Category: Trip Journal

• CDT NM 2025 Day 6, Saturday, April 12
• Start mile 115.2 Jacks Peak
• End mile 142.5 water tank
• Miles walked: 27.3

The view from near Jacks Peak is hazy. Is there a fire upwind?

At nearby Burro Peak we start seeing Ponderosa forest for the first time on this trip.

Past Burro Peak and several miles of connector trail, we arrive at Red Rock CDT Trailhead. I was just here this Spring on a Back Country Horsemen trail project.

It is cool to see trail that I worked on looking so good.

The route does not actually go on Bullard Peak, but circles around it.

On the north side of Bullard the route enters Saddle Rock riparian area, and follows a wash in a canyon for several miles.

I saw a coati, large, looking right at me, but hiding too fast to get a photo.

I meet Dora and her humans from Montana, planning to mountain bike in the canyon. They offer me water.

I press on, and by nightfall make it to a metal water tank, the last water source until Silver City.

Finished audiobook Mr Spaceship, by Philip K Dick.

• CDT NM 2025 Day 5, Friday, April 11
• Start mile 91.5
• End mile 115.2 Jacks Peak
• Miles walked: 23.7

Continuing across a huge plain, I finally get to some hills.

Someone marked the 100 mile point. Seems longer.

The route continues on dirt road and actual built trail, winding up and down hills, no longer the straight lines hiked before.

Vegetation makes a major shift to larger trees: juniper, Emory oak, manzanita, some large enough for real shade.

Near Burro Peak Trailhead aka Jacks Peak Trailhead is trail magic, with water, sodas, buckets as chairs, and a disco ball. I am grateful.

As the day closes, I cowboy- camp near a peak.

At night the first clouds of the trip appear, then are gone with a sustained breeze.

Finished audiobook The Stainless Steel Rat, by Harry Harrison.

• CDT NM 2025 Day 4, Thursday, April 10
• Start past water cache 5, mile 77.1
• End 91.5
• Miles walked: 14.4

Coming into town I pass Veterans Park, and someone left their tank.

Later, passing some houses, I had to admire this custom hotrod, especially the rust finish.

I get resupply at Saucedo’s Supermarket, hiker friendly. Outside I find a spot in the shade to repackage food, and do my work while chatting with Mesa Man. I am wrapping tortillas around slabs of cheese to make trail burritos when a woman walking a dog passes by. I offer her a chunk of cheese for the dog, but Sativa the PitBull has other ideas, thinking my stack of burritos in easy reach is an open invitation, before any of us humans have a chance to react.

The woman is mortified, but Mesa Man and I are Laughing Out Loud, and I assure her it will make a good trail story, which I present to you now.

Jersey also comes by to chat. He and Mesa Man might share a room. Later I see Tenderfoot, who also plans to stay the night.

The adobe-style library has a good charging spot for hikers, and friendly staff, cold water, good Wifi, and restrooms.

I relax at the library, sometimes going out to nearby shops for snacks, then coming back to enjoy the cool inside space, not departing until the worst of the heat has passed at 5PM.

This entrance onto trail from the road seems a little sketchy. No gate?

The route crosses a wide plain, with grasses and patches of bare dirt.

Later, we pass a colony of these plants.

At dusk the lights from Lordsburg and Interstate 10 shimmer in the heat.

Finished audiobook Psmith in the City, by P G Wodehouse.