CDT days 1-3: And we’re off!

The Continental Divide Trail starts in New Mexico in the Chihuahuan desert in the Basin and Range. For the first few days, we are walking through different mountain ranges, including the Big Hatchet Range, the Little Hatchet Range, and the Coyote Hills.

Day 1 – Mile 14.0 – Thruhiking again!

We got a ride to the trailhead this morning and cached some water on the way. The CDT southern terminus has only a wire fence separating it from Mexico. After photo and video shooting, we hit the trail at 9. It is amazing to be back on a trail! For the first 100 miles we are walking through the Chihuahuan desert. There are a lot of cacti and scrubby plants. Our favorite plant so far is the ocotillo, which is a tall, branched cactus with a flower on the top of each branch. The trail today started as single track, then it switched to dirt road/double track, then it followed a wash for several miles. Walking in the wash was hard because the ground was soft gravel with big rocks. We met two other hikers right when we started but otherwise saw nobody else today. It seems like the CDT might be a lot more solitary than the PCT. There are water caches on this stretch of trail. Before getting to a cache we took a detour to an old windmill (now solar) that also has water. We didn’t fill up there, but we did take a break and saw a ton of birds and bees enjoying the water. Not sure where the cattle were… We made it to the first water cache, filled up, and didn’t go too much further. We are camped on the side of a mountain with a remarkable view of the basin below. There are ocotillos all around us. -T

Day 2 – Mile 29.9 – Cross country travel

Today was a great day on the trail. We woke up with sunrise and heard coyotes yipping far in the distance. The motto of the day was: “where’s the next post?”. We walked cross country from trail post to trail post, which were sometimes hard to spot. The trail so far seems to be only lightly used. The paths between posts were easily confused with animal trails. We saw lots of cow pies and some deer poop. We did not see any other hikers today. We took a long break in the only shade we could find—a trailhead sign near a road crossing. We saw minimal traffic—mostly semis and pickups plus a school bus. Some jackrabbits, lizards, birds, and two cows were the only company today. The desert is beautiful. We hiked from the Big Hatchet mountain range into the Little Hatchet range. -R

CDT Day 3 – Mile 45.4 – It’s getting hot

Early on in today’s hike we saw two deer and then we found an old abandoned mine! Today was our hottest day yet. By mid morning it was uncomfortably hot and by noon we were dying for a shady spot to take a break. We found a tree at about 1:00 and rested there for a while, then we continued on to a better shade tree where we took a longer break. At that tree we met two new hikers: Travis and Captain Jack, both of whom started hiking yesterday. I am going to try to wake us up earlier tomorrow because the forecast is just as hot and I want to avoid the heat as much as possible. We left the Little Hatchet mountain range and are headed into the Coyote Hills. There have been so many water caches that we haven’t had to filter yet.
-T