed frail under her untidy and somewhat disheveled pack, but her experience and new found confidence in her water supply brightened her outlook and she chatted about past thru hikes and a west coast organization of thru hikers that meets each fall in a predetermined western city.
Satisfied that she was fine, I sped up my pace so as not to get too far behind my crew and climbed a slight rise to a saddle with an expansive view out over the desert. A quick stop for a photo and to drink it in and I was working my way down the other side. I was listening to my book and nearly walked by a couple on the trail, tucked into a little shade below a juniper, sheltering from sun and wind. They introduced themselves as Hanno and Tanya from Cologne, Germany. They are thru hiking this summer. We agreed we would see each other all summer long and spent a minute chatting. They both looked tired and Tanya said they were a bit slow. I reassured them in the weeks ahead their pace would quicken. I was on my way again. Soon I passed two women that appeared to be in their early thirties or late twenties tucked under a juniper off the trail in a gab session, or so their body language indicated. They told me my crew had passed 20 to 30 minutes ago. This was Coney, from Switzerland and Grit (or something like that). On my way again.
I crested a small rise and saw the highway and bear cabinet of the third water cache. Lighthouse was still at the cache when I arrived, Magic Mike and D’Anne had crossed the highway and were seeking a place out of the wind on the hill. It seemed a good idea as maybe the wind was slightly blocked by the rock outcropping near the top. Lighthouse and I received a text on our inReach devices from D’Anne saying they were looking for a camping spot and to come join them. I replied on mine, “Be right over.” That reply was to cause confusion tomorrow morning.
Lighthouse made the 300 yard trek to the highway, up and over it and then up the hill while I ate a snack and filled all my bottles (5) with water at the cache.
I found all three hunkered down on the hillside beside a juniper sheltering from wind and sun. We rested and Magic Mike and I got into a prolonged discussion about baseball. We cooked dinners, then explored for flat ground on the hillside on which to sleep, knowing pitching a tent would just bring flapping in the wind all night long. I found a flat spot halfway up the slope behind an outcrop of rocks that seemed exposed but the shape of the hill forced most of the wind above this spot. I laid out my tent to use as a ground cloth, put my inflated sleeping pad on it and layed my sleeping bag on top of me. It was still too warm to get inside. I FaceTimed Robby, Junie and Izzy and showed them where I was. Robby wanted to see pictures of all the cactus I had seen today. I confessed to not taking any photos and told him I would do so tomorrow. After hanging up, I plugged my phone and watch into my battery pack and fell asleep. When I woke a few hour later I noticed the battery pack’s LED was blinking indicating it was exhausted. My phone read only 90%, not a full charge. Too many FaceTime calls today. I would have to be super careful tomorrow not to run my iPhone to zero as it was a very necessary navigation tool. With that, I was asleep. It was a 23 mile day and I was pooped.
D’Anne’s headlight makes spool of light in the early dawn as she hikes up the “trail”, here a dirt road.
That former windmill tower and tank is a water source just off the trail, but since I had filled at the water cache three miles earlier I didn’t need to go off trail to see it.
Beyond the furthest mountains in the distance is where we started two days ago. Those are the Little Hachet mountains
Radar and I at 3rd water cache, his vehicle in the background.
Tire water trough for livestock with large storage tank in the background. My drying yellow shirt can be seen hanging in the bushes.
View of the desert from the saddle.
My sleeping spot for the night, tucked in away from the brunt of the wind, the desert expanse below.
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