Del Norte to Salida: My Biggest Fear

Del Norte
Del Norte was great! Tons of food, free showers (thank you Trade and Post), and free camping at the edge of town. We were just going to stay one night, but it took us a really long time to get everything done during the day, so we stayed an extra night. I even took the opportunity to wash my backpack for the first time at a self-car wash. When we were outside of a gas station in town, some guy came over and asked if we were hitchhiking. I answered yes to this for some reason, and he handed me a bag with 2 warm red bulls, a warm Gatorade, and a roll of paper towels. I told him thank you, and he drove off into the sunset probably feeling like gold for this kind act! We donated the stuff to a hiker box, but it was nice of him for trying to help!

My Biggest Fear
On the way out of town, a few more bike-packers passed us. We walked down a windy dirt road out of town, and I noticed this little shortcut that seemed to save a little bit of distance. As we were walking through my shortcut, I noticed that it seemed to be somebody’s property. I thought of all the horror stories about past CDT hikers who were shot at by ranchers, and I walked a little bit faster. My biggest fear isn’t the animals, the lightening, or the cold. It isn’t the snow, getting lost, or floating down the river. My biggest fear on the trail actually has to do with people with guns. I’ve noticed that many other hikers don’t seem to share this same fear.

Back in New Mexico when we were walking into Silver City, we noticed that it would be a really long road-walk in to town. We needed to get to the post office on time the next day, so we needed to figure out where we would be camping the night. I was looking at the map on FarOut for comments to give us some clue as to where we could camp. At the beginning of this long road there was a parking lot that people said they had camped in before. When I checked the parking lot’s comments, there was one written about someone driving into the parking lot late at night and shooting 20-30 rounds of gunfire about 100 yards from their tent. I saw this and decided that I did not feel comfortable staying there. There was another hiker who said they planned to stay in that parking lot, and I let them know about the comment I read. This hiker (an American citizen) seemed to be completely unbothered about the previous events and decided to stay there that night. Sometimes being in the US feels like a completely different world to me. Back in Colorado, on this accidental private-land walk, I survived this time.

A Culture Shock
In addition to the laissez-faire attitude towards the presence of things that go “pew-pew”, there are some things that serve as a frequent reminder that I am a foreigner in the United States. One thing that I have to remind myself of every time I walk into someone’s home, is to keep my shoes on. If you were to look at my face while entering a home, you would probably see the wheels in my brain turning, and then see me check to see if other people are keeping their shoes on or not! The other thing that I continuously get wrong here in the US, is forgetting that no one seems to know the word “washroom” here. Here is an example of a real conversation I had:

Me: “Do you have a washroom?”
Store Clerk: “No”
Me: “Ok, thank you!”
Store Clerk: “Wait, do you mean a bathroom?”
Me: “Yes, sorry!”
Store Clerk: “It’s right over there!”

(According to google, I need to remember to use the word “bathroom” or “restroom”… washrooms don’t exist in the US!)
Those are just a couple things that I’ve noticed, but I’m sure there are many others.

Back On Trail
Later that day we ran into two other hikers who seemed to be travelling at a similar speed to us. They told us that they were going to be taking an alternate from the alternate in order to hit more towns. After a couple miles of walking and discussing, we decided to do the same.
The nice thing about being on trail is that you can pretty much camp almost anywhere along it. The problem with being on a road-walk is the many private properties, which could mean that there is no option for stopping. Luckily, the layer Eli showed me on my Gaia app a while back has come in handy for differentiating public vs private land. We have been using this a ton when we are on roadwalks.

Road-Walking
This whole section had a metric shit-ton of road walking… When you’re walking on the road for a long time, you find yourself wondering about a lot of things. For example, “what is the difference between a mountain and a molehill?”. In case you were wondering, there actually isn’t much to differentiate the two. It remains a constant predicament in my mind.

The Best Path
Another thing that I have been thinking about while on the road is if we made the right choice to take the low route on the trail. There have been plenty of hikers who have made different decisions than I would have up until this point.
-We have met two different groups of hikers who have had to press their Garmin SOS button.
-We know of hikers who have decided not to hike through the Gila River section for safety reasons.
-We even know hikers who have gotten off trail all together.
The list here can go on…
While I may have chosen a different path in each of these circumstances, I respect the tough decisions that each hiker has had to make and believe that they made the best one for themselves. That being said, there were some really nice parts of this section despite there being lots of time spent on roads. I am looking forward to the end of the road-walk and can’t wait to get back on the more scenic trail!