Trail surgery!

Day 3

Date: 26.04.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 35.3

Miles hiked: 17.7 Miles \ 28.3 km

After a horrible night with hardly any sleep I finally crawl out of my sleeping bag at 5.30am. I was hot and sweaty and then cold again. The whole night through, on and off. And at times the wind would blow very strong, even taking out a stake from Simples tent, yet 15 minutes later there was no wind at all.

The next water source is in 8 miles, and these 8 miles took a long time. The trail was open terrain. We bushwalked a lot. Over riverbeds and through bushes and cactusses, scratching our legs even more. We often had to check our app if we are still hiking in the right direction. And often it says we are right on trail, really? I don't see anything! But it was still fun. I got to see a big desert rabbit and deer's! Looking back however I would also walk the dirt road. Its much faster and easier to hike. Also 99% of the hikers hike the road. We arrive at water cache no. 2 at 10am. Hiker after hiker arrive here, minute by minute. I feel like on the PCT. The CDT is supposed to be much less crowded. I am super glad there are other hikers out here too and I am not alone, but this is too much for me. I gotta go from here.

The sun's up and it's hot but we are enjoying a cool breeze. This stretch is absolutely beautiful! It's the real desert. Cactusses, sand, bones from death animal's, no shade at all: I feel like a cowboy in Western movies! After a few miles it sadly changes. The rest of the day we hike on a dirt road. It's getting hotter and shade can't be found, but I would love a longer break as at the water cache I couldn't really relax and we didn't stop for very long. My feet start to hurt now a little. Finding a tiny spot of shade we break for around 30 minutes, while another hiker passes us, going south though. It turns out he is from Berner Oberland, hence Swiss too! I might run into him again later on the trail, as he only hiked south from Lordsburg to the Monument. Would be great seeing him again! Around 3:30 pm we reach a big tree with a cooler box full of ice, Gatorade and small chocolate's. That's a big surprise, as it was not on our app. It's called trail magic and we love it! Heaven! Also Rattler is here, a hiker from Canada. Shortly later Bumble Bee, a hiker from the Netherlands, limps in too. She fell on her knee, which is bleeding. Not 5 minutes later boarder patrol shows up. Apparently we must have set off an alarm! Seeing the bloody knee he gets out his first aid kit and does emergency help. He leaves her all kind of medicals back for further treatment. Amazing how that just worked out as if we would have called for help! And we are out in nowhere only a dirt road leads here.

Cooking dinner we 4 enjoy our company as within 2 hours about 10 to 15 more hikers arrive. Again I don't really like it, especially after the last two nights where we were completely alone. But I guess it will change soon, as within the first two weeks many hikers quit the trail. Let's see how many hikers are still hiking in a couple of weeks! And let's pray for a good night sleep for me!