Start: 522.2
Stop: 542.1
Today’s Miles: 20.1
Total CDT miles: 406.5
I left the motel by 7:45 and started my walk towards Pebble’s hostel. I got a breakfast burrito and ate it while I walked. I tried calling Pebbles to see if he wanted me to bring him one, but he didn’t answer. I assumed he was half way done with the road walk to the trailhead we reconnected to. To my shock, that wasn’t the case at all! He hadn’t left yet!
I technically was ahead of him on the road for maybe 15-20 minutes. He caught up fast! Then it was road walking in the heat to get to the trailhead. I started with 2 liters of water, and was going through it fast in the heat. When we got to the trailhead we sat under a tree to cool off, and I started to panic.. I was almost out of water and there wasn’t any more until close to 10 miles ahead on this trail! Crap!
Amazingly, while we were sitting there, me in my panic, a lady drives up. She hops out and puts 3 gallons of water at the trailhead sign! No freaking way! Trail magic!! I filled up a liter and was so happy! Pebbles got some water too, and then we headed up the trail.
The views were pretty, a few climbs above tree line with desert scrubs and cacti. It was hot and muggy, which-it hasn’t felt muggy yet at all. Clouds started to roll in, and it started to make sense.. it looked like rain was on the way! A real first for this trail! Which is absolutely wild considering how much rain I had on the AT and even on the PCT.
We had lunch in the shade of a tree/big bush, and watched the weather start to come through. It started to sprinkle after we packed up and started moving again. It didn’t rain hard or for very long.. but it was enough to make us set our tents up when we got to our camp spot. Just to make sure we stayed dry. We made it a little over 20 miles today, and I’m tired! That heat really zapped me, so much so that I’ve been so grateful for the rain. Like, please cool me off, God! Ha.
We’re in our tents and sporadic sprinkles keep coming down, not enough to be a problem, by any means. I think I’ll sleep better because of it, honestly. Which, it’s time to make that happen. Sweet dreams!