Day 2 – 4/24/13 – 19.4 mi (33.1 mi)
Team Mirage (4 girls in the desert) is holding up well. The first half of the day was pleasantly cool. Walking was a bit more difficult than yesterday since there was no actual trail, just wood posts to follow along the base of the Hatchet Mountains. It was nice to have 4 sets of eyes looking for the posts, since yuccas are easily confused with wooden posts.
We got to a paved road where Sam caches water in time for a long lunch siesta. Using my ground cloth, the bear box, a couple trekking poles and a bush, we rigged up a canopy to escape the sun. We rested in the shade for over 2 hours before setting out again at 3pm.
The route was easier after this, mostly following a jeep road, but the sun just sucked our energy out. We are camped up on a knob with another hiker, Aaron.
The Daily Ninjup Report:
Performed first thing in the morning with much enthusiasm.
Desert hiking is my favorite, although it is always a bit of psychological torture for me to know that my water sources will be few and far between (I drink A LOT of water). I’m glad to see that there are such wonderful trail angels for this part of the CDT (and I’m sure the rest, too) that keep the water caches full so you don’t have to lug it all out with you! Happy hiking.