Category: Continental Divide Trail

After leaving the cow camp we made our way back to the trail and found a nice sandy spot in a wash with excellent wind shelter. The Moon was wanig so it rose a little bit later and gave us a chance to see a very dark sky and beautifully bright stars. Several deep sky objects were clearly visible as little smudges in the completely dark sky! It was the best sky we’ve seen on trail this far, and probably the best campsite we selected on this trip. We slept great until the blinding moon rose right above the wash, but I put my hat over my face and promptly went back to sleep.

Hiking out the next morning, we both took turns struggling a little bit. Kylie had some difficult blisters pop up in between her toes where it’s nearly impossible to keep it bandage adhered. My legs were a bit sore but on a brighter note my ankle was doing wonderfully! I’m very confident this will be able to heal and improve over the coming weeks and still allow me to hike. Around midday we took lunch near a water source with Cheese and Chocolate, two hikers from Switzerland we met a few days prior, and started the first real climb over a mountain on this whole trip. Up until this point in the trip the trail started pretty flat with some minor ups and downs. But now we were in the heart of Gila National Forest (the first section, not the one with the Gila River) and the tall junipers, pines, and other trees gave us some much-needed shade. Just before we reached a parking area we met a day hiker named Scott on the trail (and later his awesome dog Sojourn) who told us to follow him to some trail Magic ahead. Turns out he is also from near Kylie’s home town, and has been working remotely from campsites for some time. He sometimes caravans with a friend who drives an RV. We chatted for a bit, let him return to work, and walked over to the RV next to his car. About that time Phoenix, a trail angel who has been living out of said RV along with her rescue Greyhound and cat, pulled up in a jeep with groceries and gave us our first and totally unexpected Trail magic of this trip. We ate donuts, frozen grapes, watermelon, bananas, cupcakes, and took some tea for a later evening. She was very sweet, quite chatty, and a wonderful human being who totally made our day! We stayed a little longer than anticipated which shortened our mileage for the day, but it was totally worth it. This was a pretty remote stretch and we didn’t expect to see anyone other than hikers for the next several days. Cheese and Chocolate arrived just before we left and were promptly welcomed too.

We started our climb to Jack’s peak and burro peak to a cistern on top of the mountain. After refilling our water we decided to stop for the day, eat dinner, and get to bed early. Kylie had another blister which would need attention in the morning but we felt satisfied and were ready for sleep. We cowboy camped near the ruins of an old home site and called it a day.

I am so happy. I am so f****** happy. We set out from Lordsburg speculating that it might be 20 miles until the next water source but betting on a source at about 8. This was our only hope before the cow pond at mile 20. A windmill at mile 15 out of Lordsburg was reportedly back up and running, but as of a few days ago the tank was dry and the trough had 6 inches of water and a dead skunk in it. We reached the cow tank we hoped for at mile 8.4 and it was dry. Completely dry. When we got there we had just eaten breakfast and drank part of our town water to lighten our load, and the day was starting to get warm. We both had about half a liter remaining and 12 miles to go until there was more water. Before we left the motel I drank about 1.5 liters and carried almost 2 more. I was pretty well hydrated already but I knew this 12 miles was going to suck ass.

And we’re here. We’re f****** here. There’s a whole damn green pond full of cow piss and god knows what and we’ve never been so happy to see something like this. I’ve already chugged two liters. We’re not making any more miles today. I’m spent.