I was up and hiking by 6:45 am. Luckily, my bee stings from yesterday were close to the reaction of a mosquito bite. I guess my precaution wasn’t worth all the effort to cut back to the road.
| 🗓️ Date | April 17th |
| ⇢ Mileage | 23.3 |
| 📍 Trip Mileage | 45.1 |
| ⛅️ Weather | Stagnant morning and afternoon with a high of 91°F, wind gusts out of the southwest in the late afternoon |
| 🏞️ Trail Conditions | Flat, cross-country travel transitioned to a long gravel road walk, ending with cruisy clear trail |
Surprisingly, I came across a pack of three deer today. I am perplexed by how animals survive in this territory. Water is scarce; the cows have to wander hundreds of acres to scrap enough together to survive.
I wasn’t too thrilled with the trail today. Despite it being flat, there was an excessive amount of gravel road walks. Even though it allows for fast travel, I despise road walking (mostly just heavy use, established roads), whether it’s pavement or dirt. Even though I follow the tread wear of a single side, it’s just not the same as trail. Loose large rocks on top of hard packed surface sucks the spring out of my legs.
I see why the government bought this land in the Gadsden purchase. The flatness of the desert valleys is ideal territory for laying rail.
It was a quite uneventful day. I’m getting sunburn on the back of my legs from always facing northbound. I ain’t a fan of sunscreen on trail; the combination of sweat, powdered desert sand, and wet lotion creates a disgusting layer that makes it almost unbearable to comfortably settle into a sleeping bag at night.
I made decent mileage today. Looking at a map, it looks like I am finally out of the heel of New Mexico. I guess that means I’m now in the boot. I’ll arrive back to Lordsburg in a couple days. I’m going to keep myself around 20 miles a day until my body is in the swing of things again. Especially in the exposure and heat of southern New Mexico, I think this is a wise decision. I like desert hiking, but I am antsy to get north of Lordsburg. The hiking looks to be a bit more interesting and bearable as the trail climbs into the hills.
I’m cowboy camping again tonight. Bats are swooping over me as they pick off bugs. Keeping with the tradition of Miyagi and Chairman on the PCT, I will cowboy camp as much of the desert as the weather permits.
Signing off,
Zeppelin
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