Trail magic on trail!

Day: 152

Date: 12.10.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 2'364.8

Miles hiked: 25.2 miles / 40.3 km

Elevations: 2'431 ascent (741.5 m Aufstieg) / 3'051 feet descent (930.6 m)

Camping at: 6'234 feet / 1'901.4 m

We got up to the sunrise, but had a chilled morning. As I was enjoying my morning mocca (swissmiss and 2 instant coffees), which I do every morning, 'Wanderer' and shortly later 'All-in' walked by. Wow, that has been the busiest morning since a long time. 'Doc', 'Recharge', 'Tuscan' with her dog 'Copper' and 'Minty', are just behind us too. We are in a bigger SoBo bubble here, I like it. In the morning we hike along the ridge lines of the mesas, up and down and over them, with beautiful views and passed by really cool rock formations. It sometimes feels like being on a far planet where aliens life! After 12.5 miles we reach a water chache and stop for lunch. I had a protein milk powder, called Breakfast Essentials, mixed with granola. I do like this lunch. It is not heavy on my stomach, I don't get super tired after lunch, it's healthy and gives energy. However, granola is rather heavy to carry. Soccermum reaches out to a thru hiker he started the CDT with and who lives in that region, called 'Mozie'. Mozie is an elderly guy, a Mormon, who finished his thru hike a week after us, but spend 3 weeks in British Columbia, Canada, in August to shoot a Ram and then returned to finish the trail. A truly amazing achievement! He texted back immediately, wanting to provide Trail magic for us! He will meet us in about 14 miles down the trail at a dirt road, bringing pizza, chicken wings, ice cream, watermelon and sodas. Wow, that sounds amazing. We text the other hikers too and inform them about the upcoming trailmagic. This is a big motivation booster so we hike on. First, we still hike along ridge lines, enjoying amazing views which remind me of the Monument Valley in Utah, before we descend into the valley. It's warmer now and shade is more scarce again. So is also water. We will not have water till we reach the agreed trail magic spot in 14 miles. My backpack feels heavy with 2.6 liters of water. But the landscape is still amazing and I love it out here. The last few miles however the trail condition turns pretty bad. It is a very narrow trail, sometimes we can't even walk on it, and there are scratchy bushes on each side, cutting small but itchy cuts into my legs again. The seeds of these bushes are pretty bad too, I got two of them in my finger but they are so tiny that I can't get them out. It is not so fun to walk here, even if the landscape is beautiful. As the sun slowly goes down, we have to cross a bigger canyon, which even has water in it. Must have been due to last week's heavy rain. Soccermum doesn't recall any water here at all when he crossed it in May this year. It was all muddy too and even so I made it over with dry shoes, my right shoe sunk into the mud nearly all the way in! Climbing up on the other side we are being welcomed by moskitos! What really? There are no moskitos in New Mexico! Again, they must have popped out due to the storm last week. And they are annoying! I can kill 8 moskitos with one hand at the back of my leg in one go! Better to keep moving fast! But the sunset, its changing colors and the canyon are so pretty, I have to stop to make some pictures, trying to kill any moskitos landing on me at the same time! We reach Mozie's trail magic spot shortly before 7pm, just as the sun is setting and it is getting dark. 'Wanderer' is here already and 'Minty' hikes in shortly after us. This is simply amazing and we fill our belly's with all that good stuff Mozie brought us. Around 8pm also 'Tuscan' with her dog 'Copper' hike in, in the pitch dark. As we didn't have her number, she didn't know about the trail magic and was blown away. She is carrying a massive pack, also carrying water, food and gear for her dog. I can't hardly lift her backpack, and have no clue how she hikes with that! Chapeau! At around 9pm 'Doc' hikes in and about 45 minutes later also 'Recharge' finally gets here. Well, I am not gonna have a lot of sleep tonight. By the time Mozie drives back it is already past 11pm. As it was full moon a couple of days ago, the sky is still bright, but it is quite cold and I am freezing since a while. Soccermum has been shivering for a while and is not looking good. He had to throw up several times before going to bed and I am a little worried if he is gonna feel any better tomorrow...

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