Category: Walking

After departing Silver City we took the Gila River alternate. The alternate is not actually on the official Continental Divide Trail but the hike is so awesome that about 90% of CDT hikers choose it over the official trail.

We did not have cell service during this section, so here is a condensed update of the last eight days:

5/2: Departed Silver City, the scenery is very pretty. Interestingly, we encounter our first natural water source on the CDT, a small creek about 160 miles into the hike. All the previous water sources have been man-made windmills and cattle troughs. Starting tomorrow we will literally be wading in a river.

5/3: We have reached the Gila River. It’s a very pretty river in a canyon with steep rock walls that rise sometimes 100 feet sometimes 500 feet overhead. Often the rock walls block the trail and you must wade across the river to the other side to continue walking. Over the next five days we will wade across the Gila River 232 times.

5/4: We continue hiking the Gila River. In the afternoon we reach Doc Campbell’s, a small store where we have shipped a resupply box, and we camp in a nearby RV park. We crossed the Gila River 57 times on the way to Doc Campbell’s. Doc’s is known for its home made ice cream and aFloat (aka Deb) indulges in two cups, chocolate and coconut, for lunch.

5/5: Today we took a side trip to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. Very interesting walk through the cliff dwellings. The Pueblans built and resided in these cliff dwellings for only one generation, to the perplexion of anthropologists.

We returned back to the CDT via a slot canyon called Little Bear Canyon, a very impressive passageway which delighted us with its cliff walls. We are now hiking the Middle Fork of the Gila River which is not quite a deep as the Gila River we had been hiking although the canyon walls seem higher and more impressive.

We crossed the Middle Fork 17 times and had an enjoyable soak in Jordan Hot Springs at the end of the day. This is a little gem in the middle of nowhere, with clear turquoise waters.

5/6: We continue up the amazing Middle Fork of the Gila crossing it another 89 times today.

We were only able to hike 14 miles today. It’s difficult going with the constant river crossings, only short sections of actual trail, with loose sand and grapefruit-sized rocks.

It felt like we had the river all to ourselves. We did not see a single other person today although we did see footprints of other hikers.

5/7: Crossed the Middle Fork of the Gila 69 more times. Today we saw elk, deer, javelina, and a very large black bear rolling around on its back bathing in a muddy spot in the river, apparently to cool off.

We camped at Snow Lake with a dozen other CDT hikers. More hikers than we have seen in one place since Lordsburg.

5/8: We woke up to a very cold morning. One hiker with a thermometer reported the temperature dropped to the low 20’s during the night. My shoes were still damp from yesterday’s river crossings and they froze solid. Fortunately they were frozen into a shape that I could still get my feet into them.

Later in the morning we encountered a large herd of elk (probably 40 or 50). They all galloped in unison, then all stopped and looked at us before galloping off again.

We are still officially on the Gila Alternate, but this portion is now well past the Gila River and making its way back to the official CDT. We hiked 21 miles today, the biggest daily mileage of this trip. In six more miles we will be back on the official CDT.

5/9: Back on the official CDT, we hiked 19 miles today. Saw 6 elk this morning, climbed to 9300 feet, our highest elevation yet. We never really knew that New Mexico had such tall mountains. The wind blows fiercely in the afternoons and there isn’t many places to hide.

5/10: Today was a short 10 mile hike to Highway 12 and a trip into the small town of Reserve, NM where we ate, cleaned up, did laundry, bought groceries, ate some more, relaxed, had beers and dinner and retired to our room to finish our ice cream. Deb has new shoes that were mailed here and she tested them out around town. Thumbs up so far for the new Altra Lone Peaks.

Tomorrow we will resume hiking to Pie Town, after a leisurely breakfast and 28-mile shuttle back to the trail.

Shortly after passing the 100 mile mark the Continental Divide Trail changes. The trail has climbed to over 6,000 feet. The terrain is no longer desert but now more of a juniper forests. Instead of cross country routes we now have actual trail. Very pleasant and beautiful walking.

Over the next two days of hiking we meet a fat tire mountain biker on his way to a rainbow gathering in Maine (not sure how a southbound ride on the CDT fits into this), have a pleasant chat with a rancher putting out protein blocks for livestock and wildlife, climbed to over 8,000 feet, and walk a dreaded 12 mile road walk along Highway 90 into the town of Silver City, NM.

On Sunday we took a second zero day in Silver City which is a great little town. It was easy to buy food for the next three days of hiking, has lots of good restaurants and they even have an outfitter. Deb tried to find replacement shoes for her Hoka Ones, which have a too-soft sole for thorny trails but ended up having new shoes sent to Reserve, NM.

Tomorrow we will hike on and plan to take the Gila CDT alternate which passes near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and crosses the Gila River more than 100 times. More fun times await!

We had a relaxing zero day (day off, zero miles hiked) in Lordsburg, NM.

Lordsburg is hiker central, at least in Southern New Mexico. Every day, five or ten fresh faced hikers arrive on the Greyhound or Amtrak and five or ten tired sunburned hikers walk in across the desert from the Mexican border.

And so, we returned to Lordsburg as tired hikers and checked back in to the Econolodge for a day off.

Deb immediately spotted a large carton of Epsom Salts in the hiker box and proceeded to soak her feet. It seems to have helped too. She is hiking pretty well now, although her feet do have an odd patchwork of tape all over them.

There is not much to the town of Lordsburg. A few motels, gas stations, and fast food places along the interstate highway. If you venture beyond the interstate you can find two Dollar stores and a small grocery store.

As you wander around town you often see other hikers and catch up on the latest hiker gossip — somebody hiked the 85 miles from the Mexican border in 2.5 days, how far is the hike really from Lordsburg to Silver City (various guides say it’s either 59 or 76 miles), and every store in Lordsburg is sold out of Moleskin blister pads.

On Wednesday we packed up and resumed hiking northward toward Silver City. The weather was cooler and the first 10 miles were relatively flat so we made pretty good time even with our taped up feet. The desert was filled with colorful cactus blooms. We passed the 100 mile mark in our journey and are camping at mile 102 tonight.

We have now hiked the first 85 miles of the Continental Divide Trail from Crazy Cook to Lordsburg, NM. It’s been a great adventure so far with plenty of beautiful scenery. It reminds me a little of the Anza Borrego area in Southern CA. The terrain and vegetation is somewhat similar and the CDT is often a cross country route like many of the trips I made in Anza Borrego with my Sierra Club friends.

The CDT section in the New Mexico bootheel often crosses vast flat areas between small mountains. The land appears to be mostly BLM grazing land leased to ranchers. Almost no people live out here. Hikers share the water in the occasional troughs and solar windmills with the cattle. Except for three border patrol agents off in the distance, we saw no one except for a few other hikers the past six days.

The actual trail, much of the time, is not a trail at all. Often it is just posts every few hundred yards or few tenths of a mile marking a cross country route. Hikers can follow the posts or pick their own route as they see fit.

They may have the largest jack rabbits in the world here. You see lots of them, especially as you hike early in the mornings.

Early one morning we spooked a small herd of antelope that galloped off with amazing speed.

Odd things happen on the trail too. On our last day before reaching Lordsburg we were taking a break in the shade of a small bush. We had taken off our shoes and a bee landed on my sock clad foot. The bee walked around on my sock for about a minute and then fell dead on the ground. I’m not sure what that means.

The CDT has been hard on our feet. It must be the combination of heat, dirt, and rocks. Deb has many blisters and I have one. We plan on taking a day off from hiking tomorrow to give our feet time to recover.

It’s not just our feet either. The small hiker box here at the Econolodge has two pair of discarded shoes. After only 85 miles of hiking they are not worn out, but caused so much discomfort hikers decided to give them away. Another hiker was waiting in the motel lobby for the 3 pm UPS delivery of new shoes. Everyone’s advice here is to stop and shake out sand and small rocks sooner to keep abrasions low. And sweaty socks don’t help either.

Our day began in Lordsburg where we caught the early morning shuttle run by the Continental Trail Alliance. The shuttle makes starting the Continental Divide Trail much easier since there is basically no other way to reach the southern terminus of the trail at Crazy Cook (in the boot heel of New Mexico) unless you happen to have a friend in the area with a high clearance vehicle. The last part of the road is pretty bad. Ten other hikers started with us, which is a large group for the CDT. We departed Lordsburg about 6:45 AM, arrived at Crazy Cook about 10 AM, and began hiking about 10:30 after some picture taking at the monument.
On the first day we hiked 14 miles of the CDT which was some cross country (marked by occasional signs), some abandoned roads, and some following dry washes. I’m glad to be wearing more supportive hiking shoes (instead of trail running shoes). Deb complained a little about the roughness of the trail, and walking on tennis ball size rocks in places or loose gravel does slow you down, but it was nothing compared to what we faced the next day.

PS – Our sincere thanks to our friend JJ for driving us to Lordsburg so we could begin this hike.