Start: Gila River Alternate mile 104.2
Stop: CDT mile 360.4
Today’s Miles: 16.8
Total CDT miles: 271.2
I was out like a light, so fast, and probably got my best night of sleep on trail so far. Maybe I should have huge Adrenaline crashes before sleeping every night! We slept in a little bit, after our bear scare last night. I was happy about that.
We got to hiking, passing cows that we just knew had seen us last night, watched me fall in a ditch, thinking the baby was a mountain lion ready to pounce on Pebbles and eat him for dinner.. knowing it could just save my goofy self for later.. ah, good times. What memories we make out here! lol
We got to our first water tank of the day, after seeing a dead cow half decomposed nearby. The water tank had 3 dead bats in it. Welp. That’s a problem. Pebbles fished 2 of the 3 out, one decided to sink into the underworld and be gone forever. He reminded me of the high risk of rabies, so we couldn’t drink this water, even if we could have figured out how to stomach it. Our filters will remove bacteria, but not viruses.
We didn’t have much water left, but knew we had to press on at least 9+ miles to the next water source. And it was already getting hot. Shit. This is not good, not good at all. We pressed on. There wasn’t much choice in the matter.
As we were hiking up the hill of this dirt road we’ve been on for miles, a car comes by and stops next to us. They told us they were parking at the lot coming up and they’d share water with us! TRAIL MAGIC! When hikers say the trail provides, this is what we mean!! What are the chances that the one time we couldn’t get water, someone literally offers some within 20-30 minutes of realizing we’d be going without!? Incredible!
We hiked to the lot at the top of the hill, there were 2 vehicles and 5 people. Two women were getting ready to set off on their section hike and their husbands and their friend were driving the vehicles and planning to wait at the next highway the trail crosses! How fun! The one guy had a cute doodle with him, Arie, and let us love on the pupper and fill up our water bottles. So dang nice!
Speaking of puppies, my Molly girl is doing good still! She’s eating and not in any pain, so I’m so very relieved that all is well back home. Mom sends me pictures and updates all the time, so whenever I get service, it’s usually the first thing to pop up. It really makes my heart so happy that my girl is doing ok!
With fresh water ready to go, and the last of our puppy kisses, we set off again. The trail went to actual trail, which was a relief from the road walking. We hiked up a mountain, switchbacked down the other side, and half way up the next mountain, I plopped down in some shade for lunch. Pebbles wasn’t far behind me. He luckily got service at the top of the last mountain, I didn’t. Sad sad.
We ate our lunch and complained about the flies and the heat. It’s a scorcher today! And I’m slap worn out! My feet were achy but my back was fine, so I knew I couldn’t complain too much. We started walking again, and the trail seemed to be a lot more brief ups and downs. We finally decided to camp as the sun was setting, knowing we couldn’t get to the bottom of the mountain we were on before nightfall. The late start, bat fishing fiasco, and playing with the puppy ate more into our day than I expected.
We decided to cowboy camp again, as there really wasn’t enough space to set up either tent, let alone both. We’re kind of crammed into this one slightly uneven spot, hoping it’ll work well enough. I don’t think we’ll have any issues with animals tonight, but if I hurry up and go to bed, I won’t know about them either way! Ha. Dinner has been eaten, and we’re laying on our pads, slightly sliding a little. Oh well. I’m not packing up til morning, it is what it is!
Sweet dreams!