Resupply 2 | Lordsburg to Silver City
Day 4, 26.5 miles.
I am actually writing this on day 5, because on day 4 I was too amped up to reflect properly. To give the headline: I ran into a mountain lion at around 9pm when I was trying to get water from the only source in 20+ miles.
After leaving town, it was still fairly hot out and I discovered that my FarOut comments were missing so I had no information about the reliability of water sources. I rationed my remaining 1.5 L and conserved by hiking slowly (e.g. not to overexert myself and sweat), laying around in cool washes and any shade I found, and not eating (so I wouldn’t get thirsty).
This worked, and I was able to make it to what I thought was the first water source, where I planned to have dinner. No luck – dry. Second source was also dry.
So by the time I walked towards the windmill where I believed there was guaranteed water, I was desperate. I had saved myself a whole liter just in case there was nothing here too, but a liter would not be enough to camp with and then hike another 6 miles to the next water cache with. By this point it was dark (a function of my dawdling in the shade so I could conserve water), so I was frequently shouting into the darkness to warn animals of my presence.
Then about 0.1 mile away from the water source (point A in image), I saw two glowing eyes looking at me from the forest. They were up on the hill, but fairly close to me. I could make out its blinking. I stood there a bit frozen at first. Then I started talking to it loudly. I made “foo wop” noises to scare it, but it just stared at me. I waved my trekking poles. Nothing. Was it supposed to leave?
I stood there for a long time, knowing the water was just 0.1 mile away and would be accessed up the hill where he was. I didn’t want him to feel threatened by me, but I was desperate to reach the water. Finally I started narrating my actions. I backed away, facing the cougar, and slowly made my way backwards up the hill towards the water. “I’m going to back up now. I’m going to get water from the windmill. I’m backing away slowly, and you will not follow me. You and I are going to be separated now. We will not see see each other again.” I said all this as if to manifest it. “I am not afraid of you,” I lied. “I am large, and I have two trekking poles. I’m not afraid to use them.”
I said all this as much for the cat as for me. I said it like an affirmation for myself. I kept my voice level and calm, and I brought every ounce of whatever authority I could muster from the whole of my professional life. My voice naturally does not carry, so I was really struggling to project. Could this cougar tell I was worried I seemed small and weak? I scooped 2 liters of water quickly and deliberately into my bladder, being careful to never bend or crouch down and always keeping my body facing the cougar.
I backed away slowly from the water, and continued walking backwards along the dirt road that was the trail, always keeping my eyes locked on the two glowing eyes. “You and I are not friends,” I said. “We will be friendly and cordial but I am leaving now.” I continued like this until I couldn’t see the eyes anymore.
Slowly I continued walking, carrying the 2 liter bladder and fumbling with charging cables. My phone (being near the end of the day) was already low. When I’d walked about a quarter mile, I saw its eyes again, farther away this time but still following me. This scared me because I know they can stalk for hours. Would I have to walk all night? Luckily my body was in good shape to keep walking (or perhaps it was adrenaline).
I continued slowly, repeating myself loudly. I rounded the bend and could still see the eyes, but he seemed to have stopped following me and was now just watching. I kept moving up the road. I turned off airplane mode and called my parents briefly, saying I’d seen a mountain lion and that I was going to walk another mile or two to a place with better cell service and call them again.
I eventually walked another 1.7 miles before I finally felt safe enough to stop. By that point I hadn’t seen the eyes for 45 minutes, although everything reflective startled me: reflective trail signs, the blinking stars at the edge of the horizon. My whole awareness was wholly focused on the eyes. I shouted so much – nonstop for almost two hours – that my voice started to feel hoarse. While walking, my tiny flashlight died and I had to switch to my phone flashlight, which killed the battery.
Finally I set up a cowboy camp off the side of the trail. I sent gps coordinates to my family, and laid out everything in my gear that I could possibly throw next to me just in case he showed up again. Bottles, sunscreen, sandals, ditty bags, etc. I felt too scared to eat food.
Fortunately I did feel exhausted enough to fall asleep, though I was awoken twice by a small animal scrambling around my pack (presumably to try to take some food). In the morning I discovered my pack strap had been chewed up. Will need to sew it later.
Day 5, 23 miles.
I was very slow this morning. Still a bit of the cougar hangover, is my guess. I didn’t want to get up. Finally I did, and walked less than a quarter mile away and found Hunter there, whom I’d met in Lordsburg while decanting my food at the grocery store. I told him I’d seen a mountain lion and the whole ordeal had drained my battery (from trying to get cell service and calling my parents while I walked and using my phone as a flashlight when mine died and just general anxiety and needing a distraction). He said I could charge from his. I made my video for the day.
Then started on the climbs – new terrain which now that I’m seeing it in the light is very clearly cougar territory. Lots more shade and trees, which was such a relief to walk through even briefly. I could not keep a good pace. I wanted to stop every ten minutes. I know because I would check my watch to see how far I’d walked since my last micro break, and it was 0.4 miles.
I finally made it to the water cache 6 miles in when I would have wanted to do 10 or so miles by that point in the day. A forest service worker came by and we chatted about the state of affairs, which is that it’s not good. You can’t escape the news cycle even out in the woods.
Care Bear showed up and I told her about my cougar encounter, which she said made sense since there was so much scat on the trail earlier. She said there was maybe trail magic 8 miles north, which was a good reason for me to push. I hoped I could charge things and maybe get some water.
When I got there, there was a woman with an RV and she was sitting in a chair outside. Hello, I greeted her. “Happy trails,” was all she said. So not trail magic. This is why you don’t get your hopes up. I sat in some shade and fell asleep because last night was exhausting.
Then I tried to plan to enter Silver City. There’s some finagling involved because there’s a 20 mile water carry and a 12 mile roadwalk on a highway into town. I didn’t really want to risk trying to find camping along the highway, and I didn’t want to be hiking on the highway when visibility / light is poor but also hiking it during the day would be 12 miles of very hot exposed hiking.
Finally I got up and started again. A local couple was hiking out. “Are you a thru hiker? Do you need anything?” “I do need battery, actually,” I said. So they let me charge from their power bank and we sat at the back of their car and chatted a while. Later they said they were following some hiking blogs and asked for mine. We opened her web browser, and I noticed it was already open to my latest post.
It felt like such a moment of “kismet”. I was very humbled and have continued to be humbled. Later when I had enough battery to comfortable check things again, I saw in my email that two people had tipped me on Venmo and one person had become a paid subscriber on Substack. I haven’t even put out any premium content yet. So this investment in me felt like such an act of faith in me. I felt exceedingly grateful.
All the stops took their time today though and I can only hike so much in the daylight hours. I was apprehensive about night hiking again after yesterday but resolved to do at least two miles in the dark so that I could reacquaint myself with night hiking. Now at camp and still trying to process the day. I have a feeling I’ll be very tired tomorrow and perhaps all the way into Silver City.
Day 3, 27.6 miles.
I’m only 80 miles in and already I’m noticing things I want to change with my gear. Testing it in a stable environment is just not the same as actually using it. Also, today I started to see the famously disgusting CDT water sources. Luckily I didn’t have to source my water from any of the worst sources (so much algae growing in the tire wells!).
It’s only day 3 and already I’m feeling very much like I’m deep in thru hiker territory; I have sunburns, chafing, a couple blisters, and sunscreen / sweat / salt / dirt seasoning my legs. I’ll get into Lordsburg tomorrow, but I don’t feel motivated to find a shower, since I think I’ll get in early and leave the same day. Why take a shower to be clean for an hour?
Didn’t wake up as early as I would have liked, which is just as well because I think I did need the sleep. I pushed through the hot part of the day today, and that actually worked ok. There was more of a breeze today that kept it manageable, but the heat was oppressive once the breeze was gone.
It was very exposed today, scene after scene after endless chaparral, though we did have more texture like some elevation and occasionally lava rocks (?). One thing I think is cool about the CDT is that it’s often not someone’s first thru hike. So there’s less of that “freshman year” feeling that there was on the PCT.
In fact, many hikers have done the PCT. So I could reference, today, how the day reminded me of Hat Creek, and the other hiker under the tree would nod in agreement. It’s nice not to have to explain things like that. Nutritionally I think I’m not eating snacks as frequently as I need to be? Otherwise I think I’m managing well. Feet hurt but that’s to be expected. All joints are otherwise working well so far; I’m quite pleased.
Day 6, 28.8 miles.
Today would have been a lot harder had I not met the couple behind the Trekking Thru account, Pickles and Freight Train. When I sorted my food in the morning I realized I didn’t have much left. Perhaps I miscalculated the timing, or I overate?
Regardless, I had a day’s left of food and one extra dinner. I felt sure I was not going to do 36 or 37 miles all the way into town, so I’d need at least a few snacks for the following day. This did motivate me to hike more efficiently in the cool morning hours, which was good.
About 6 miles in I walked to a water cache I didn’t know about (because I have no updated FarOut comments due to the widespread glitch). So that was a nice surprise. I met the woman who maintains the cache and that section of trail, Carol. I asked her about the roadwalk into town. Was it safe? Was there a big shoulder? Were there places to camp along the road? She didn’t recommend doing the roadwalk and said I should hitch, but I could probably camp off the road if I wanted to.
I continued hiking and passed a couple taking a break. I could tell they were hiking at the same pace consistently behind me. Finally I stopped to rest my shoulders and drink some water, and they caught up. They said they were going to camp right before the road and hitch in tomorrow, and asked if I was getting into Silver City tonight. I said I was planning to do the roadwalk, but I needed to get as far as I could tonight because I was low on food. Oh! they said, “We want to offload some of ours.” So they gifted me cheez its, Dots pretzel sticks, and pistachios. They let me charge at will from their powerbank (they had just come fully charged from Ravenswing camp). I joked that they were my hiker box and they joked I was their trash can.
We ended up hiking the rest of the afternoon together. This will be their triple crown hike. It was so nice to have a real distraction from the heat. We took several long breaks for snacks, shade, and water. Then I left to hike the evening hours as far on the road as possible.
I had barely started on the road when a car pulled over and two women hopped out. They offered cookies and water. I accepted the cookies. One of them was a triple crowner and they had been trying to hike the Grand Enchantment Trail, but said it was very bushwhacky. They offered me a ride into town, but I had to refuse (I was so tempted!). I told them I was trying to connect the CDT and GDT.
Then I continued on the road into the sunset. It’s hard to walk on the highway. The edges of the shoulder are cambered, so you try to stay close to the edge of the driving lane and move when a car comes. I walked into traffic. The road was hard on my feet. I would try to escape into dirt where possible, but it was often uneven. I did see lots of great camping spots in washes below the road level. I’m glad I wasn’t doing the walk in the afternoon hours when the sun would be beating down the back of my legs with no respite.
When dusk came, I began looking for a spot in earnest. I was close to 30 miles for the day and thought about trying to push in the darkness for another 30 minutes to hit that symbolic number, but decided safety and a good sleeping spot were more important. I found a great spot in my 29th mile that was set back from the road in a sandy wash with just enough space for a bivy but no room for a car to drive through.
This seemed safe to me, and the terrain protection on either side also blocked a lot of the vehicle headlights as they passed. I’m quite happy with the site – it’s one of my most comfortable so far, and I love the protection it offers. I even have some “shelving” next to me where I can place my loose items.
On the roadwalk I spent some time catching up on the Internet. My parents sent pictures from their trip to Greece. In one video, my dad practiced his golf swing in the middle of a huge arena. I’m very very tired tonight. The chafing on my legs have turned into itchy red welts. The blisters on my feet are mostly holding, but the one on my left heel needed to be drained overnight. I really did hope I could get into Silver City tonight to have a bed and a full night’s rest, but there’s no way I’m hiking 7.5 more miles in the dark on a highway. I think the next time I’ll have a chance to be in a bed will be Grants, NM. That’s three stops from now.
Day 7, 9.5 miles into Silver City.
This morning I really struggled to motivate myself to get up. I talked to myself as you’d talk to a toddler: I know you don’t want to get up, but you have to. This is the only way to go. You can’t stay here.
I had to finish the remainder of my mashed potatoes from last night. I ate them the way you feed medicine to your pet: I hid the offensive ;mashed potatoes in the delicious Fritos bite after bite until I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I’m playing that game again, of looking at all the possible campsites along the way and trying to determine if I really made the right decision to stop where I did; could I have done better had I walked further? But the truth is they are all workable to some degree and it’s useless to spend time trying to think through choices that are already in your past. (Although right now on this roadwalk I have nothing but time.)
Plan is to walk first to the local wellness center for a shower (while charging things there), then head to the grocery store and get my resupply (not much, just two days), then stay at the laundromat where I’m hoping I can charge things, handle my internet activities, and do laundry. Then head out maybe 2 or 3pm and start towards Doc Campbell’s which is only 48 miles away. There’s a six mi or so roadwalk out as far as I can tell. )
I’m looking forward to the Gila River. Unbelievably it will be the first natural running water of the trail, 200 or so miles in. In Silver City I meant to only stay briefly, but when I called for a shower the wellness center said they don’t offer them on weekends.
So I sat outside the grocery store eating fresh fruit and downing chocolate milk, and did some research on what I needed to ship where. In that time, a local bought me a box of chicken tenders. (I think he might have been a missionary and thought I was homeless, because he suggested I come to the church and asked when was the last time I’d eaten. I’m eating! Just not enough.)
And a local who had recently hiked the AT went to the store and came out saying he’d be happy to help with “anything I need.” I need a shower, maybe, I said, and a place to charge things and do laundry. So I ended up at his house, along with Freight Train and Pickle who hitched in this morning.
Now we’re all here in the cool A/C and I had time to sew up the pack strap that was destroyed by the critter and stretch and really have a bit of a recovery day, more than I expected to. Heading back out shortly fully charged and grateful.
