100 Miles!
We’re moving again
I know we were both getting antsy sitting still for so long. We saw everything Lordsburg had to show the first time we were here.
It’s good to be getting back on the trail. The water is very far apart so the carries are heavy. I hope our feet do well.
Phone Woes
Kylie’s Google Pixel 5a had the black screen of death this morning. Since our injuries were feeling manageable, we planned on hiking out early, but instead we spent the morning shopping for a new phone and finding a place ahead of us to send it. The next water source on the trail is now unreachable today, so we took a 3 mile walk to check on our feet. We’re trying again tomorrow.
The first week kinks are sucking. They always do.
Onward to Lordsburg again
We rolled into Lordsburg in the afternoon, both limping a little today. By the last 3 miles, I was popping ibuprofen and struggling with the trail. I think we both forgot just how much it can suck to earn your trail legs. It looks like I have a mild strain in my left ankle and Kylie is nursing a few blisters and some achy toe joints. But we’ve been through worse on our last thru-hike, probably because we’re too stubborn to quit. We decided to stay the night and maybe an additional day to mend a bit. Hopefully we will feel better after eating the biggest burritos available on this earth.
This is the vibe right now…
Nice break in the morning
We grabbed some early shade for snack time before the day heats up. Luckily it has a nice view of some young rhyolite hoodoos.
I froze my water bottles last night…
Leaving Hachita
We left the community center in Hachita and walked up the dusty highway with the sun rising behind us, passed the shuddered diner and the closed-down bar the locals unlock to play pool in the evening, and entered the only store in town. We spent most of the last morning and afternoon drinking coffee and eating burritos here, seated by the front window at the only table in the place. Radar was already inside and coffee was already brewed. With hot drinks and breakfast in hand we climbed into Radar’s SUV and headed back for the trailhead as the first light spread across the vast, open desert.
Day Two
Last night was windy as hell! It was the first night we had to pitch the tarp and we had to use seven guylines on the windward side to keep it stable. We were exhausted and riding the struggle bus. For a first tired and bickery night, it didn’t go too badly. We’re working on our hike communication–expressing what we need, asking for a moment when we need it, and making sure we each know that our frustrations are not with one another (except when they are, LOL).
We slept all night on the ground with the wolf spiders, sun spiders, fire ants, and God knows who else, but if there were any visitors they didn’t wake us up. The only thing that did was the wind against the tarp and are sweaty bodies from staying tightly wrapped in our quilts to protect against the other ground dwelling desert life.
Prior to day one, we dropped a food box in Hachita to force ourselves into a town to reevaluate how we are doing. Radar, an AT through hiker many times over, maintains water caches for the CDT and picked us up at highway 9. We rode to the general store where our resupply was waiting and decided to take the opportunity to stay in the community center overnight. Our legs could use some light healing time. This is against our nature, hence the forethought of forcing ourselves into an air conditioned building with burritos to make the decision.
A Tree!!
Holy Shit! That’s a real-ass tree! Holy shit!! And of course there’s another hiker under it. That’s Blue in the second pic, a ’21 AT SOBO thru-hiker we met this morning.
