SUMMARY:  Shortly after breakfast this morning, we reconnected with the CDT.  First order of business was to head for the windmill  a few miles down the trail, to get WATER!  Then we spent the rest of the day on real trail, with trail signs.  Wonderful!  Near the day’s end, we arrived at a surprise cache of water and fruit.  The fruit was in bags hanging from tree branches right over the trail, and we got a good laugh from that, and ate some of it.  Tonight we are camped up high on a ridge, with rain sprinkles whispering on the tent.

DETAILS: We got up when there were still a couple of stars in the sky and the birds were just beginning to chirp–I was VERY much ready to locate the CDT and get back on track.  We were a bit sleepy because last night we cowboy camped, and during the night the wind began to blow so hard that it literally felt like somebody was grabbing my sleeping bag and trying to pull it away.

In the early morning we climbed up over the next ridge, hoping to see the Gold Canyon road down below to confirm where we were and hooray, there it was!  We scrambled down to it and began to follow it along, stopping for breakfast along the way.  We were awfully low on water by this point, but trusting that we’d soon find the windmill by the CDT, we used up most of what was left to mix with powdered milk for our granola.

By carefully studying the maps, looking at topography and consulting Guthook, we finally reconnected with the CDT, including a CDT marker post!  Wow, did we cheer!  (We found out later from other hikers who had been able to follow the official CDT all the way that they had a terrible time with the wind.  So maybe our bushwhack wasn’t so bad after all–we only had a tough time with the wind AFTER we’d stopped for the day).

It only took a couple more miles of walking to reach the windmill, just off the trail in a grove of trees.  It was still standing, but it turned out that now there is a solar pump, and the windmill is just for looks.  We drank lots of water there (adding electrolytes) and filled our platypuses and water bottles.  When I lifted my pack, I groaned.  Heeeavy!  Water weighs a ton.  Fixit of course was busy studying the windmill construction.  “They built this from a kit,” he said, and pointed out the features that proved his point.

We continued on, so glad to be on REAL trail (complete with “trail engineering”, rock ducks and signs), among big shady trees. Only once did we briefly have to hunt for the trail.  Scenery-wise: beautiful!  There were what I call pinyon pine rock gardens, groves of trees and distant mountain views.  Also, there were so many different kinds of rocks!  If we weren’t thruhiking, I would have collected a lot of samples to take home and try to identify.

At around noon, shortly before we stopped for lunch, the wind returned.  We always cook at lunchtime, and I was hardpressed to locate a spot that would be safe to set up our little Esbit stove in those conditions.  I had a terrible time getting the Esbit to light, and then to make it even worse, the pot fell off its stand and spilled all over the ground, so we ended up basically lunchless.  Bummer.

But as it turned out, we need not have worried.  Around 4:30 pm, we met a very friendly guy out dayhiking.  He said he’s been meeting CDT hikers almost every day, and kindly warned us about a tricky turn in the CDT just up ahead.  “A lot of hikers miss that turn,” he said.  “Keep a sharp eye out!”  (Good thing he warned us–when we got there we saw we would have missed it too, if it hadn’t been for him)   He also told us there was a water cache just ahead, and some trail magic.

When we got to the water cache, wow!  There were trees arching over the trail at that point, and hanging from their branches, right in the middle of the trail, were several bags of FRUIT!   We filled our water bottles and ate a big banana and tangerine each.

All cheered up and energized, we began the big climb up Jack’s Peak and Burro Mountain.  By around camping time, we were not quite at the top, but didn’t like the looks of the weather–dark nasty-looking clouds.  So we stopped at a flat spot on a ridge, among trees, and set up the tent.  Good thing we did–it started dripping and drizzling a bit shortly after that.  There are cows all around us; we can hear them mooing to each other.  It feels really good to be in a cozy tent and to be back FOR SURE on the CDT!