{"id":116,"date":"2016-05-04T01:02:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T01:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=116"},"modified":"2017-02-09T15:07:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T15:07:48","slug":"unexpected-cross-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/04\/unexpected-cross-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday, May 4 Unexpected Cross-country"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"may-4-2\"<\/strong>SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>We spetn the morning in Lordsburg, first having breakfast with all the other hikers–hey, we “hikertrash” are a great bunch!\u00a0 After checkout, we walked down to El Charro again–had lunch, and then the adventure began.\u00a0 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.”\u00a0 Afer 6 1\/2 miles, we reached it (a pipeline road) only to discover a large locked gate and very emphatic “no trespassing” signs.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 Tonight we are close to being reunited with the CDT!<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>We slept in till 7:00–had to get up then, because we were so hungry and so thirsty.\u00a0 I found myself craving orange juice especially.\u00a0 We did drink a lot yesterday, but I guess it wasn’t enough.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Some of them have taken a zero or two to recover, but our plan is to head out later on today.<\/p>\n

Fixit\u00a0spent 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.\u00a0 Somehow, when we were loading our packs back at home, the ground cloth was forgotten.\u00a0 We’ve managed without it so far, but really need to get something.\u00a0 No luck for Fixit, though–he could not figure out how to place an order on the cell phone.\u00a0 He was very frustrated.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0Fixit wrassled with the phone, I took all our filthy dirty clothes downstairs and handed them over to the ladies at the EconoLodge desk.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 They did a fabulous job.\u00a0 After a couple of hours, they gave me a call and handed over our clothes, beautifully clean and\u00a0folded !<\/p>\n

By the time the 11:00 checkout arrived,\u00a0\u00a0Fixit and I both felt way better, and ready to start.\u00a0 So off we went, stopping along the way at a Dollar store to buy a plastic tablecloth to use for a groundcloth.\u00a0 Then we crossed the railroad tracks, went to El Charro again, had lunch, and then the real adventure began again.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 We\u00a0watched carefully, but\u00a0could not see\u00a0the turnoff anywhere.\u00a0 Finally we said, “Oh well, we’ll just take the Ley map purple route alternate.”\u00a0 \u00a0After 6 1\/2 more\u00a0miles, we reached it (a pipeline road) only to discover a large locked gate and very emphatic “no unauthorized people allowed” sign.<\/p>\n

While we were standing there thinking “Oh great–now what?”\u00a0 a very kind Native American guy in a pickup truck stopped to see if we needed help.\u00a0 We asked him if there was another route we could use along the base of the mountains\u00a0up ahead.\u00a0 He said, “Yes.”\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So we walked on another 9 miles to the mountain base, only to discover NO road at all.<\/p>\n

Now what?\u00a0 The only alternative was to just go for it and bushwhack.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The countryside was laced with gullies and hills and had plenty of barbed wire fences for us to crawl under.\u00a0 (Good thing we had lots of practice doing that while hiking from Crazy Cook to Lordsburg!)\u00a0 Cows were everywhere–some stared at us and some ran away. \u00a0We never even stopped to eat supper, but only took a 15 minute snack break, during which a couple of javelinas (wild desert pigs)\u00a0came by and stopped to look us over.\u00a0\u00a0 I had never seen one before, so that was pretty exciting!\u00a0 And I have to admit that despite having to deal with gullies and barbed wire, the views everywhere we looked were just spectacular.<\/p>\n

Fixit does not mind bushwhacking, and he does not mind it when we don’t exactly know where we are.\u00a0 I much prefer being on a trail, and knowing where I am.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And it sure is nice to be off the highway.\u00a0 Roadwalking is not fun.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It will be our first time getting water from a source that’s not a cache.\u00a0 Our prayer tonight is for eyes and wisdom to find the trail tomorrow!<\/p>\n\n\t\t