Welcome to the Desert

Saturday morning 10 hikers gathered in the Econo Lodge Lobby in quiet, focused, contemplation, much like the energy right before a race. Lion Heart, Coincidence, Hot Tub, K2, Ridge Runner, 2 weeks and 3 days, Lumber, Scat Man, Addy, and Myself. Mentally going over everything in your head making sure nothing is forgotten, hoping your mentally and physically prepared, and praying everything goes well. Even with perfect preparation things can still not go as planned and all I hope for is that I have the knowledge and ability to approach those situations and be able to overcome them. As a single female hiker it is rather empowering. The ride to the border took 3.5 hours and the second half was entirely a 4WD experience that no rental car could possibly handle, we were all immensely thankful for the convenience of the shuttle, THANK YOU CDTC!!!! A quick group photo at the monument, a few individual poses, last minute water check, and we're off!!!! A comfortable 65 degrees with gentle breeze at our backs, beautiful. On day 2, Lion Heart and I woke to 58 degrees and dark clouds on the horizon... within an hour we were hiking thru rain and sleet blowing straight at us. Being the desert there's no place to hide so we keep hiking to stay warm, it was incredible. 2 hours later the weather finally cleared a bit and we were able to dry out our gear a little before the next wave of thunderstorms came, this time the hail hurt a bit! Boy was I glad I brought all of my rain gear! Welcome to the Desert!!! We later found out this storm system brought a lot of snow to the mountains up north, very glad to be down here in the desert warming up. The next 2 days of hiking was a lot of aching legs and sore feet. While the sun was back in fine form the heat really wasn't that bad with a high of mid 70's. Very few places to get out of the sun means I have to be hyper-vigilant about keeping covered as much as possible. Despite best efforts I still have a touch of sun on my face and calves, nothing unexpected considering I came from the great north! The trail so far is a combination of old 4WD roads and bushwhacking from post marker to post marker, there is no actual constructed trail. It's interesting and oddly liberating. Most hikers have a GPS with waypoints and maps loaded and are checking their progress regularly. Me? I have maps and a compass primarily. I do carry a GSP but it's only function is to give my co-ordinates that I would have to pinpoint on my map, my hope is to finish with the same set of batteries that I start with. Why no fancy GPS? Some people argue that I am being reckless and less-safe... I argue that having your face buried in your GPS is far more reckless, what happens when you run out of batteries? Do you even know where you are? I'm a bit traditional in my approach to many things. I want to be able to navigate without electronics. It's just too easy to follow a little arrow in your hand and not notice the obvious real world signs right in front of you. Fun trail culture fact for today: a ZERO day is a day where a hiker makes no forward progress, ie no miles hiked. Most commonly taken in town, these rest days are a welcome treat for aching feet and sun burnt bodies. Lion Heart and I are taking a ZERO today, resting a bit before heading back out early tomorrow to Silver City. A similar term is a NERO, as in nearly a zero day. Happy Trails! ~beads