Day 3: Finding my feet

4/25

Day 3: mile 36.2-59.9 (22.7 miles)

Today had a little bit of road walking and a whole lot of cross country. It's a funny way of hiking, I have to stare at my feet because of the rocky footing and the risk of stepping on rattlesnakes but I always have to glance up and all around hoping I haven't lost the marker I'm heading towards. Just because you are on a road or nice dirt path does not mean it's going where you should be going. But so far it's loads of fun. 

Made it to Cache 2 by 9 am, I was pretty low on water and happy to see new faces. 3 older retired gentleman all out hiking. They were having a pretty rough time feet wide and were planning on catching a ride back to Lordsburg to rest up. The couple with the dog I had seen the day before showed up as well. I was so happy to see that the dog looked much better today. 

It's hard to hitch when there's no traffic, find the hiker...

Then it was across Highway 9 and back to cross country through the wide desert. A fun section including a fair bit of dirt road and then back to cross country. Sometimes there's a pretty well defined footpath between signs but it likes to disappear and head of into the wrong direction so you can't depend on it. 

Around mile 50 was a little oasis at a water/tire tank. I had to take a quick break! So far stopping every 4-6 miles for a nice shoes off break has been working great. 

Oh look pretty green bushes that I have to walk through (so many times!)

Yeah these suckers have teeth, there's a reason like my legs look like they lost a battle

More cross country, and I even climbed a little pass. No great places for a break so I had to head farther than I wanted. I refused to have two days in a row with breaks in full sunlight. I muttered a bit to myself about the heat then found a perfect tree and relaxed. Stretching and yoga and a failed nap. Oh well it was still great. 

Confused sign

This area is so beautiful, I had no idea what New Mexico would be like but I've been pleasantly surprised. So far it's awesome. 

21 miles found me at the water cache before 5. I still felt great and thought maybe 2 more miles would be fun. Thatch showed up and we caught up on trail gossip and then I headed out. Beautiful but insanely windy. I finally gave up finding shelter and just ate dinner next to a spiky bush debating my plans for the next few days. Thatch reappeared and suggested sleeping in the arroyo to hide from the wind so here we are. 

Camping in an arroyo? Sure why not. 

Looking down into camp 

Cross your fingers that those rain clouds don't open up until I'm hiking tomorrow, word is thunder storms are expected.