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Deep in the Land of Enchantment
After months of anticipation and calculations, days spent dreaming about walking town to town and mountain to mountain, hours of planning and stressing over the little things, we are finally hiking the Continental Divide Trail.
A day in Lordsburg got us sufficiently excited as we awoke the next morning at 5:30 to catch the shuttle we had booked two months prior. The ride down to the border was bumpy and slightly longer than expected. Nevertheless, we were dropped off at the border safely thanks to the coalition shuttle and after a few pictures at the Southern Terminus, my nervous legs carried me north.
The desert provided us with a warm sun and cooling winds during the day. The full moon kept me up at night, overpowering nearly every star in the sky. When the sun came up, we walked. When we get hungry, we eat, and when we get tired, we look for shade to rest under. The flat beginning has been a nice reintroduction to the thru-hiking lifestyle. Nothing else to do so might as well walk,
Flat and hot miles down south.
Some sections of the trail are more well-marked than others but usually there are footprints to follow or a cairn in the distance to aim for. In the desert, the miles are flat and the sun doesn’t hide for very long. My eyes become a beacon, searching for the next marker to walk toward as my feet swiftly move the dirt beneath me.
Water tank in the desert.
The trail is full of smiling faces and grateful hearts. We are all still on a trail high, buzzing off the fact that we are actually here hiking the CDT. The Land of Enchantment is enchanting indeed, each day better than the last. Next town stop, Silver City.
By the Numbers
Southern Terminus ——> Lordsburg, N.M.
Miles hiked: 85.1
Nights: four
Ranchers met: one
Pop-Tarts eaten: 12 toaster pastries
Barbed wire fences stepped over: three
Cows seen: 86.5 (one was dead)
Blisters: 1.25
Bad jokes told: 14
Naps taken: two
Emails received: zero
”All one to me – sandstorm or sunshine I am content, so long as I have something to eat, good health, the earth to take my stand on, and light behind the eyes to see by.”
-Edward Abbey
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