Start: 83.7
Stop: 99.2
Today’s Miles: 15.5
Total CDT miles: 99.2
We didn’t wake up until 7am, and then started to pack. Pebbles went down to the continental breakfast offered by the motel while I finished up, and then when we were starting our hike out of town (the trail goes straight through town and then down to 2 different highways before cutting through some huge cattle fields), I popped into the McDonalds to get an egg and cheese biscuit to go, while Pebbles carried on hiking.
I ate and walked and turned on an audiobook. I also had a 1.5 liter Mountain Dew that I was sipping on-please judge me here, I deserve it-and I was on cloud 9. A biscuit in the morning is my favorite breakfast, and I will choose that every single time. I was so content!
The road walk through town wasn’t bad, and then the road walks down the sides of the small highways weren’t bad either-although if it were later in the morning, I could see how being next to the asphalt would get very hot, very fast. A potential danger to consider for sure, since the CDT has way more road walking on it than the other 2 long trails I’ve done.
I had caught up to Pebbles and then got ahead of him a little ways while hiking along HWY 90, when I realized we missed our turn for the big cattle fields.. crap. We had passed it by a good bit-with the road walking being easy and flat, so we decided to climb under the barbed wire fence and walk at a diagonal to meet the trail. I got all kinds of tiny sharp things jabbed into my hands and shirt, thankfully my legs made it out unscathed.
That several miles through desert scrub brush and soft sand put a damper on my mood. The trail was a pain to find then a pain to follow-we both kept going off in wrong directions on cattle trails or tire trails by accident, only to look at the map in the app to realize we were way off. Then we’d have to meander in the right direction and hunt for the trail. It was irritating. I finished my audiobook and turned on some music, so that gave me the boost to keep it moving.
Sometime midday, just before we decided to stop for lunch and of course right as we’re bushwhacking across desert sand to find our trail again, my right foot stabs me with the sharpest pain.. I knew instantly what it was.. my tiny blister under my big toe just expanded over the ball of my foot! It was a tearing sharp stinging that could only mean that the fluid trapped in that blister pushed farther through the layers of skin, making the blister grow dramatically. It flipping HURT!
I limped along after Pebbles, going from a good 3 ish miles per hour minimum to a slow 1.5 to 1.8 miles per hour. I was hurting, bad. And each limp made me realize that I was just going to be causing more blisters to do the same on the other foot, since it was now taking the majority of the weight burden. My pack is heavy, 5 days of food and almost 4 liters of water.. it adds up in weight fast. Thankfully, Pebbles found a bush that offered some shade, so we stopped for lunch and I was able to get out of my socks and shoes to let my feet rest.
I had a bagel with Swiss cheese (the only cheese available at the Family Dollar), pepperoni slices, brown/spicy mustard, and some Doritos for crunch.. it was pretty dang delicious. And then I also ate some Doritos by themselves, too. My feet were throbbing but overall, everything was starting to feel better.
The wind seemed to really pick up during and after lunch.. and even still right now as I lay in my tent and type this. We were in a severe weather advisory for the wind.. but apparently it’s supposed to chill out tonight (fingers crossed our tents stay staked down!). And I was so slow moving, even when the pain started to either subside or I had gotten used to it, I just couldn’t pick up the pace. When we got to the first and only water source for the day, a windmill/cow trough tank thing.. the cows were EVERYWHERE, and the mamas were not happy with us being there!
We had to talk to them and get them to ease out of our way so we could refill our water for tonight and for the first 8 miles tomorrow too, so 4L for each of us. Some of the calves kept mooing at us-it felt like they were tattle-tailing on us. Punks. There were also a ton of yellow jackets buzzing around right by the fence where the trough was, so that was fun. We didn’t want to make any sudden movements or loud noises and scare the cows completely, and maybe have a mama charge us. Thankfully, we and all the cows survived.
We loaded back up and started walking again, with hopes of setting up camp at the first semi decent flat spots away from the cows. We ended up going another half mile before deciding on where we are now-and it’s pretty nice, minus the ridiculous wind. We were able to get our tents up, but had to put big rocks over all the stakes because of the soft sand and the high wind. I hope they stay put!
I unpacked and made dinner, a peak refuel meal: chicken Alfredo. It was also incredibly good. I’ve had a great day of good meals! That’s always a positive. And the peak refuel remain my favorite dehydrated meals. We still have 30 minutes until the sun sets. Pebbles is doing his stretches so his tendinitis hopefully doesn’t flair back up, and I’m laying here wondering if I should go around and tighten up all my tent guy-lines again. Hmmmm.
Tomorrow the plan is for 15+ miles again, but we’ll hit a water source around 8 miles and then again around the 15 mark. Yay for toting less water! It’s a little chilly right now, so I think I’ll probably sleep pretty dang good! Which is what I plan to do once I watch this sunset! Sweet dreams, y’all!
