From Mexico to Canada on the Continental Divide Trail

 I'm enduring a process that I intend to see through, and might be interesting to describe. Basically, the experience overwhelmed me physically and mentally. In that state of "just trying to keep up" with the moment by moment demands of the desert, I had to jettison the dreams of what the trail "should be" in my mind. Who would undertake something like this without first building up a dream world of what they expect it to be? I certainly did that. While I expected to be tired at the end of each day, I didn't know the extent of the challenges in the way of recovering for the next day. It's pretty easy to do a "big day." Because you go home to a warm, dry bed and all bodily systems recover so nicely that you don't even know what they required to achieve that. For example, the problem of "monkey butt." Normally, we all know how to deal with the bathroom and such things. But day after day, being hot and sweaty and certainly without sh...

It was great to finally be going north of Lordsburg! Gogo and Blueberry had the room next to mine and the walls are thin enough that when they woke up, I woke up. They've been traveling at a similar pace to Slim and I, but with a curious schedule... From 4 am to 11, then again from 6 or 7 pm to 11 pm or so. Once I woke up in the night thinking cars were driving on the road far away, but they were the headlamps of Gogo and Blueberry. I rolled over and went back to sleep... No need to holler out at people late at night! It's great the way our paths cross and recross. We can always recognized Slims enormous feet and huge stride. Information travels up and down the path. The feeling of community is amazing.  So Slim and I headed north, then east across often trackless desert, always climbing gently. It was beautiful the way Lordsburg receded, and multiple days of the hot, blasted country we'd been through opened up. Big Hatchet Mountain shimmered blue in...

Here is a picture from Thursday when we were dropped off. It was 10 in the morning, and the heat was climbing... We were eager to leave! I'm wearing the green shirt. On my right side are Ruiboos, Brock, Bass and Bad Noodle in the lower row. Bass is a chef in Portland. Ruiboos and Brock are from England, and this is their honeymoon! On the other side, Caveman is on the monument too. He's hilarious... Unfortunately, also very fast, and after today I might not see him again... He headed out tonight for Silver City. Next to him are Slim, Michael on the far left, and Brainstorm on the bottom. Slim, Brainstorm and I will head out in the morning, along with GG and Blueberry. It's amazing to see high mountains in the far distance, shimmering in the haze... And know that not only will you reach them... You'll pass even those mountains by and keep moving north. We are all dreaming about pine trees on the slopes of Burro Mountain, which we'll probably reach Tuesday...

Wow, so much has happened. I'm laying in a grassy field as the sun goes down, camping alone, and the wind threatens to take away anything I don't either tie down or hold in place with my body weight. But this is normal in this place of extremes. I've had brutal heat, where hikers share beloved memories of the tree at mile post 18, or the little overhang of rock that gives shade to three people. Wind storms, blowing sand... Everything is dirty and it's hard to believe it will ever be clean again.  The landscape is too big to fit in a camera. It's not the scene before you, it's the totality of wind and sun and mountains visible in the distance for days. We keep pushing on... There are five water caches along the route, refilled by volunteers. We still need to occasionally get water from a farmers tank. I slept by cache three this morning, and reached cache four after 12 miles. I'm sleeping with some of the water from cache four, plus I ...

I've had a good time here in Lordsburg. Arrived in the early evening, found Charlie in the room and discussed myriad gear topics. We had similar thoughts on many things, for example agreeing on the importance of olive oil for warmth when sleeping, as fat in the diet at dinner time lights the big logs in the fireplace of the body. Beautiful sunset, great Tex mex dinner, then sleep. We got up at 5:30 and I walked with him to the shuttle rendezvous, meeting the drivers and other people. They took off and I contented myself with a day alone. I bought food and other supplies like ibuprofen and nail clippers. I met some other hikers in the store. Hilariously, one guy had the trail name Baby Jesus. I've met several people coming back through Lordsburg after the first leg from the border, and... Well... No one had anything good to say. Lots of sunburned legs, folks saying I'm smart to wear pants. The heat is apparently intense and demoralising. One guy said "by the end of the ...

The bus driver: Okay we'll stop here in Deming a few minutes and you can get out of the bus, but it's very important: no McDonald's. Do not go into McDonald's. In am hour we will be stopping for a longer break in Lordsburg and you can go into McDonald's there, but I repeat: no McDonald's here. Do not go in, I repeat, there is no going into the McDonald's here. Hee hee...I really, really wanted to ask: Could I run into the McDonald's right there real quick? Just for some fries, or maybe a milkshake, I dunno.

I'm finally in country that looks like the trail. Desolate mountains riding behind downtown in Mexico. My great grandfather was the first judge here, and his sister, Mary Irene Stanton is famous as the finder of the library. My grandpa was born here in 1910. It's amazing to see this place. People are friendly and have time to talk. An old man asked to use my phone because he was tired of walking on a lonely street... But then he forgot the number to call... I told him I live and Germany and he said "ich liebe dich." 🤣 Stanton Street and the post office... I walked about five miles though the city.