Crap. I just lost my whole blog entry..I don’t think I have it in me to type up everything all over again so here is my abbreviated day:

Butt feeling GOOD!

Hiking into the Gila is freaking amazing…the rocks and hoodoos and everything is quite stunning.

Cowboy camping.

Butt feeling GREAT! and stretched to make sure I can manage it ok.

The Gila rocks!

Whew. I needed rest. Being barely able to walk will do that to you. Rest on a long trail is just as important as days you make miles…especially for someone like me who has led a relatively sedentary lifestyle the past few years. Granted Kirk and i get out more on the weekends than a lot of people we know, but this level of activity is a big change for this 37-year-old body of mine, and everything was screaming “REST!”

After breakfast at the Silver Cafe, I headed to Coach Massage next to the Little Toad Brewery for an amazing treatment by Marshall…he assured me I would be right as rain, and as he worked on my back and legs I really did feel better. He gave me a few more stretches to do on the trail, and that hour and a half gave me confidence that I could manage this sciatic pain…and affirmed what I already knew…doing regular yoga on the trail will help keep the pain at bay. YOGA I LOVE YOU.

Silver City

I’ve had a regular yoga practice before the hike, and let that go the first week on the trail, but it makes sense that I need to continue…even just 20 minutes before hiking each day, and a few minutes at night will be a nice compliment to spending months in the wilderness…yoga is a moving meditation and can only help me connect to the world around me in a deeper way.

After that I ran errands and was picked up by Steve, my dear friend NEMO’s friend’s parents who live in Gila, 40 minutes west of Silver City. They put up friends Dude & Trouble last year on their hike. He and his wife Nena are no strangers to the aches and pains of the thru-hiker and I knew i would be in good hands for a few days.

I figured 2 zero days would give my back and hips a chance to heal, get the inflammation down… and wow, what a little oasis…a few strawbale buildings peppered their 2 acres, and I had my own little guest cottage retreat.

My abode

We immediately found common ground, and I felt right at home in their simple and rich life in the desert. Steve set me up with some books and I spent hours in the little cottage reading “A Story Like the Wind.”

Mmmm, book

We had fascinating conversations about everything under the sun, I helped Nena pick rocks, ate delicious and healthy meals, and most of all had plenty of time to rest up.

Yep, laid around a lot

I’m excited to enter the Gila River canyon and spend some time soaking in the numerous hot springs along what will be one of my only river experiences in New Mexico. There will be cliff dwellings to visit, dramatic canyon walls to marvel over, and water. There will be water!

I’m so grateful to Steve and Nena for their generosity, and hope to cross paths with them again in the future. Steve even convinced me to take a book, Aldo Leopold’s essays from his time in New Mexico and Arizona. (I’m a sucker for books, and all three of us are big book lovers.)

Ah. Now to head north…

I consulted Google last night to find out what I could about sciatic nerve problems, watched some videos of stretches, and stretched the hell out of my lower half…and it worked! At least for the first few miles. I could walk without limping, without much pain in my hip, although I did stop often to stretch during the first 5 miles on Tyrone Road out to Highway 90.

I put on my power wrist band, a gift from NEMO, hoping the tailsman would get me through the day

And i wore my fancy Point6 socks..I knew i would need all the luck i could get

The morning was cool and quite pleasant. My mood was quite optimistic as the stretching seemed to do the trick, at least I knew it wasn’t something more serious…

I arrived at the highway and prepared myself for the long 12.5 mile road walk into Silver City…some kind soul had left some bottled water at the road junction, and I was grateful i wouldn’t have to drink the dank brown bug-infested water I had picked up from Deadman’s Canyon. (No dead men that I could see).

Mmmm, brown water

Hey, its better than nothing!

And things got worse. Soon my hip was shooting pain, and I started the limp that would take me into town. I distracted myself with an audio book, a Haruki Murakami novel, and tried to absorb the novel, not the pain radiating down my left glute.

Now normally I hike a 3 mile an hour pace, but I was slowed down to 2 miles an hour, and at the end it was more like 1. I DID NOT want to have to come back and hike these miles when I was feeling better, so forced myself to turn down a ride when a kind soul stopped to ask if I wanted the easy way into town. But I did encounter IBM (Itty Bitty Mexican, self named! I didn’t make that up) who gave me a burrito out of his lunch box…he was so concerned about my walk along the highway that he returned in his maroon pick-up an hour later with a cold bottle of water. I knew he couldn’t fathom why I had to hike the highway, and telling him I was walking to Canada didn’t help matters, but he was a kind soul whose encounter helped me to keep limping.

I felt like I was making progress, and when I saw the sign for the Visitors Center i knew I was getting close, but when I expected to see it was just 1-2 miles ahead, and getting closer saw it was 5 miles ahead, I lost it. Tears streaming down my face, I decided if someone else stopped to ask if I needed a ride that I would take it. No one did, and in the end I was glad. The last 5 miles I grimaced through the pain and knew that if I wasn’t doing myself permanent damage, that I would thank myself for walking this 17.5 miles into town.

I had almost forgotten the pain the last few miles, having moved beyond it, and I was close enough to see civilization, I couldn’t stop now.

The view on the highway walk

Finally, after over 6 hours walking along the highway, I hobbled into town, went directly to the visitors center and gave myself a quick sponge bath in the restroom, and went in search of hikers.

I knew I would find people at the Little Toad Brewery, and sure enough Bearclaw was there ready to buy me a pint. RELIEF.

We were there for the next few hours, catching up with others that came in, Axel, True, Carol & Teresa…we started to fade just after dusk and wandered over to a near-by hotel to spend the night. My dear friend NEMO had arranged for me to stay with her good friend’s parents in Gila, and I planned to connect with them tomorrow…but first sweet, sweet sleep. Time to let my bum rest.

Today was a pain in the butt. Literally. I had tight hamstrings last night, and rubbed some arnica on my legs, but this morning when I started to walk I had a shooting pain in my left glute. What???? I didn’t know what was going on, it felt like there was a problem with my hip…and I had a flash to my friend Luigi who needs to get his hip replaced…his quality of life has been severely impacted by the bad hip…and I didn’t want to fathom that this could be happening to me too.

I took some vitamin I (Ibuprophen) and hobbled down the trail. I wasn’t going to let a little pain stop me from making some miles! The trail was beautiful and climbed up and up, trees and grasses bordered the trail and I reveled in the change of scenery. After a quick trip to a cow tank to get more water, I kept going…and found that climbing Jacks Peak and Burro peak wasn’t nearly as painful as flat walking.

Lovely

Views

I called Kirk from my lunch spot on top of one of the mountains and described my symptoms…he said it sounded a lot like a tight or pinched sciatic nerve. He used to have the same issue when he was a competitive runner, and explained a few stretches that might help.

And they did! Or it could have been the handful of Vitamin I…regardless I was able to put in some more miles and really enjoy the views all around. A few hours later however, I was back to hobbling and before long could barely walk.

Big trees!

I hobbled down Tryone Road trying to get as close to Silver City as I could so the walk in would be bearable tomorrow, but had to call it a night before it was even 6pm, I was barely walking a mile an hour.

I can be really stubborn. A woman offered me a ride, and I declined. If I got a ride from here I would have to return when my bum was feeling better and walk it again. I’m cowboy camped just off the road and will do my best to walk into Silver City (17.5 miles) tomorrow, but if I just can’t I should be able to hitch in. I’ve already gotten the name of an acupuncturist in town, and I’ve looked up a bunch of stretches that should help.

This sucks. And I can’t believe I still hiked as much as I did!

What a day! I passed the 100 mile mark and I got to walk on actual trail! I love the fact that the first 100 miles of the CDT are cross-country/old roads, it lends a certain bad-assitude to the trail, but when that first section of trail tread comes, wow! It’s such a treat! The flow of a well made trail is pretty awesome, banked turns, markers on trees, shade from trees…oh, and there are trees now!

Trail!!!

When I woke up this morning I made a concerted effort not to pack up as quickly as I could to start hiking… lets savor this hike.

When I got on the trail, it was a long 10ish mile cross country walk, and with the trail heading east, it was a bit challenging to see the CDT posts. But as with the previous sections I would keep walking while scanning the horizon for the elusive markers, the CDT makes a killer game of “I Spy.” I could just head straight for the spot I knew the trail entered the mountains, but with so many fences, by sticking to the posts I wouldn’t have to keep taking off my pack and sliding on the dirt to get under the barbed wire. At least the
official route usually has gates to pass through.

Can you spy the trail marker?

The day was still which made the walking hot. I used my sun umbrella for the first time, and enjoyed the shade.

I got to a windmill/cow tank around lunch time and took a 2 hour break and read more of the ebook I downloaded from the library at home. (I LOVE the Deschutes library…free ebooks, audiobooks, and music!) I met a couple of hikers (Een? I’ll have to check the names…wasn’t quite sure I caught them correctly), a father and son from Breckenridge out for a section hike. They were cruising and enjoying the hike quite a bit.

After lunch I bumbled along the route and the CDT entered a beautiful set of mountains…where I saw my first trees! Beautiful! And when the old road bed I was hiking along crested a saddle I got a glimpse to the north. I took another break and soaked in the view. Then the sweet stuff: trail!!!! I cruised down the path and decided to call it a night early in a beautiful little forest…no hiding from the wind behind a bush for me tonight!

Look at that beautiful trail!

Camp, and it's not behind a bush!

I’m really looking forward to this new section…

Ramen noodles never tasted so good.

So again, I’m making more miles than I initially anticipated, and I am exhausted. No suprise there. The first month of a long hike is the break-in phase, and really, the only way to get in shape for a long hike is to hike all day every day…and I have been doing a good job of that.

My biggest challenge today was the wind. The wind is CRAZY out here. I had a great morning, made easy miles, saw a couple of coyotes, really reveled in the terrain and the trail, and then after a lunch break the wind started, and by started I mean it howled. At times I thought I would get blown over, and the decision to put on my Chacos was not a good one as I was picking my way over the rocky ledges of Coyote Hills, looking for rattle snakes and getting blasted by the wind…it just took all the joy of the morning out of me.

There is nothing to block the wind out here

Getting grumpy when you are hiking by yourself really doesn’t mean much. If you have no one to complain to, what’s the point? This is the second day in a row that I haven’t seen anyone, and all I wanted to do was bitch about the wind and terrain (yes the same terrain I loved this morning). Anyway, during this time I came up with a good anaology: If the Pacific Crest Trail is a purring kitten, then the Appalachian Trail is an angry house cat that still has its claws, and the Continental Divide Trail is a mountain lion about to take your face off with one wrong move.

The consequences are immense with one mistake out here, I’m confident in my abilities, but I’ve never been on a trail with this many challenges. Today, the wind.

A 23 mile day puts me about 23 miles from Lordsburg. Yes, that’s right. 23 miles from pizza and a shower and maybe even a bed. Right now it’s all I can think about. Ramen is tasting pretty delicious, imagine what a pizza would taste like!

Digging a hole helps when there is a lot of wind

Whew. They say the tag line for the CDT is “Embrace the Brutality” but I think today the brutality embraced me.

I have been literally unable to sleep the past week. I must be getting some sort of rest because I am able to function, but man, it was a looooooong sleepless night of looking at the stars and trying to convince sleep to pay me a visit. I’m hoping something changes soon because I need all my energy for this trail.

I started getting ready about an hour before sunrise, making coffee and packing up, and hiked the first bit while drinking from my french press mug. I’m glad for the extra weight so far!

The first half of the day was a cross country section, marked by posts with CDT markers on them. The trail traverses just below a mountain range, and when I lost the posts I didn’t mind as I just had to keep the range to my left. Well, I did a fair amount of bushwacking while navigating up and down and around all the drainages, cactus, and pokey things. Ouch. My legs got scratched up good!

I worked my way cross country for the first 10 miles until reaching the second water cache the CDTC maintains. The day was HOT and I took a break in a pocket sized shadow of the cache box. I’m tired. That cross country section took a lot out of me.

The sun was brutal, but a pretty steady wind made it bearable. The next four miles continued the cross country, but was easier to nagivate. I was feeling slow with the sun beating down and tried to use my sun umbrella for a bit, but to no avail. The wind was just too stong.

Finally the trail became an old road bed, easy cruising, and I made my way north. I didn’t intend to hike more than 18 mile days, but I decided I could hike more. So far I’ve been hiking about an hour and a half, then take a 30-60 minute break, and hike, break, hike, break, on and on until I’m DONE. Today I aimed to reach a water source so I could camp with water. It was a cow tank with a piped spring that turned on about 7pm, so I was able to fill from the pipe instead of the dung-infested dirt tank.

I wanted to camp near by, and with the increasing clouds I decided to set up my tarp. Uggg, broke one of my stakes trying to pound it into the rocky ground, so decided to use rocks as anchors, but the wind was so strong nothing would stay. Uggggggggg. I found a spot with a windbreak behind the tank to cowboy camp, but then I envisioned getting trappled by cows in the middle of the night, so limped on a bit farther down the trail and tucked myself in between two sage bushes. I won’t set up my tarp tonight, but keep it close in case I need to wrap myself like a burrito if it does rain.

I’m terribly tired, my legs are scratched up and I’ve got a few blisters, but getting to camp, making my mac & cheese and tending to my wounds perks up my mood. There’s nothing like a full stomach and self-care to make the world right again.

It’s another day in the desert tomorrow. I hope I can sleep.