Tag: CDT2025

• 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.

• CDT NM 2025 Day 3, Wednesday April 9
• Start dirt track mile 48.4
• End past water cache 5 mile 77.1
• Miles walked: 28.7

I continue past low hills.

Near water cache box 4 I meet Jersey, from Tennessee.

The route traverses a valley floor with the first appearance of grasses, tan contrasting with the dark green creosote bush. The CDT signs are spaced far apart, and I get off trail dozens of times today. Wind is often too loud to listen to audio.

Later the route enters some low black hills with scattered volcanic rock.

My water filter gets its first use at a tire waterer.

Finally I get to my last water cache box, number 5, and look for a campsite out of view of an enormous ranch house. Tomorrow is Lordsburg, and I will enjoy snacks, but not stay overnight, for the trip is still just beginning.

Finished audiobook Bardelys the Magnificent, by Rafael Sabatini, read by Mark Nelson.

• CDT NM 2025 Day 2, April 8
• Start post-and-cairns mile 20.5
• End dirt track mile 48.4
• Miles walked: 27.9

When I woke up it was already light. Oops, that misses some of the best walking time in the cool of the day. We continue following post-and-cairns, some built up with huge rock cairns.

Dropping down to the valley floor, trail markers change to metal signs on posts, much easier to follow with the blue CDT logo, and thus the tread is better defined.

We are getting patches of bare dirt, so dry nothing is growing there.

In the afternoon a water tank with a spigot provides good water. Thank you, generous rancher.

At water cache #3, I meet Mesa Man, who is also just hiking NM, and lives in NM.

Tenderfoot also arrives at the cache, and decides to camp nearby. There is still daylight left, so I press on. I have not been walking particularly fast, but the trails and tracks have been easy walking, and the miles zoom by today.

Finished audiobook Picks and Shovels, by Cory Doctorow, a Marty Hench novel, read by Wil Wheaton, excellent.