Burrow Mountain Homestead RV Park to Triple Crown Hostel in Silver City (18.0 miles)

Woke up to the sound of mule deer around my shelter. They are semi-tame deer used to the good life around the RVs. It was nice to have a real toilet for morning business...

A quick breakfast and water fill later I headed out for the road walk into Silver City. The first seven miles were on a well maintained hilly dirt road that passed a old, large copper pit mine that is under reclamation. Several more more wild deer sighted. The only water source for the day was a water cache maintained by a local trail angel where the dirt road met Highway 90, the main road into Silver City. (Not counting a Don Juan Burrito place....)

Then the Highway 90 road March. Light winds and 85 degrees. Four lane road, but not busy. I now know why hikers hate road walks. It was soul sucking. It felt like I was going no where. There was a small amount of humor about half way there with a side road lined with old toilets for some unknown reason. Why?

Don Juan Burritos was a great relief several miles outside town. The root beer was heaven.

Silver City is an artsy southwestern town with a great historic downtown. Triple Crown Hostel sits just a few blocks off this area. It is a great place owned and run by a AT thru hiker. There is a large courtyard area, a bunk room, several private rooms, four tent sites, a large common area and kitchen, and laundry. Oh, and loaner bikes. Hiker heaven. I split a private room with Beta. (BTW: we found out the night before he is a forner Navy Seal.)

I decided to zero the next day. Not great for my schedule but I need to make sure my body is good to go. My right shin is sore.

Zero Day

(First, an apology. I know these posts are now way behind. A combination of problems using HikerFeed when offline and only two places with iffy WiFi since the last post have led to this. I am fine and will catch up.)

I decided to take a zero in Silver City at the Triple Crown Hostel since my right lower leg was still bothering me. So, what to do on a zero?

• Clean clothes (offered at the hostel)
• Eat a big breakfast; cream cheese filled French toast and bacon. Yum
• Figure out how much food to buy. I still carried too much on the last leg, so inventoried and came up with a plan.
• There were two grocery stores nearby they had all I needed except one item. One other hiker was going to hike to Wal Mart and got that item for me.
• Eat lunch
• Clean gear. In the process I discovered I had a rip in my bivy. (Think of a bivy as a bag that goes over my sleeping bag. This one has a bug mesh at the head. Why a bivy? Too long a discussion for now...) I dug through the hiker box at the hostel to find a discarded sewing kit to repair it.
• It was Tuesday in New Mexico, so.... Taco Tuesday. A group of us found a place with &1 tacos with a lot of variety. They were outstanding.
• It was music night at the hostel. The owner played guitar with some friends and has them over occasionally. So music around a chimenea in the courtyard while fixing the bivy. Life is good.

Triple Crown Hostel to 12.9 on the Gila Alternate (20.9 miles, included walk to trail, Walnut Creek Alternate, and first miles in the Gila Alternate)

Early start this morning. I was the first up at the hostel so started the coffee. One last shower, packed up and started off. It was a very cool morning, perfect for hiking.

I had a little less than a mile walk to join where the trail goes through town. Along the way was a Daylight Donuts. One last chance for town food!

Today would start the Gila Alternate route to the CDT which the vast majority of hikers take. This is for three main reasons. First, it is reportedly very scenic. Second, you follow a river, which means abundant water. Third, the main trail north of Silver City is very, very remote with nearly 250 miles nowhere near a town. To hike that section requires either caching food and water ahead of time or having support set up to meet you at road crossings to haul you off to get resupply. Not for me.

I had chosen to do an alternate out of town to join the Gila Alternate, the Walnut Creek Alternate. (Sounds confusing, but not really.)

The donut fueled hike out of town was on paved road initially, with traffic going into town for work. There was no shoulder, but most drivers were considerate and slowed down and/or moved over as they came by. Lots of people live in the beautiful hills around Silver City on lots in the woods. It was interesting seeing all the different house styles tucked away on lots increasing in size as I moved away from town.

The paved road gave way to dirt road at a large state park with hiking trails. My first target was a pavilion with a water spigot. After a short stop to get the needed water until the next source, I took a trail that paralleled the road for a change of pace until joining the Gila Alernate.

The Gila Alternate doesn’t get you to the Gila River for a while; that will happen tomorrow. I didn’t have a specific goal in mind for the day. Wait and see.

Quick summary of the trail for the day: Well maintained dirt road at first, changing slowly to less well maintained, then to ATV track, then turning off that to just trail, and even that disappeared at one point.

Highlights of the hike:

• Seven mule deer all together just off the road
• Talked to a man in a four-wheel-drive scouting for gem stones
• Initially scared when my next water source, a stream looked dry from the trail. However, about 200 yards upstream I found several pools with a little flow. (It’s been a very dry year in NM). But I should not have worried since the road/trail followed the stream for a while, with more water upstream.
• Two hikers caught up with me at the stream, Soars and Flash. (Their hiking speed matched there names.) They took a break as I moved on
• I took a wrong turn at a confusing, not well marked spot where the trail diverged from the now ATV track. Flash and Soars saw me do it and called out to me before I had gone 100 yards. Thank you!
• After the confusing start to the trail, it was easy to follow for a while since it followed up a narrow drainage. Actually some fun trail.
• The trail ended up around the side of a mountain in an area called the Devil’s Garden. Absolutely beautiful views! Red rocks formations called hoodoos were around and several expansive views.
• I came across the famous (on the CDT) Regis-Tree. There is a self proclaimed hermit who lives in the area and is apparently quite a joy to talk to. I didn’t see him. Here in the middle of nowhere is a beautifully crafted mailbox with a register for hikers. Really cool. (See picture.) Not long after that, he also has a sign talking about upcoming water sources. Based on that sign I picked a possible stopping point for the night, a water seep not on the Guthook app.
• Then life got more interesting. The trail turned to follow up Sycamore Canyon towards my selected stopping point. Comments in Guthook had let me know there would be some difficulty in this area. An understatement. This area had experienced a fire several years ago and then a big winter rainstorm this year had caused a combination of flooding and blow downs in the canyon. Bottom line: the official trail in most of the canyon was nearly impassable. Trail crews had not yet cleared it, so hikers had come up with several bypasses. But that created confusion itself since ther were several, intersecting beaten paths. Let’s just say the combination of steep sections up, some bushwhacking, and undefined trail put me in a bad headspace. And the slowdown added to my worries of reaching the next water source and finding a good campsite prior to sunset. Arghh
• At the top of the ridge line there was more clear space and navigation back to the trail became easier since it ended up on the same ridge. Whew. Now for the water seep. Well, it was definitely just a seep. Basically just a wet spot in a drainage. Sigh... I neede the water so I got out my small trowel (used for another daily need) and dug a hole in the sand just below a wet spot. Sure enough, the hole slowly filled with water — very muddy water. Time to put my filter to the rest. I waited as long as I could to let it settle (not long; the sun was going down), collected and filtered the water. Good job Sawyer Squeeze filter!
• Now to find a campsite. “Luckily”, I found one on top of a nearby rise. It was still in the burn area but the burn had been less intense here with the larger trees still alive. And I was protected from the wind, not in a valley for cold air to collect etc. Than you God. Great end to a frustrating afternoon.

Regarding “luckily”: it wasn’t luck. As I have told several, I truly believe God is using the whole experience for a purpose. One I have already rediscovered is to pray for and about everything. Thankfulness for what I see, for water sources etc and asking for things like a good campsite. I had prayed early today for just that. And despite my bad afternoon and misgivings toward the end of the day, He answered.

Philippians 4:6 NASB [6] Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

12.9 to 27.7 on Gila Alternate

Today got off to a slow start, I think due to the hectic ending to yesterday. A couple of miles of hiking brought me over a saddle that descended toward my next water source. Again, a different environment. It felt like old growth forest and the trail was well designed and marked (for once).

The next water source was a creek at the bottom of the descent. Though there was some pools of water and low flow, it was obvious it was way below normal levels, a common theme this year. Since I had filtered muddy water las night, I had to spend some time back flushing the filter to clean it out. A lot came out. Well, at least it worked.

The trail followed the same canyon for most of the day until the final descent into the Gila River. Though pretty scenery, nothing notable until the descent.

The descent to the Gila River was long. Surprisingly (for the CDT), it was built with switchbacks. The bad news is that Guthook did not show the long switchbacks and the corresponding distance. It was the longest ’2.5 miles’ ever. But well worth it. The end of the descent was at Sapillo Creek and the perfect grassy spot to take a long break/ short nap. Nice.

After my nap, it was a short walk to the Gila River. Beautiful. And no more water problems for the next several days! The bad news is that the trail crosses the River multiple times as it makes its way upstream. Almost constant wet feet. Oh well. (We could have a whole discussion on either switching shoes for crossing or other methods, but I and many others simply wade through with our trail runners on, which drain out quickly and breath well.)

In good Shawn fashion, I promptly made a crossing that wasn’t necessary and had to cross back. Good start. And I quickly found out the trail in/along the Gila is rarely marked and is mostly following the most well worn path ahead. It was not uncommon to reach what appeared to be a crossing but not see where the trail started on the other side. Or the well worn path reached a rocky area and then disappeared. It was a challenge, but not really frustrating because the overall goal was to go upstream, so no getting lost.

What was frustrating was my slower-than-expected pace with all the crossings and trail finding. I finally gave up early when I came across a nice campsite right next to trail. The beauty of the Gila River canyon is amazing.

Gila Alternate 27.7 to Doc Campbell’s Post (37.9)

Today’s goal is a resupply location, though not a town, so again a motivation to get moving.

At first, navigation was the same as yesterday. But then there were longer sections that stayed on the same side of the river and was easier to follow. Bottom line: a good pace. The last part of the trail was a 1.5 road walk.

Doc Campbell’s Post is a store in an area with camping and hot springs so caters to that crowd. They also cater to the CDT hikers that come through in a big way. They accept hiker resupply boxes and charge a nominal fee for camping on the lawn, which includes a shower. And they stock items hikers need. The owner is very friendly. He went so far as to keep the store open after hours for hire needs.

Big news for me: I got a trail name while at Doc Campbell’s. The story first. A pair of hikers came in that had camped about a mile behind me. They had pictures of mountain lion tracks over the top of my tracks, all the way up to my campsite. Great, I had a mountain lion visit me during the night. Well, one of the other hikers called me Cougar Bait. A trail name is born. Just call me Cougar.

The big choice to make at Doc Campbell’s is how much to resupply. The question is whether to resupply all the way to Pie Town, about 140 miles, or plan an additional stop to Reserve. The choice isn’t easy because Reserve is off trail and requires a tough hitchhike or a paid shuttle and happens with only 40 miles remaining to Pie Town. Being the conservative guy I am, I elected to resupply in Reserve.

I camped on the lawn at Doc Campbell’s to get an early start tomorrow.