CDT Day 11: May 16, 2025

Start: 114.3

Stop: 122.1

Today’s Miles: 7.8

Total CDT miles: 122.2

I was awake by 6am, calling the vet-attempting to be quiet. Home is 2 hours ahead, so it was 8am there and the vet’s office was open. The doctor that saw Molly yesterday wasn’t working today, but the doctor coming in at 10 would review everything and call me back. Crap. If I needed to come home, this was the easiest place to hitch back to Lordsburg from.. but, when I called mom and talked with her about it, she said I should just keep hiking today and she’d talk with them and have them call me. Service is looking good, and today was a short day anyway-so, I packed up to hike ahead.

I talked with Aunt Kathy while I walked, Pebbles way ahead of me, since 5 miles of this almost 8 for the day were going to be straight up. I walked slowly, taking little mini breaks every 5-10 minutes. This feels like the first real elevation gain of the whole trail. And, to my surprise, even with the pounding of my heart and the huffing of my breath-I liked it. The trail today had the most trees so far this hike-and man, I’d missed them! 

There were pretty overlooks of the surrounding mountains and valleys, there were lizards and birds galore-but the trees had me smiling, even in all my sadness over Molly. I’d sip my water, stare out at my surroundings from the shade of a tree on trail, then push on. A little before 10am, I decided that at 10am I was going to find somewhere to sit down for a while. To my shock, at 10am I was passing through the gate that signaled the top of the climb! 

I really thought I was moving much slower than that. Less than 3 miles to go! So, I picked up my pace a little bit. The downhill was steep in sections and poorly maintained in others. I walked through a pine forest, making me the happiest I’ve been all day, and then eventually I got to the junction that leads to the Burro Mountain Homestead we were heading to. Pebbles was sitting there waiting for me.

When I asked him how long he’d been waiting, I just knew he was going to say 45 minutes to an hour-but it was only 10 minutes or so. Hmm. Maybe I wasn’t moving as slow as I thought I was-or maybe he took a long break earlier in the morning. Either way, I was just glad he hadn’t been waiting forever on me. 

We walked the last mile together, eventually going through a gate on the back end of this community. The Burro Mountain Homestead looks like a regular RV park, but it’s a permanent community. So, all of the RVs have been winterized and have wooden porches attached, along with garages and gated yards. It looked pretty dang nice! Most of the garages had ATVs parked under them. 

We walked down to the main office, and the woman working there, Heidi, was incredible. She gave us a mini tour: rec room with WiFi and kitchenette, corral with refrigerators/freezers/microwave, and tons of tables, and the bathhouse. She also told us where we could camp and she confirmed that for CDT hikers camping and showers are free! We bought some microwaveable pizzas from her, along with drinks and ice cream, and headed over to the rec room to take advantage of the microwave there, and the WiFi.

I didn’t hear back about Molly until late afternoon. By the time I did, Pebbles and I had destroyed our frozen pizzas, showered, and had been hanging out on the rec room patio in cushy chairs enjoying the internet for hours. 

The vet’s office we use is truly great. The lady I spoke with didn’t think that it was quite Molly’s time yet, although she reiterated many times how quickly this can change. But for now, she’s eating, drinking, peeing and pooping, and doesn’t appear to be in any pain whatsoever. When these things change or stop, then it will be time-and she gently let me know that there was a big chance that it would be a fast decline and making Molly wait for my arrival may not be in her best interest. 

I so appreciate her honesty and the time she spent with me on the phone, even if the things she was telling me what heartbreaking for me to hear. She took her time and answered my questions, sometimes more than once when I needed clarification. There’s a big chance I won’t be there when it’s Molly’s time to go, and dammit that hurts so much. 

 I talked to mom and Aunt Kathy. They both agree that there’s no reason to rush home right now. So, I’m staying put. Actually, Pebbles and I decided we’ll take our first zero tomorrow.. since it’s free camping here, and we’d have to zero somewhere this weekend regardless. 

We have to mail out packages to Pie Town, a small town without a resupply store that’s coming up within the next 10 days. Silver City is 18 miles away from us here, and has a Walmart. With today being Friday, we’ll zero tomorrow, then Sunday hike the 18 miles to Silver City (and get to sleep in a REAL BED!!) and then go to Walmart and mail out our packages on Monday before hiking out of town. 

Yall know I love a hotel, bed, restaurant, wine.. but Pebbles is doing his best to keep me on budget, and camping here is free.. and it does have WiFi-so hopefully I can get up some posts for this blog I write every day! Ha! We’ll see.

We’re camping under some big gorgeous trees, and there are deer all over. This is quite the peaceful place to have a zero, reflect, rest. My chaffed thighs and blistered feet are quite happy to know I won’t be hiking tomorrow! 

Sweet dreams, yall.