Posted by 23 miles. 45 miles in on trail.
Night one tends to be a shitty nights sleep and last night was no different. I don’t why this is the case. Perhaps its getting used to sleeping on the ground again. The wind was howling, shaking the tent and patches of rain came and went. Not a lot of rain. I love the sound of it on the tent roof. All in all, my watch tells me I only had around four hours sleep.
Day two tends to be just as shitty as the night as all the pains and strains on the body become more pronounced withe the adrenaline of Day 1 faded. And you start to feel every painful joint. Lack of sleep certainly did not aid in recovery.
I woke around 6am and got going by 7am. Initially the wind chill required wearing a wind layer to stave off the biting cold. Thick cloud cover blanketing the sun from appearing through. That wouldn’t last many hours though with the sun breaking though and sending the UV down intensely.
It was mixed terrain all day and hard on the feet. Starting with deep red sands. I could have sworn I was hiking in central Australia. The only thing giving it away was the height of the surrounding hills that are 3 times the size of our ancient worn down landscape and the cactus.
The trail skirted around the foot of the Hachita Range and Hachita peak itself remaining relatively flat. Long loose and soft sandy sections were hard going and the trail would fall into dry washes only to climb straight back out.
If it wasn’t sandy it was rocky, again reminding me of hiking is Australia on the Heysen or Larapinta tracks, real railway ballast type loose rock.
By lunch the sun was now biting and was thankful for the continuing wind providing some respite from the heat. Just a breath of wind is all that is needed. There is nothing worse than hiking in the heat without a breeze. Its a warm wind and would dry my sweaty shirt and hat crystallising a thin layer of evaporated salt. Electrolytes were the order of the day.
There is absolutely no shade out here. For my lunch time break I found a wash with just high enough banks to cast some shadow and crawled up under a shrub to get out of the sun. I was 12 miles in for the day.
Etienne had passed by and I would catch up with him in another 2 miles where he had found the one and only tree with shade for his lunch spot. Just having eaten I kept moving. We briefly talked about where to end out the day. He was wanting to aim for 13 miles to make for a 26 mile day. I just didn’t have this in and would be aiming for the next water cache in just over 9 miles. I would see how I was feeling. He is young and a fast walker. I don’t think I can mange the extra miles today. My feet were painful and feeling every rock under the tread.
Some time in the afternoon I pulled up at a windmill and cattle trough. I didn’t need the water but wanted the shade and I knew there was a spigot connected to the tank feeding the trough that was providing very cold water. That is what I wanted most. Something refreshing, not lukewarm water from my bottles that have baking in the sun all day. It would be the first time I’ve had to filter water with the caches so far being stocked with potable water. Cattle toughs, not so potable. This was just off trail and Etieen must have passed by on the trail. I was expecting he would catch up to me but he never did. It was only on reaching my end point for the day I saw he had beaten me to the next water cache, singed the log book and moved on for his bigger mile day. Nice guy and I hope I catch up with him down the trail. Chowdah and I were giving him the trail name Trespasser as he came all the way to border with us yesterday despite not having the defence area permit and at risk of who knows what repercussions.
I pulled up to camped at mile 45.4 next to a water cache so no worries about water. The fee that we paid for the shuttle includes stocking of 4 or 5 water caches with an allowance of 8 gallons per hiker at each site. I’m not drinking anywhere near that.
Hopefully tonights sleep is a bit more restorative. I want to aim for 25 miles tomorrow to make the next day back into Lordsburg a shorter one.
Mick Beckers 