CDT - here I come!

Day 1

Date: 24.04.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 4.2

Miles hiked: 4.2 Miles \ 6.7 to

Highlight of the day: the spontaneous possibility to start the CDT already today + driving the car to the monument the last 2 miles😁

I got up today shortly before 6am and started to recap my last days and to write it down in the last two Blogs. Around 8am I texted Simple, the hiker starting the CDT together with me, for Breakfast. As it is Sunday, the restaurant is closed today. Well, its McDonald's then! We get back and check our food for the our first hiking stretch. It should take us about 5 to 6 days from the Crazy Cook Monument - as the CDT starting point is called, back to Lordsburg. It's about 85 miles only, but I like to start slow and give my body time to adjust. 15 miles day is the plan. I already got a lot of food from the Hiker Box in the Hotel. A hiker Box is a place (normally it's a carton box), where Hikers drop gear and food they don't need anymore for others hikers. As quite some hikers have quit the trail already or got too much food and other items, the hiker box at the Hotel is full and gets added every day. I am only missing some lunch meals, the rest I got all from the hiker box. Sweet, that makes a cheap start! We walk to the local supermarket, family dollar store, and get the rest. Back in the hotel I pack it up and check all my gear. Its just about lunch time, and actually we would be ready to hit the trail. It's sunday and nothing much to do here. I text Jeff, our shuttle driver, if he's up for a ride already today. And he is! In a couple of hours he's gonna pick us up and drive us down to the starting point. Man, now I get a little nervous but I am super excited too! Trail teaches you to be spontaneous and flexible and to take live as it comes along.

This afternoon many new hikers and some hikers from trail returned. We are all hanging out in front of the hotel.

At 3.30 pm Jeff picked us up. Its about a 3 hrs drive, cause the road is pretty bad and the last 20 miles or so only a dirt road or a dried out riverbed. Jumping in the car and off we go. Only a couple of meters later I nearly fell of the car, as the car door opened at a turn🙈🤣 But I managed to stay in the car! In Hachita, a tiny little village out in nowhere, we stopped for a burrito and a coffee. Jeff, our driver, is super friendly and fun. He tells us all about the story of this piece of land and makes a lot of jokes. And he takes all my illusions away, I have made myself believing in. Like that animals would never enter a tent, it's an obstacles to them, they walk around it without trying to get in. Animals don't know how easy it is to get into a tent. That illusion made me sleep well along all the PCT! Jeff just destroyed it within a blink of an eye! Oh and by the way, a women got killed last year on the CDT from a grizzly bear. She camped in town, but kept her food in the tent... well, learned my lesson here! Oh yes, and mountain lions are muuuch bigger here than for example in Colorado, cause the habitat is better, there is no civilisation and food pressure. Ah yes and to keep you motivated, only 10% of all hikers starting the CDT make it to Canada. Can you please stop here Jeff? But we had a real fun drive and the 3 hrs passed by super fast. I even could drive the car the last two miles down to the monument. I thought it was fun, they guys were a little scared apparently 🤣 Jeff also invited us to his house in Hachita and he will show me how to shoot a gun! How exciting, we gotta go there! I have never shot a gun in my life!

We start stepping our first footprints on the CDT around 6.30pm. Its beautiful out here, and also not hot that time of the day. Before mile 2 I already run into the first rattle snake. And I must admit, it scarred the shit out of me first! I guess I have to get used to that noise and these animals again. We hike till its dark and pitch our tent at 8pm shortly after mile 4.! What a nice and relaxed start on the CDT For dinner I pack out a burrito from Hachita before we crawl into our tent. Its hiker midnight, 9pm. Good night!