Day 7 Cow Water

24.2 miles (38.9 km)

The night was cold. Not difficult to bare just drafty with a quilt rather than a sleeping bag. It’s a fine balance between being too hot and too cold. Not wanting bare skin straight against the plastic of my sleeping map, I wear thermals to bed. The beauty of a quilt is that I can kick my legs out or remove it completely and use it like a blanket. But during the night the temp dropped and the air found the gaps. Other than that I had a great recovery sleep. I was shut eye before the sun went down.

It was going to be a longer day today. Tomorrow there is a 14 mile road walk into Silver City and wanted to do this first thing tomorrow morning. This meant hiking 24 miles today to position myself out near the road today.

I was away by 6:30 with the sun up and a clear blue sky. I walked the 1 mile back to trail and it was already apparent today was going to be a hot one. A light warm breeze already.

Around 4 miles in I met Christina from Durango in Colorado. Be had a brief chat and she queried my trail name. Turns out she works for the forest service and was familiar with what the Hotshot crews do. We played leap frog with each through the morning chatting each time one of past the other. Last I saw her was around 10am when she past me. I thought she was in front of me – keep that in mind for later on. She was not planning to hike the highway section was was aiming for the same end as me, electing to get picked up by a friend.

The trail was great for most part following a mix of single trail and forest service roads. Where it is fine gravel under food it is my absolute favourite as I can actually look up and out about at the scenery, not having to constantly look down at foot placements like on the more rockier terrain. Change the trees species and you could absolutely be hiking in the Flinders Ranges.

Much of the day was taken up with views of Bullard Peak. For hours this thing was in my view. In front, over my shoulder and back at the rear only to reappear over the shoulder again. Rather than traverse straight up and over hills here the trails maintain a much nicer, even grade. It makes for easy walking but does mean meandering along counters around an entire mountain over a much longer distance rather than over it.

Just before lunch near the Black Hawk Seep turn off I ran into X-Ray. I’m obviously moving at a good pace as I’m starting to overtake those that started at the border before me. We would play leap frog through the afternoon. He wasn’t much of a talker, exchanging pleasantries was about all I could get out of him. He had the same plan in mind, to reach the road and get the bitumen out the way tomorrow morning.

The afternoon was uneventful. Hot would be the one word summary. A scorching sun beat down requiring multiple breaks in shade about every hour or so. I started to watch my water closely as I was running low and there were reliable sources until the end of the day. Even those reliable sources were not the best.

By 4:30pm my water was out and I had another mile to go before reaching a cow trough. While walking towards it on a forest road a car approached and the driver asked me if I’ve seen a girl named Christina. This was Cristina’s friend that was to me her at the parking lot to avoid the road walk. I told her that I had run into her this morning and that I thought she was in front of me. I was surprised she was not at the car park already ahead of me. She had obviously bailed off to the side of the trail to take care of business at some stage at which point I’d maybe passed her.

Her friend drove on up the forest road as far as she could returning to pass me in the opposite direction as I’d reached the cattle trough.

Thankful to have some water I had no choice but to dip from the cattle trough. Clear well water was running directly into the trough but the source was under a locked cap and access couldn’t be gained. The trough water was clear enough mid layer if you scrapped off the bugs and fluorescent green algae off to the side and didn’t stir the bottom sediment. The cows scattered as I approached. Beggars can’t be choosers out here. It filtered amazingly but had a slight well water taste to it. I just needed enough to get me through the night and half a day tomorrow.

As I was filtering my water Christins’s friend drove passed again looking for her. Soon I was walking from the cattle trough for the last mile or so of the day when I heard the car come back. As it got closer it was great to see a face in the passenger seat. Friends reunited and stress dissipated. They stopped to offer me a ride which I declined but the offer of a cold beverage could not be passed up. I had a cold coke in hand as I wandered into camp for the night.