SUMMARY:  We spetn the morning in Lordsburg, first having breakfast with all the other hikers–hey, we “hikertrash” are a great bunch!  After checkout, we walked down to El Charro again–had lunch, and then the adventure began.  Somehow we missed the turnoff for the CDT–when we realized that, we said, “No problem–Plan B–we’ll just go the Ley alternate.”  Afer 6 1/2 miles, we reached it (a pipeline road) only to discover a large locked gate and very emphatic “no trespassing” signs.  So–plan C–we walked on, found a gate we could climb over and headed out on a cros-country bushwhack adventure, which included seeing some javelinas!  Tonight we are close to being reunited with the CDT!

DETAILS:  We slept in till 7:00–had to get up then, because we were so hungry and so thirsty.  I found myself craving orange juice especially.  We did drink a lot yesterday, but I guess it wasn’t enough.  In the breakfast room at the EconoLodge, we found a lot of other CDT “hiker trash” who had also finished the first stretch of trail from Crazy Cook.  Some of them have taken a zero or two to recover, but our plan is to head out later on today.

Fixit spent the rest of the morning wrassling with our cellphone (we have never had one before, and it’s sort of a foreign entity for us) trying to contact Gossamer Gear to order a polycryo groundcloth.  Somehow, when we were loading our packs back at home, the ground cloth was forgotten.  We’ve managed without it so far, but really need to get something.  No luck for Fixit, though–he could not figure out how to place an order on the cell phone.  He was very frustrated.

While Fixit wrassled with the phone, I took all our filthy dirty clothes downstairs and handed them over to the ladies at the EconoLodge desk.  For a small fee, they will wash your stuff for you, and I was so tired that I was quite glad to let them do that chore!  They did a fabulous job.  After a couple of hours, they gave me a call and handed over our clothes, beautifully clean and folded !

By the time the 11:00 checkout arrived,  Fixit and I both felt way better, and ready to start.  So off we went, stopping along the way at a Dollar store to buy a plastic tablecloth to use for a groundcloth.  Then we crossed the railroad tracks, went to El Charro again, had lunch, and then the real adventure began again.

The first leg of the trail out of Lordsburg was supposed to be a couple of miles along the road, then a right turn into a cow pasture. It was very windy and there were a lot of cars roaring by along the road.  We watched carefully, but could not see the turnoff anywhere.  Finally we said, “Oh well, we’ll just take the Ley map purple route alternate.”   After 6 1/2 more miles, we reached it (a pipeline road) only to discover a large locked gate and very emphatic “no unauthorized people allowed” sign.

While we were standing there thinking “Oh great–now what?”  a very kind Native American guy in a pickup truck stopped to see if we needed help.  We asked him if there was another route we could use along the base of the mountains up ahead.  He said, “Yes.”  What we didn’t know, though, was that he meant yes, there was a road all right, but it was on the OTHER side of the mountains.  So we walked on another 9 miles to the mountain base, only to discover NO road at all.

Now what?  The only alternative was to just go for it and bushwhack.  So we found a pole gate we could climb over (making sure there weren’t any “no trespassing” signs around) and headed off along the mountains, figuring to eventually reconnect with the CDT.  The countryside was laced with gullies and hills and had plenty of barbed wire fences for us to crawl under.  (Good thing we had lots of practice doing that while hiking from Crazy Cook to Lordsburg!)  Cows were everywhere–some stared at us and some ran away.  We never even stopped to eat supper, but only took a 15 minute snack break, during which a couple of javelinas (wild desert pigs) came by and stopped to look us over.   I had never seen one before, so that was pretty exciting!  And I have to admit that despite having to deal with gullies and barbed wire, the views everywhere we looked were just spectacular.

Fixit does not mind bushwhacking, and he does not mind it when we don’t exactly know where we are.  I much prefer being on a trail, and knowing where I am.  But we actually aren’t really lost–just not on the trail right now, and if we keep on this course, we WILL intersect the CDT.  And it sure is nice to be off the highway.  Roadwalking is not fun.

Tonight we are just short of Gold Canyon, as best we can figure it from our maps, and that means we are only about 2 miles from the CDT.  We are really low on water, but if we are where we think we are, it’s only 4 miles to a windmill with a well.  It will be our first time getting water from a source that’s not a cache.  Our prayer tonight is for eyes and wisdom to find the trail tomorrow!