We got up this morning super slowly. It took us a few hours to get up and out of camp. We made coffee and were a little tired from all of the traveling and excitement of getting on the trail.
We thought it was going to be an easy day to our first water cache (the CDCT has water caches for the first 85 miles if you get a shuttle through them, or pay $10 if you have your own ride to the southern trail head).
We thought it would be easy because we sort of flew through the first day. Although it was kind of rocky it was still easy. Today the trail was extreme, not hilly, but there were divots and humps from washouts where the water travelled when it rained really hard. You had to walk down in the crevices in the earth and then back up over and over. It was exhausting.
It was also hard to find the trail because there are just wooden posts. Some of the posts were over a few humps so it was difficult to find them. When we got to camp I was exhausted and my feet were torn up from the day. Despite this, it was beautiful. Everything in New Mexico is beautiful.
We met up with a man we first met on the Greyhound. He’s a nice older gentleman who is retired from the military. We talked to him for a little bit about our milage on the trail and how we felt. We were excited to see him (and he was excited to see us).
After we talked we realized we couldn’t set up our tent. The last mile we hiked, to the water cache (where we were camping), was through ankle deep sand. We have a Z Pack tent which requires our trekking poles to hold it up. The stakes would also not hold the tent. We ended up cowboy camping (which is when you sleep under the stars). It was crazy and reminded me of Porterhouse (Johnny Lip). Everytime he came out onto the AT, which was a lot, he would spend the night cowboy camping on the trail.
While we were cowboy camping crazy stuff was going on. Border Patrol was near us. Robby did wake up and noticed more than I did. I was a little bit spooked so when I woke up I just rolled over and went back to sleep. It was a long, long night. I could not stop thinking about tarantulas, bugs, spiders, and snakes but I finally passed out. It was a cool experience and the stars were amazing. I felt like I was in a different universe. I could see galaxies and it was crazy because they were so bright (not like Akron, Ohio city life!)
Miles Hiked: 13
Total Miles Hiked: 26
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