CDT Day 5: May 10, 2025

Start: 38.3

Stop: 25.3 

Today’s Miles: 13

Total CDT miles: 57.3

Ugh, we got up at 6:10 and left by 6:40 this morning. It was a struggle to get out of my cocoon, but it had to happen. There was zero water between where we camped and where we were going to camp tonight, so we had to tote all of our water for the day with us. Heavy.. and much better to get most of the miles in during the cool mornings, before the sun starts to blaze. 

Last night I woke up to a guy asking Pebbles for ibuprofen. Apparently he had horrible blisters and was obviously feeling pretty awful, if he had to resort to walking around to tents in the dark to ask strangers for pain killers. I watched him limp away from our tents and he looked like he was practically dragging his left leg, the poor guy looked pitiful. 

Seeing this, I was suddenly very thankful of our plan to hike slow and low mileage at the beginning. And, truthfully, thankful that we’re hiking southbound, because if we were hiking north, there would be nothing stopping us from stupidly pushing farther.. we have a shuttle to catch on a specific date-getting there sooner wouldn’t help us any. 

It was cool and breezy this morning, something I’m also grateful for. Good walking, mostly on a dirt road.. flat for a while then up and down and around the base of the mountains nearby, again, an off-roading jeep or ATV paradise. It was real neat to see the mountains that were so far in the distance get so close throughout the morning. And the views seem to get better as we go. 

Pebbles found a place he wanted to stop for his breakfast and stretch. I kept moving. Not that much farther up trail, I found a wash with a tree shading a flat spot, so I popped my shoes off and laid down to rest, too. I even did some stretching of my own, since my hamstrings feel tight. When Pebbles caught up to me, he told me about a new option: we could get to the road 5 miles ahead and hitch hike into the small town of Hachita! We were planning to camp near that road and water cache already, and with it not even being lunchtime yet, we were clearly going to be sitting out in the sun for HOURS. Plus, in Hachita, I could charge up my battery bank and pray it starts working right!

Yall. The way I got those shoes on and started hiking! He also read that the mini mart store has burritos sometimes.. hell, the chance to charge my block was enough to put pep in my step, the potential for food that wasn’t an uncrustable had me flippin thrilled! We cruised that 5 miles.

Less than two miles from the road, we spotted our first snake, and by we-I mean I. Pebbles cruised right by it and stopped when he heard my scream and abrupt stop. I know I’m dramatic, and I knew this guy was a “good” snake-but man oh man do I hate them. I got Pebbles to come back and take pictures since my phone was off, but just seeing it had me in full chills when I was in direct sunlight and sweating my face off. 

Pebbles quickly got ahead of me (as always) and I saw him talking to a guy sitting beside the trail under his umbrella. I thought maybe this was the ibuprofen guy from last night, because as I caught up I heard Pebbles saying something about “I hope you feel better.” And then telling him about our plan to hitch into Hachita. The guy told Pebbles he’d probably see us there. As we got farther past him, my nosey self asked about him, and come to find out it was a different guy all together. This guy told Pebbles that he can only walk about 10 minutes or so before he has to sit back down, because he keeps throwing up. That did not sound good, and I got a little worried about him. But he said he’d probably come back to the road and see us in town, so I didn’t go back to him. 

Less than a mile later we were at the road. We met a another hiker there, Dan. We told him about our plan to hitch to Hachita and to come back in the evening and camp here. Dan didn’t want to go into town, and planned to stay and camp here, too.. so we said we’d see him later and then almost as an afterthought, I told him about the other hiker. He and Dan started at the same time from the same shuttle.. he seemed concerned, too. 

We tried calling the market in Hachita from the road but service was spotty. Every time the call would go through, they either wouldn’t answer or couldn’t hear me. Eventually got a hitch to town by a border patrol agent. She was awesome, soft spoken, and drove like a bat out of hell.. fun fun! It’s pretty cool that she’d be willing to stop to check on us and then drive us 14 miles on top of that. These small towns have the nicest of people, that or very bored border patrol agents.  

She dropped us off at the mini market and we got some food.. soda and hot pockets for me, plus chips and dip-and a jimmy deans breakfast sausage bowl for Pebbles. We were hoping for real burritos but the little place that made them closed down-as was much of this town. Only the Mart was open, and they were out of microwaveable burritos. 

They let us go to the community center and shower and charge our stuff. There was even some shampoo and conditioner left in the shower! What a win! I’m still getting used to not having a towel again, and even though drying off with a smelly and very dirty shirt almost negates the point of the shower-I still was happy to do it. 

Just after 5pm, we were packed up and about to leave when the hiker from 3 hours earlier walked up! He seemed better, so that was good. He was also able to hitch in with border patrol! We chatted a minute, told him we were glad he was ok, and headed to the main road to try to hitch back to the trail. 

A total of ONE car passed us, and then he pulled into his driveway not very far from us at all. After waiting and hoping for close to 2 hours, I gave up and started messaging people listed as trail angels in our FarOut app. Eventually, we got a ride back to trail by the guy that owns the mart. Jeff was super nice and a lot of fun. Rattled off tons of info about the area. I loved it. 

Back at trail, we talked with Dan. He told that after he set up his tent, he went to see if the other hiker was where I told him we saw him, just to check, and he was still sitting there, looking rough.. he sat with him awhile and eventually talked him into going into town. He had to help him back and help him hitch in.. he said he was glad I told him because he didn’t think he would have made it back on his own. I’m glad I did too, but now I’m having some guilt over leaving him alone there in the first place. I should have asked more questions sooner and gone back after I heard about the throwing up. 

Anyway-I’m glad he’s safe and sleeping inside the community center tonight, hopefully hydrating. We told Dan goodnight and went off to make camp far enough away to not bother him. We filtered  some water and ate dinner as the sun set. 

I really do love the sunsets here. Goodnight yall.