Friday, November 1st

Friday, November 1st. Day 136

Today's miles = 28.3 Total CDT miles = 2,164.1

I reluctantly left the Toaster House this morning. I knew I needed to get back on trail and finish this thing but I wanted to stay by the fire reading all day. The thought that got me packing was that if I stayed there another day it would mean I have to hike more miles everyday for the next two weeks. So, I hit the trail practically running. The trail was a dirt road all of today. I'm not complaining. I love hiking on dirt roads. They are graded so much better than the trail. There was one water source today on private land. The man who owns the house has a well with an electric pump. I still filtered the water but it looked and tasted wonderful compared to most water in New Mexico. The hike today was normal and relatively uneventful. It wasn't until I was in my tent about 5 yards from the road that things got interesting.

A plane with no lights on came out of nowhere and was flying so low the whole ground shook. At first I thought it was going to crash for sure. It then slowed down and potentially dropped a shipment of drugs. There was also a pickup truck hanging out in that area which was potentially suppose to pick up that shipment. The guys in the pickup stopped their truck right on the road by my tent. I thought they had seen me at first but they got out of the car with flashlights searching the fields. They didn't find what they were looking for and got back in the truck and drove off. The entire time they were walking around I was completely still. I wasn't even breathing in fear that it would be too loud and they would find me there. My tent was well hidden in the trees, as always, but I kept wondering what could have happened if it really was as it seemed and a drug cartel had found me there in the desert...just 150 miles from the Mexican border. It's known that plane shipments drop on these roads sometimes. I really can't find any other explanation for what I experienced tonight. 

After I was convinced the danger had passed the coyotes began to sing their barking song in unison all night. It sounded like the whole tent was surrounded on every corner with coyotes. They didn't stop screaming until dawn.