Day 7 (May 2, 2021)

From Lordsburg Econlodge at 83.3 to a trailhead at 106.5.

Big miles today! I got up early and started hiking at 5:50 AM, before sunrise. Despite a forecast for windy conditions, it was very calm and cool, perfect hiking conditions.

The first part of the hike was through town, following a highway out of town. A beautiful sunrise with some clouds on the eastern horizon made the road walk much better. The clouds stayed around for a while after sunrise as well. The ‘trail’ from Highway 90 starts ignominiously by crawling under a fence only marked with a ribbon. Nice. This area is just wide open dirt with sparse vegetation and initially no trail markers so I got a bearing on a distant set of brush and took off. Lots of footprints had taken different paths through here. After finding a trail marker I would correct back to trail along with the other footprints. Sometimes several markers could be seen ahead. , making navigation easy. Sometimes not. It was too frustrating staring at Guthook to stay exactly on course and it was easy to correct across the mostly flat terrain, so I would just aim at distant objects occasionally and go for it. Additionally, the eventual target of a solar water pump was in a canyon leading into hills that was easy to identify. So as long as I was headed that way, everything was good.

The clouds cleared at 8:30, giving a good chance to use my umbrella for shade. (Convincing myself it is worth it to have it.) It was great for a while. But the wind started picking up after 10:00 so away it went.

Now windy and sunny with few shade opportunities. Yeah. Though seemingly flat, when I looked back I could see i was slowly gaining altitude towards the hills. Finally I reached where the trail become a Jeep trail heading into the canyon. A couple of miles later of now uphill hiking I reached the first water source of the day, Enginneer’s Windmill. Awesome place. Though used by cows, the water was clear with just a couple of dead bugs. Additionally, there were low shady trees right next to it.

While relaxing/filtering water/eating, two other hikers arrived, Pika and Beta. It is great to meet other hikers and find out about them. I got motivated after talking to them to extend my goal for the day’s hike to a water cache at about 107 miles. I was feeling good.

The terrain and vegetation had definitely changed, with more up and downs and real trees! But also very windy. Occasionally I could see back through the hills to where I had hiked several days ago. It didn’t look fun with the winds kicking up dust and large dirt-devils.

Then a milestone - 100 miles completed. All right!

The dirt road led up a mountain that eventually turned into real trail. The vegetation changed again crossing a ridge line with couple of impressive views. I was trucking. The good news with the wind was it kept me cooled off. Along the way Pika then Beta passed me. Yep, I am an old guy.

I made it to the planned site, a trailhead on Highway 90 where a trail Angel maintained a water cache. 23 miles on the day with only a minor pain in my right shin. Wow. Feels good and shortens up the goal for tomorrow.

The forecast called for winds to continue through half the night but no rain, so I cowboy camped. The stars were just hard to describe. Great day!