Border to Lordsburg, NM
Day 1: 17 miles from Mexico
Day one back on the trail was amazing. We woke up at 5:45, grabbed our bags and some coffee from the motel lobby and made our way over to the shuttles were we met 8 other hikers. We piled our bags into a pick up truck and climbed in and made our way to Hachita, a tiny town just north of the border where we went to the bathroom and bought some water.
Our driver was so nice and it was interesting hearing about his firsthand experiences with the refugee crisis at the border and how it affects his town. We saw several border control cars and learned more about the processes down here. We made our way down a long dirt road to the monument, looking at the Mennonite fields of alfalfa just beyond the border.
We snapped a few pics and then were off on the trail. We started talking with Wonder Woman, who rode on our shuttle with us. I liked her instantly and we spent most of the day walking down the Jeep roads and wide trail side by side.
Thankfully the weather wasn’t too hot. There was a nice breeze for most of the day and the walking was smooth, well marked and pretty flat. I was loving it. We were still going pretty slow as we intended to ease back into thru-hiking and took several breaks. I felt really good most of the way and honestly felt like I was back at home on the trail.
We saw a couple cows and an old homestead we walked through, with our first gross CDT water source in a well. Thankfully we can rely on the caches provided by the CDTC shuttle service and passed on by.
When we made it to the cache in late afternoon, we filled up our water and ran into several other hikers, who were on our shuttle or we had met the day before at the motel. We settled into the shade and took another nice long break before continuing on.
We had been warned about the official CDT trail going up and over washes, and that several people already decided to do the road walk (Jeep road) alternate. We thought we would stick to the CDT and all of a sudden the mild trail turned pretty bad. We were walking into and out of washes, tripping over loose rocks and losing the trail once in a while - not to mention all the pokies!
Our goal was to make it to mile 17 which we did, although earlier in the day we thought we could do more. But with the trail picking up in difficulty and our feet starting to hurt, we found some relatively flat ground and cleared it of rocks to cowboy camp. The sunset was beautiful, and Vinny organized our “dinner party” with Dan and our new friend Wonder Woman, who shared a really fun tip of adding crunchy peanut butter to oriental ramen to make a hikers pad Thai. I cold soaked some cous cous (we won’t have a stove until Colorado) and ate a few Oreos. I went through my snacks pretty quickly today and my food bag looked light for the 4+ days until Lordsburg.
A jackrabbit approached us during dinner and looked confused, slowly walking towards us from the scent of food. We had been joking earlier that probably no one has ever camped here before and due to the curious rabbits behavior we decided that that could be true.
We settled into our sleeping bags and stared off into the amazing starry sky. I can’t wait for tomorrow!
Day 2: 39 miles from Mexico
We woke up with the sun around 6:30 and took our time getting ready and making breakfast. I slept great and was ready for another day!
The morning we spent going down and up washes again. We kept losing the trail and instead chose to just walk in the general direction of the markers. It was a little discouraging how slow we were moving when we kept losing the trail, but eventually the trail opened up. We heard that most of the other hikers had opted for the easier road walk rather than sticking on the CDT trail.
Soon the trail opened up and we were walking from cairn to cairn using the path of least cacti resistance. It was pretty fun to be embracing the brutality of the CDT, which I learned was the unofficial slogan of the trail.
Today was a lot hotter than the day before. We had a water cache and then walked another 10 miles to a water source that was a cow pond with a little windmill. We camped with Duckie, who we had met yesterday and had lunch with today (I had tuna with mayo and crushed up Doritos), and met TazBas, a British Australian hiker we had met back at Lordsburg and have seen a few times.
We settled into the dinner party and then made our cowboy camp. Hoping for another good nights sleep tonight.
Day 3: 62 miles from Mexico
We woke up to another beautiful (yet chilly!) morning and hit the trail together. Duckie hit the trail well before any of us were awake but we planned to camp at another water source at the end of the day together.
We had a quick 6 miles to the first water cache of the day. Then we had 13 miles until the next water source, a water tank and tire trough for cows. On our way there we saw a cow walking around near the trail. At the water tank there was a grade A “shade hole”, our name for shady break spots along the trail. We rested for a bit and then went onwards. My feet were really starting to hurt and blister at this point, and I was really tired from the heat. We had a bit more shade cover from clouds today, but that almost held the heat in more.
The trail itself disappears and reappears without you noticing, but the landscape is so open and flat you generally can easily spot another trail marker on the horizon, and plod bravely on towards it.
At the end of the day we stumbled on a poor dead cow, which was definitely ominous. We’d seen several bones already but the decomposing body really killed the mood.
Eventually we got to the final water source - a tank inside a ranch. We crossed a gate and camped on the other side of the fence with Duckie, Wonder Woman and TasBas, whose birthday is tomorrow! We had a great time setting up camp and having dinner with everyone, popping blisters and talking about the trail. We all seemed to share the sentiment that it was really nice to be hiking with people who got it so early on in the trail, because we’ve all done at least one other thru hike.
The evening sky was beautiful and we watched a huge, amazing sunset unfold around us. We cowboy camped again tonight all close together.
Day 4: 85 miles from Mexico (Lordsburg)
We woke up and wished TasBas a happy 50th birthday! I felt like I was slow yesterday so I packed up a little quickly and decided to head out of camp a little bit before everyone (and I really had to go to the bathroom).
I was really cruising along through the flat ranch land. It was really fun going through barbed wire fences and having the morning all to myself. I was surprised I didn’t see anyone else following me.
It was kind of nice being in front for a change. I felt the freedom to be a little bit more curious with what I came across, investigating dry water troughs and even more cow bones.
When I arrived at the water tank, it was covered in flies and algae. I only had half a liter left and a Radio was holding our working water filter so I took the plunge and put in some chemicals I had in my first aid kit to filter while I waited for everyone else.
Eventually everyone met up with me. The rest of the day was a blur - my feet were definitely hurting by the end of it. By our last water cache break; we decided last minute to try and get to Lordsburg by night (instead of camping a few miles out of town) so that me and Wonder Woman could soak our feet and give us some more time to relax tomorrow.
The last 7 miles to town were long and hard, but apparently we crushed them. My left foot - the one with less blisters than my right - was aching and the old pains from the PCT were coming back. We were going down and over countless hills without a trail, just sort of making our way from marker to marker, which I think added some difficulty to the footing.
However, we got to Lordsburg in record time and settled into our Econolodge with Dan, Wonder Woman, and Radio.