Continental Divide Trail: Days 6-10
- Madelyn Dukart
- May 4
- 9 min read
Day 6
Forward progress: 14.4 miles
Total miles on trail: 98.4 miles
Not to brag or anything but I slept in today all the way until 6:00. So... that's pretty huge!
Given that we're still in the bootheel desert, we knew that hiking in the afternoon hours was not ideal, so our original plan was to leave around 4:00. We ended up hanging out in the hotel lobby until we got too antsy to stick around town much longer, and after a few last-minute chores and a late lunch, we got started hiking around 2:00.
The first 5 or so miles out of town were pretty flat and uninspiring. Lots of sand. Lots of thorny plants. Very exposed. Needed frequent breaks.
But once we started getting into the hills, it was beautiful! We were lucky enough to hit golden hour and a stunning sunset during these miles, and we got into camp later than expected, in large part due to me stopping to take photos and admire the views so frequently.
We played leapfrog with some international hikers this afternoon: a man from Lithuania called Rocky and a woman from Switzerland called Daydreamer. Both have done the PCT. I'm glad to see so many international hikers here this year after reading several stories of hikers being turned away from our borders. They're both faster than I am but they take longer breaks, so we got to chat pretty often.
We all got to the water tank after dark. Mitch and I so badly wanted to keep our headlamps off, but the last 20 minutes or so necessitated more light than we naturally had. In the headlamps, the water in the tank looked neon green, thanks to the plant matter hanging around the bottom. It filtered clear and tasteless enough, but it still makes me uneasy.
We finally were ready for bed at 9:45, which is crazy late for hikers. As soon as it's dark, we all call it "hiker midnight" because there's no real stimulus keeping us awake and we all go to bed pretty quickly once the sun's gone. The biggest benefit of such a late night is the stars are absolutely incredible right now. The moon must be hidden behind the hills because wowzers the stars are out in force. No Milky Way sightings, but plenty of stars to admire before falling asleep.
Day 7
Daily forward progress: 12.6 miles
Total distance on trail: 111.0
Can it be called a nero ("nero zero") if it's 12 miles and none of it is going into or out of a town? It sure felt like one.
Because of an upcoming 15-mile paved road walk that is best to accomplish early in the morning, the stretch between Lordsburg and Silver City includes either big miles or relatively small ones. We're opting for the smaller miles. As a result, today was a very relaxed hike.
We woke up late today. Like 6:30. Like we didn't start hiking until gasp after the sun had already risen. It felt glorious to wake up to natural light and not alarms.
I don't care how gross you find this because I am excited to re-read this someday and laugh at this. You know how sometimes you blow into a tissue and, to your pleasant surprise, the entire contents of that nostril has come out? Well we don't have tissues out here, so it was like that, just blown onto the ground. It landed with an audible splat. Mitch looked up from filtering his water because he heard it hot the ground from many feet away. Here's a photo with my foot for size comparison!
We hit the 100th mile in the first hour of hiking! Yay!
We also did our first meaningful climb today. Nothing crazy, just over 1,000 ft over 4.5 miles, but it was steady. Will that prepare us for tomorrow's 1,800 ft over 5 mile climb? Probably not. I already anticipate that I will be winded an embarrassing amount. But I'm honestly excited to have real terrain again. After all this flat, it's been really good for my body and my brain to have some variety. And it's been beautiful.
Our big break spot was a quarter of a mile off trail, but we saw the white quartz summit and knew we had to take it. The trail diverts away from the summit so close to the top, but it's rare to take the opportunity to do off-trail miles. A lot of times on thru-hikes, you're so concerned with making miles and getting to the next spot that you forget to -- or simply don't have time to -- slow down and appreciate what you came out to see. That was the best part of a low and slow day. We were the only ones up there, and it was perfect.
The remaining 8 miles were honestly quite uneventful. We didn't really see people today except a few brief exchanges, and we're camping alone tonight. It's really nice to have company. The two of us being alone feels infinitely less lonely than me being by myself, especially when camping.
It's 7:30pm now, and our tent is all set up, we've eaten dinner, we've gotten ready for bed, and it's still light outside. We've never found ourselves in this situation before. Especially after this last stretch, when hiking into the night was helpful for heat fatigue prevention, it feels unnatural. Sadly, it's too windy to play cards.
Day 8
Daily miles: 22.4
Total distance on trail: 133.4
Today did not go as intended. Not in a bad way, just in an accidental way.
When we planned out the miles between Lordsburg and Silver City, we knew we wanted to get there on Saturday morning so Mitch could have a rest day before driving back to Denver, and we wanted to keep our mileage fairly low, especially coming out of having to do some bigger miles on our way to Lordsburg. We planned to do 16 miles today, 16 miles tomorrow, and 15 going into Silver City. At some point today, we got enough service to check on the weather -- when we checked in Lordsburg, it'd looked like it was going to get really cold one of the days -- and the one day had turned into a few days. We decided to do two bigger days instead of three smaller ones.
We did our first mountain today: Burrow Peak. We did almost 2,000 feet of elevation gain over almost 5 miles. It's not much, especially by Appalachian Trail standards, but it felt really solid, and it felt good on my body to do some more ups and downs and not just flats!
Not only was the variable elevation profile good for my body, but we entered into some pine forests, which felt amazing on my feet and even better on my brain. Seeing trees after only being around cacti and shrubbery and thorns for days? Wow wow wow!
We did have to deal with a pretty sizable water carry, though. At our mid-afternoon break, we filled up on water at a tank (they always look more disgusting than they filter) and realized we had a 20 mile water carry, including camping overnight. I always prefer to camp near water so I can hydrate, cook, brush my teeth, maybe clean some grime off my legs, without worrying about water. We'd heard there was a cache up ahead, maintained by local volunteers, but I hate to rely on unofficial caches because they often are empty. This one wasn't, so we allowed ourselves to drink heartily from our supply and refill what we needed.
We found an adequate campsite just as the sun was going down. It was immediately cold -- we were already grateful at pushing the extra miles to get into town tomorrow -- and we had to put the rain fly on for the first time all trail to trap some heat in the night. Extra labor, just in time for our last night camping together.
Day 9
Forward progress: 24.8
Total distance on trail: 158.2
It wasn't quite 40° when we woke up. Definitely our coldest morning on trail so far! Even though it didn't freeze overnight, I slept with my filter. I need it to be in good working order.
Our first 10 miles got us to a water tank -- our last water source before Silver City. Last year, someone had set up a water cache at the road. This year, we shared the tank with some cows. It felt goofy to be taking water from the same tank they were actively drinking from! It would have been nice to take a longer break there, but the wind was insane today. I was worried the filtering wouldn't even matter because dust and cow patty particles were probably blowing around into my water anyway.
Usually, the 14-mile highway walk into Silver City is best done in the early hours of the morning to avoid heat radiating off the pavement. Last year, I was hiking before 4:30 to make sure I got into town before it got too hot. Since it's windy, overcast, and almost a little chilly, we were able to begin this hike in the afternoon. (We knew yesterday that this would be the case, so this wasn't a convenient impromptu decision.) Highway walks suck. They're boring and monotonous and ugly and you have to look out for speeding vehicles when the shoulder isn't good. A lot of people hitch paved road walks.
Last year, I did the whole thing. This year, I waited for Mitch to be pretty over it before letting us hitch. (I'm keeping my daily mileage as the full mileage since I did do this whole walk less than a year ago, so I'm counting it toward my progress; I know it's kind of cheating, but I don't care.)
We got a hitch pretty quickly in the form of a yellow converted van. The young woman said she's never given a hitch before, but because there was a woman in the party and I had "an obviously friendly smile," she pulled over for us. Her van was gorgeous, and she designed and crafted the whole thing herself! I would love for that kind of travel. It's like thru-hiking in a lot of ways, just you get to drive everywhere instead of walk. That sounds pretty sweet.
When we got to town, we bought our driver a coffee, then walked over to the gear shop to replace my shoes. I hiked the first part of the trail with the shoes I got when I was allowed to start walking again, so they have a fair amount of miles on them. The shop had actually held this pair for me because I called them a few days before getting on trail to ask if they carried my size, and they had exactly one pair left. I didn't realize my old pair had basically no tread left after the desert; the new ones felt so supportive and grippy!
Spent plenty of time at a brewery, relaxing and celebrating the 9 days and 150 miles that we accomplished together.
Day 10
Forward progress: 0.0 miles
Total distance on trail: 158.2 miles
We stepped out of the motel to find that it was snowing. At first, it was dainty and cute and light. As the morning progressed, the wind picked up and the snow was blowing sideways. In the desert. Who would have thought? Not me.
We felt very good about our decision to get to town yesterday instead of this morning, like planned.
There are a bunch of hikers in town right now -- many that we've met on trail, and some that are starting soon. It was really fun hanging out with everyone and getting a feel for the dynamics of different groups, since Mitch and I largely hiked just the two of us.
We went to a coffee shop to get out of the snow, and there was an open mic. Some musicians were amazing -- I should have gotten one woman's name because her voice was to die for and I would see her in concert once she gets big enough to do those -- and some were... less amazing. One hiker, Juan, did some of his original songs, and his voice was obviously recovering from a cold, but I think the audience appreciated a hiker getting in on their town's culture. One singer did a slowed-down version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan, and I can't describe why, but I found myself crying. Everyone in the shop was singing along to the chorus, and I think I was just overwhelmed by the unity of so many different communities. Anyway, I'm inspired to get some ukulele lesson books when I get back to real life so I can have a social outlet for music.
Don't worry, though, I cried like 10 more times today. It wasn't until after dark that I had constructed a plan moving forward from town; I really don't want to do the Gila Alternate because of bad memories from last year, but the official trail is basically impossible because there aren't any available water sources, and I don't want to be alone, so it was hard to figure out what to do. I landed on a Gila Alt route until a connector trail that would get me to a highway so I can hitch ahead to a general store and avoid the water crossings. And then I had to resupply at like 9pm, and it's my last night with Mitch, and that felt like a crazy way to spend our last quality time until Chama.
Anyway, this next section is where I got injured last year, where I had to get off trail, where I had some of the worst experiences. To say that I'm anxious about moving forward is an understatement.
Comments