Sunday, November 3rd

USunday, November 3rd. Day 138

Today's miles = 30 Total CDT miles = 2,224.1

I woke up early...or so I thought.  It was light out and not too chilly so getting up this morning was an easier task than usual. I was very proud of myself for starting the days hike at 7am. And then I realized that it was daylight savings time and I didn't actually wake up any earlier than usual. It was only a one mile from where I was camped to the water source. The source was a windmill well that pumped the water into a cow trough. It was pretty good water and I had to liter up for the 20 mile waterless stretch. The trail was mostly on dirt jeep roads with plenty of cows in the way. It rained on and off most of the day. With the rain came very cold wind. There was a mountain in the way today that I had to climb and the bad weather decided to come just as I began the climb.

I had expected New Mexico to be more desert like. Today there were actual trees surrounding the dirt roads and if there had been water I would have forgotten I was in the desert all together. The second and last water source for today was a box spring next to an abandoned cabin. It wasn't truly abandoned as the mice had clearly taken over.

Around 6pm it was so dark that I was using my headlamp to hike. I'm not a fan of night hiking but I wanted to hit my mileage goal for the day and the only way to do that was to hike in the dark. The second I hit my goal for the day I threw up my tent on the side of the trail. I was done. I was hungry. I was tired (haven't slept well in days...again.). My dinner tonight was a wonderful creation. It was a wrap with veggy taco meat topped with mac and cheese. It was fantastic.