The CDT is hard! We got to the second water cache and ran into army guy. He was so happy to see us. I was surprised the other hikers weren’t with him. He hasn’t seen them since yesterday but we thought they were ahead of us with him. We chatted while we tried to set up our tent. However, the ground is nothing but sand and the stakes are not able to get a good enough grip to stay in while we put up the tent. After struggling and trying to get the tent to stay up we eventually accepted the fact that we were going to have to cowboy camp. We left our tent laying flat and put our air pads and sleeping bags down like we would if we were sleeping in the tent. Right now it’s not windy and the sky’s are clear ... let’s hope it stays that way!
Today was a brutal hike. The terrain was rough and it was hot. At the beginning of the day the direction of the trail was really hard to see and there were a bunch of little ups and downs over ankle twisting rocks. We kept reminding each other to drink plenty of water because it’s easy to forget in a dry heat. We can dehydrate without even realizing it.
I really hope the other hikers are ok. They are a little bit older but they seemed like they were ready to move down the trail. Right now there are five other people on trail and we have no idea where they are. I’ve heard that happens on the CDT. It’s really easy to get separated from other people.
This water cache is close to highway 81. We’ve already seen border patrol drive three or four times down the highway. The army guy said he was getting up at 5:00 and I told him we were trying to do the same thing. I really want to get up early and try to get 10 miles by noon like we were doing on the AT, especially being that we are in the desert. I wanna get miles in before it gets hot.
It’s supposed to start getting hot tomorrow (and I already thought today was bad!) At one point I thought my water was leaking but it was just sweat, lol. Bubbles just saw a shooting star so I think I better put the phone away and star gaze.
It’s absolutely beautiful in the desert. Beautiful but brutal. We did another 13 miles today, got a late start and got even more pushed back because we decided to put our sleeping pads inside our backpacks instead of the usual outside on the side strap. There are too many pointy cacti everywhere. Tomorrow is going to be tough with more ups and downs and 20 miles to the next water cache. There will be an opportunity in 13 miles to get water but the water quality it supposed to be pretty horrible. We might pack extra water out and dry camp.
Miles Hiked: 13
Total Miles Hiked: 26
Animals seen:
Cows
Rabbits
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| Good Morning! |
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| Looking good with my sun umbrella |
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