Saturday, October 26th

Saturday, October 26th. Day 130

Today's miles = 22.5 Total CDT miles = 2,015.8

It rained all last night. The storm pretty much sat over my head the whole night. I built dams and moats around the tent to prevent the rain from coming in under the tent. I stayed dry! The good thing was that the rain had stopped by the time the alarm went off but I still didn't get up. I layed there for a while before I sat up to eat breakfast. Baboon traded me his Cookies N' Cream Poptart for my blueberry one because I wasn't in the mood for blueberry and I discovered that I really like Cookies N' Cream Poptarts!! Who knew?

The morning hike was wonderful. The sun was shinning perfectly on the desert and all the little cacti looked so happy to see the sun...except for the really thirsty and droopy ones. I found a dead cow today. It looked like a skelton wearing a brown jacket but it was actually the skin of the cow that had yet to decay. The head was bent in a completely unnatural way and I began to wonder if a mountain lion had gotten to it (like mountaon lions do). I know there are cats out here because this morning I saw momma and baby tracks in the sand.

About 7 miles into the hike today I saw Panama and Bethany sitting on the side of the trail. One of their dogs had gone into heat and all the coyotes were at their camp. They didn't want to spend another night out here because they really don't want half coyote puppies. So, they were trying to bail to the nearest road with actual traffic on it.

After I wished them good luck and began to hike again I came to a muddy river that I had to cross. I took my shoes off and forded it as best I could. I wasn't very deep but it was full of cow pies and had been completely trampled through by a herd. It was less than enjoyable.

The only water source today was an open concret tank that was meant for cows to drink out of. It was horrible and tasted even worse than it looked. I had to put drink mixes in it to even get it down. It was the only water I had and it was another 20 miles to the next source so I grabbed 3 and 1/2 liters and hit the trail again. I had to climb up a pass around 5pm when I was already beaten down from hiking in the sun all day but I made it up and over to a mellow dirt road. It's on the side of that dirt road where I am camped tonight. I know it's going to be another cold night because my water froze in just a few minutes of taking it out of my pack. I'm bundled up just trying to stay warm.