4/20 - 5/2/06 Fourth Voyage Begins - Canada or Bust

4/22 - Timmy & I are ten miles from Mexico, facing Canada & I'm starting this journal with my laptop plugged into Egor's cigarette lighter. The "official" Continental Divide is a few miles off to my left, along the crest of the brown & mostly barren Animas Mountains. In theory, all the runoff from this point is destined for the Gulf of Mexico. However, as flat and arid as this land is, there is little likelihood of much rainfall ever getting that far. We're here waiting for Liz, who is northbound about five miles back on the first leg of her epic quest. She's walking along NM SR 81, under mostly overcast skies & has a fairly stiff breeze at her back, ideal desert hiking conditions & a propitious beginning.

We spent last night at Pancho Villa State Park on the edge of the small border town of Columbus, NM. The park was the site of a short-lived military encampment from 1916, when the US Army mounted an unsuccessful campaign against Senõr Villa & his Mexican rebels, following their raid on Columbus. We were there to meet up with several other Continental Divide Trail (henceforth abbreviated CDT) hikers who started their trek from there. It turns out that the CDT is not an actual end-to-end defined trail, as much as a set of intertwined routes that generally follow the physical divide, while taking into account such realities as private property, existing roads & trails, and resupply points. Hence their starting point & ours are about 50 miles apart, but we're all on the same quest.

Tonight and for the next couple of days we'll be staying at the little village of Hachita, paying $2 a night to park Gypsy on private land. We drove from there to the Mexican border at Antelope Wells for the first step of our journey of 3,000 miles. Timmy & I joined Liz for the first mile or so after we took photos at the border. I plan to walk the last mile with her too, in about six months if all goes well. In between, Timmy & I will join her for more day hikes & a few overnighters. Since Liz didn't have time to fully train for the trek, she is essentially day hiking under a relatively light load these first few days, building up strength & endurance for the back country hiking ahead. When she reaches us in an hour or 2, we'll head back to Hatchita for the night & then pick up the trek again tomorrow where we left off.

We left Phoenix at 9 PM, night before last, after a brutal day of last minute packing & attending to details. The whole last week was nearly nonstop preparation. There's so much to think about when you are gearing up for a trip like this. We are carrying food, shoes, clothing & gear for the entire expedition: desert & mountain, summer & winter. Gypsy is packed to the rafters & no doubt considerably over loaded weight-wise at the start. We drove as far as Tucson, arriving at Snyder Hill, a small BLM campsite just west of there shortly before midnight. I wouldn't normally leave on a long trip that late, but we really wanted to get out of the city. Living there for the last several weeks after 13 months of full-time RVing was almost surreal. Phoenix has been heating up too, reaching the 90s in the last few days, too hot for this snowbird.

The drive on over to New Mexico was pleasant; a light overcast cut the glare & held down the heat. Ocotillos were blooming along the way, their scarlet blossoms resembling red chile peppers. We left them & the other Sonoran Desert flora behind, crossing over to the higher Chihuahua Desert at the Dragoon Mountains. The Dragoons are the home of The Thing, a classic roadside attraction & tourist trap. We passed on it in favor of a highway rest stop where we could get a close up look at the rocky Dragoons. They bear a strong resemblance to the mountains of Joshua Tree National Park & its large weathered boulders.

We gassed up at Deming, glad to pay only $2.72 for diesel, after paying $2.89 earlier & seeing prices over $3 in many places. I was happy to see only light breezes in Deming after the sandstorms of our last visit there. Then we headed south for Columbus & the start of our quest.

4/24- This morning Timmy & I dropped Liz off at the 27-mile marker, already ahead of schedule despite nasty hiking weather yesterday-- warm & very windy with gusty dust clouds. It's breezy again today, but not bad for hiking. I went out a bit ago to scope out Hachita. This place is really dying. What few shops & gas stations it once possessed are all closed & boarded up. The only business in town besides the post office & saloon is a tiny RV park with one customer. I don't think it would take much more wind than we had yesterday to just blow Hachita off the map! Also a note for any travelers: don't plan on stopping at a cantina on the Mexican side of the border here. All that's down there is 2 customs/border patrol stations facing each other across the line in the desert. No other services of any kind.

Saw a belted kingfisher just outside Hachita yesterday. This bird was seriously off course. Or maybe it has changed it's diet from fish to lizards. It is really arid here. Yucca and mesquite are about all that grows here. Watch that mesquite... much of it is low shrubs & it's armed with inch-long, needle-sharp spines.

4/28- Snow this morning! I was glad to leave Hachita behind. Being in such a dead-end place can get to you. We filled our water tanks at Elizabeth's house Wednesday & then pulled out yesterday morning. I dropped Liz off at Separ at I-10 where she headed on north up a gravel road. Separ's claim to fame is the Continental Divide Trading Post, another tourist trap owned by Bowlins, owners of The Thing & other roadside attractions. The truck stop there is now defunct & that's where I parked Gypsy while I made a grocery run over to Deming. By the time we got back, a severe wind storm had come up, huge dust devils & gusting sand blowing from the south. I had filled a propane tank in Deming & was hooking it up when a huge blast of wind caught the compartment door & slammed it upside my head. My glasses went flying, bent & with one lens knocked out. I put my hand to my face & found it bloody. Fortunately it was just a couple of nasty abrasions, no sutures needed, so I didn't need to go find nurse Liz. I bandaged myself up, soaked my bloody T-shirt & finally got back on the road.

After stopping at a Love's in Lordsburg to dump our waste tanks, we were off up SR90 toward Silver City. We gained about 2000 feet in elevation enroute, though it is a gradual grade. The terrain gradually changes from flat open desert, studded occasionally with yucca & cholla to the rolling savannah of Gila National Forest, with live oak, juniper and pinõn pines. Just past the point where the Divide crosses the highway, there is an unmarked Forest Service campground where we are staying for the next couple of days. We're parked on an open dry meadow that slopes down from Jack's Peak just above us. We met up with a CDT Alliance work crew camped here. They are constructing a new trail section nearby.

The scouring desert wind wasn't as strong up here, but it was quite a bit cooler. During the night it got even colder & the wind changed, blowing now from the northwest. This morning dark gray clouds loomed over the ridge to the west, bearing occasional snow flurries. Quite a change from the hot weather of the last few days. This morning Liz set out on her trek facing a strong headwind in 50 degree weather -- Could make for an unplesant day on the trail. She'll be walking the upper third of a 32 mile gravel road, after covering over 19 miles yesterday. She'll also exceed 100 miles walked today, not bad for the first week.

Afternoon update: It has been a wild and crazy weather day. Lightning, thunder, two hail storms & now driving cold rain. La Zorra has weather gear with her, but I'm sure she's having a miserable time of it. She planned to hike until 5:30, but I'm going to go track her down & see if she wants to call it a day.

5/1- Liz was quite ready to accept a ride & get out of that nasty weather a little early. As it was, she finished her planned mileage. This morning Timmy & I walked with her for about a mile as she headed off into the Pinos Altos Range, wearing a full backpack for the first time on this quest. She has about 40 miles to cover before our next meeting at Gila Hot Springs. Unless she has problems she'll be there some time Wednesday, after two nights on the trail.

We've been camped north of Silver City for the last couple of days in the Gila National Forest, almost exactly on the Divide. We have a very pleasant site, just off a side road, surrounded by pinõns & junipers, very quiet. We've seen quite a few deer here. The weather has been delightful, with clear warming days.

It will be like old times for Timmy & I in between our reunions with Liz. After "shuttle" driving for the last week or so, I'm going to enjoy these interludes in camp. But we miss her already.

5/2 - Such a quiet day here in the forest! Our side road, which happens to have a Benedictine monastery at it's far end, gets a little traffic, but not enough to raise much dust. An occasional hummingbird stops by to peer in my window. Ravens soar overhead & gronk from time to time. On our afternoon walk today I let Timmy go where his nose wanted to take us & he turned up a deer carcass, bones not yet bleached, less head and legs, with hide piled beside. Probably a poaching victim.

It's been a very lonely day, too. Hoping that Liz is faring well, her feet aren't giving her too much trouble & that she's finding water in this arid country. Once she reaches the Gila River, at least the water problem goes away.

Today's quiz: What is the creature in this photograph? Answer in next adventure...

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