May 15, 2021
Miles: 26.7 miles
Steps: 59,831
I knew it was going to rain over night and yet I left my rain fly off, getting better air circulation with it off. Around 1am it started to sprinkle and wasn’t too bad as I was under a tree but still had to get out of my tent to put the rain fly on. Kind of had a hard time getting back to sleep after that. I will say that 5:30am alarm came awful quick.
After packing everything up I sat there for a few minutes trying to decide if I wanted to take the 24 mile highway road walk into Silver City. I was looking at about a 25 mile water carry after the next water source being at the Burro Mountain Homestead. I finally decided I would stay on the actual CDT.
Right off the bat I had a 2,600 foot climb over 4.5 miles up Burro Mountain. Soon after I got going my right achilles started hurting, I never have issue with that so I got concerned. I had hoped that stretching it and moving more it would loosen up but never did but it never got so bad that I felt the need to stop.
Other than the achilles issue the climb up was nice, didn’t seem that bad. It was such a nice area to hike in and was kind of mad I had not gone another mile or 2 yesterday to camp on it rather than at that trailhead.
Once at the top I had about 2.5 miles to the turn off for Burro Mountain Homestead, an RV park in the middle of the Burro Mountain area. This was my next water source and my last one for awhile. I had heard I could get a shower and do laundry.
At the turnoff it was a mile to the office where I first got an ice cream and a Dr Pepper. The lady at the office said hikers can camp for free and can take advantage of the shower, laundry and activity room which had WiFi.
At this point I had decided that it was probably best to head to town. I had about a 25 mile water carry along with a fire reroute that I had no idea what it would be. I knew I could do it but the fact the water sources on trail have mostly been dry so didn’t want to gamble while being alone. I’ve only seen 3 people on trail and that was back at mile 55 and I’m at 117. Plus I still was going to have a 10 road walk into Silver City either way I looked at it. This will also cut a day off my hike which I can use to take a zero if my achilles gets worse.
It was just a 7 mile hike down a dirt road that connected to highway 90 then 12 miles to town.
Since I was going to town I decided I didn’t need to do laundry and just took a shower. Then went over to the activity room to use the WiFi, charge my electrics, fill up on water and use the bathroom.
I ended up staying close to 3 hours and before I knew it, it was 12:15pm. I still had a long road walk ahead so I wasn’t going to be taking any long midday break, I just did that but wasted to cooler part of the day. Now I would be hiking during the warmest but it really didn’t seem so bad, plus I had my umbrella.
The 7 miles towards highway 90 wasn’t too bad, a few steep climbs. I kept waiting for my achilles to start hurting again but that pain seemed to go away. I did put on some CBD cream I’ve been carrying and took an ibuprofen.
Once at the highway there was a water cache so I added a liter to what I had, left the homestead with 3 liters and only drank about 1.
The highway into Silver City wasn’t bad at all. It had wide shoulders so made the hike safe and my umbrella helped block some of the heat of the sun. I made sure to drink every 10 minutes, which has been my rule since I started. Then about every 30-45 minutes I would eat something. I also took a 10 minute break every hour I walked.
I arrived in Silver City just before 7pm and went straight to Triple Crown Hostel. I thought I would have no problem getting a bunk or at the very least a private room. I was surprised to find out that everything was booked, there were about 12 hiker. Even the owner was surprised this many were here at this time of year as he had already started repainting rooms for next year. I was able to camp out on the lawn and still enjoy everything the hostel had to offer.
When the owner took me around back to the other building I was surprised to see 2 of the people I hike with in the Sierras back on my PCT hike. I knew they had started a few days before me but thought it would be awhile before I caught them. To be fair they went the normal way to Silver City where as I took that short cut and they had taken a zero today.
I was able to take a shower and do my laundry. I feel like a new person putting on clean clothes, mine had started to get pretty bad but I guess walking for 6 days in the desert will do that.
The rest of the night was just hanging around the common room and watching a movie, Holes.
Not sure what tomorrow will bring. I do know I’ll be sleeping in and might even take a zero seeing how I’m a day ahead of schedule.