CDT Days 10-12 – Silver City

This section of the CDT took us into the town of Silver City and then up into the Black Mountain Range beyond. There is lots of evidence of black bears in this area. We are in the transition zone between the Basin and Range Province and the Colorado Plateau.

Day 10 – Mile 157.8 – Resupply in Silver City

Today we woke up early in anticipation of showers, laundry, and food in Silver City. Ten days with no showers and no streams to wash in meant our arms and faces were covered in layers of sweat, sand, and sunscreen. The CDT is not complete in this area, so it currently goes directly through Silver City. That meant we had a 13 mile paved road walk into town (uphill and with a headwind–we were glad we were not on bikes). When we got to town, we grabbed a burrito, picked up our resupply box from the post office, bought some fuel from the bike store, and then went to the hiker hostel. The hiker hostel was really nice. The showers and laundry were great. They even had “laundry clothes” (loaner clothes we could wear while washing our clothes). We enjoyed dinner with some other thruhikers. We slept in the backyard. We also schemed with Lunar about the next section of trail. Most people take an alternative route, which crosses the Gila River hundreds of times. We are taking the official CDT, which is higher and appears to have some long dry sections (30 miles between reliable looking water sources). Lunar is doing a loop on the alternative and the official CDT and is planning to cache some water for himself, so he offered to cache some for us too in two different locations. -R

Day 11 – Mile 170.9 – Uphill out of Silver City

We had a few internet chores to do this morning when we woke up, so we did not get back to the trail quickly. We had massive breakfast burritos at a Silver City restaurant called Adobe Springs (yum!), then we went to two grocery stores to resupply, and we finally headed towards the trail at about 1:00. Despite the slowness it was a satisfying town stop. We again had several miles of uphill road walking before finally hitting single-track trail. Once there, we encountered a couple of trail runners and mountain bikers but no other hikers. We also saw a horny-toad lizard and lots of bear poop. We hiked until we got almost to tomorrow’s first water source, which we’ll hit up early tomorrow to fill our bottles before a long water carry. For dinner we ate our newest dehydrated recipe: creamy spaghetti. Despite the fact that I spilled half of it in the dirt, it was yummy! I ate the spilled part too — leave no trace! -T

Day 12 – Mile 188.1 – Trail Magic

Today was a hard day. We were both tired and hungry all day. I guess we did not rest or eat enough in town. We got to our first potential water source of the day, a creek, and walked up it almost half a mile, but we only found one small puddle in a rock. We each filled a water bottle and continued on to our backup plan – a monastery a little ways off trail. When we got there, a friendly nun gave us each 3 liters of water. Around 11 or 12 we got to the intersection of the trail and highway 15. Tim found a lone IPA. Trail magic! It was amazing! Someone had also left a water cache. We drank a liter and replenished. Thank you to whoever left the beer and water! We then had a big, challenging climb that was steep and rocky at times. At the end of the day, we got to the water that Lunar had cached for us, and then found a place to camp. Thank you, Lunar! -R