CDT Days 7-9 – Transitioning into the mountains

This stretch of the CDT took us out of the desert and into the mountains. The vegetation transitioned to include many trees and wildlife included many new animals.

Day 7 – Mile 105.5 – Higher elevation

Today was a steady climb all day. In the morning we hiked through a desert landscape to get to the days first water a little before lunchtime. In the desert we saw a few prairie dogs scurrying into holes. We met Ginnie at the water break — she just started her hike yesterday in Lordsburg. Then we met Lambchop. Now our thruhiker count stands at 12. We realized at the water break that the next reliable water source was 21 miles away, so we turned the water break into a lunch and mini siesta. Also, I popped a gnarly blister between my toes during the break… It let off a fountain of ooze. When we got going again the landscape began to transition into low mountains, with much more vegetation including several kinds of trees — alligator juniper, piñon pine, gamble oak, and more. At this elevation, we have now entered the “Upper Sonoran” life zone. Also, we got to hike on the first single-track/actual trail of the trip — before now it has been all cross country or dirt/sand roads. The area is so beautiful that we decided to call it an early night in a gorgeous campsite surrounded by piñon pines. We are about half way to the next water source and we’ve used half our water — perfect 🙂
-T

Day 8 – Mile 122.5 – Desert stink beetle

Tim woke me up in the middle of the night asking for my headlamp. He heard something crawl onto our Tyvek ground sheet. Turns out it was a “desert beetle”. (We’re not sure the real name, but we named it that on the PCT. It is a big black beetle about the size of a thumb.) As soon as we shined the headlamp on it, it stuck it’s butt in the air. It always does this when we see it on the trail, but this time we were close enough to realize it also let out a nasty smell. Tim brushed it off the Tyvek, we renamed it “desert stink beetle”, and we went back to sleep. I guess that’s the excitement of cowboy camping. Today was another day of climbing (from 6000’ to 8000’). As we got higher, big tall ponderosa pines replaced the shorter piñon pines and junipers. We saw woodpeckers and bear poop. It felt mountainous. I love the desert and was feeling sad about leaving it behind, but seeing the transition was quite exciting. We got water from Mud Spring, which was our first natural water source of the trail. Before this it was all caches and wells for cows. We saw Ginnie again a few times today and a nice couple out for a day hike. We descended a bit and are cowboy camping among piñon pines, alligator junipers, and some cactuses again. -R

Day 9 – Mile 140.7 – Detours

After a nice breakfast and two coffees (like always), we hiked to the first event of the day: a fire closure. 4.4 miles of the CDT today were closed for “prescribed burns”, and we had to walk around the closure on forest roads. Right at the start of the detour somebody had left a water cache that we appreciated very much. Neither the forest service nor any previous hiker had left an update about the length of the detour, so we clocked it with our watches and left a comment in the Guthook app to let future hikers know. It was 5.9 miles, meaning it only added 1.5 miles to the hike —not bad! After re-joining the trail we had lunch and rested, then we hiked on toward the next water source. As we got close we found many bear tracks! We were so excited to spot a bear that we accidentally followed the tracks half a mile down the wrong sand road before realizing our error and heading back to the CDT. When we got to the water source it was just about empty, but we dug a bit and managed to get enough water for the night. Our next water comes early tomorrow morning. We are camped in a canyon that is both a wash and a dirt road… and we are surrounded by cows. It doesn’t sound so nice, but it is actually beautiful. Tomorrow we will resupply in Silver City. -T