First Peak, Road Walks, and Silver City

Currently in Silver City, 141 miles and 19 switchbacks.

Night number 5-at the end of the Never Ending Desert

The first day out of Lordsburg involved hiking toward the first hills of the Gila National Forest across another plain that never ended.  This time though it the temperatures were more manageable due to the remaining 30mph winds from the previous days dust storm.  By lunch we had officially made it out of the flat, boring desert into the hilly, interesting desert.  We stopped at a windmill for lunch where we propped up our feet in the shade (yes we actually get shade now) and looked up at the junipers, scrub oak, granite formations, and cows slurping in the trough next to us.

We found our camp three more miles down the road for a total of 18 miles on the day.  This camp was under a windmill that actually had a spigot.  No pumping water for us that night.  It was like the desert gave us a present for making it out of Lordsburg.

Spigot at the co-op windmill-night 7

The next day we hiked past some more abandoned mines on the way to the top of Burro Mtn. (8022').  Along the way we got views of far off hills and crazy granite mounds.  This area was a lot like Granite Mountain near Prescott, AZ: boulders everywhere, juniper and scrub oak, and lots of pokey things.  After lunch we summitted Burro Mountain where we could almost see to Lordsburg, but fortunately could not.  We have officially hiked farther than we can see!

That night we camped next to our first natural water source, Mud Spring, next to which we saw three turkeys and a nervous looking deer coming down for a drink.  Throughout the night we heard strange birds and various turkey calls.

Yesterday morning we booked it down Deadman's Canyon, a twisty, gnarly little drainage that had some water in it, before hitting Tyrone Road.  At this point we had 16 miles of road ahead of us to Silver City.  That last 12.6 were miserable and on Highway 90, which never seemed to end.  We did see some markings from the Tour de Gila bike race that took place this weekend, but after those ended we were left with very little entertainment.

We camped at the Silver City RV park and took yesterday afternoon and this morning pretty laid back with the hopes of recovering a little from the road walk.  Gavin started his hike on the PCT yesterday and both of us got rain throughout the night.  Sara and I certainly did not expect precipitation this early in the trip, but it smells nice and is keeping today nice and cool.

One of many blooming cactus on the trail

On a sad side note, our guide book said there is a Silver City Brewing Co. but the phone book and the address do not.

On a happy side note, Zeno has improved and is now bouncing off the walls at Addie's house.

Our next few weeks will take us through the rest of the Gila National Forest and the Gila River to Pie Town and then up through Grants where we hope to post next.

Good luck to all FHS track athletes at the state meet this week!

Happy trails!