Journal July 6 Mesas Tops and Bottoms
The dramatic landscape continues. We walk along the base of mesas and the tops of others and, in one place, along a shelf halfway up. There are a number of ups and downs as we also go in and out of arroyos, large and small, several bordering on being canyons. The trail follows the very rim of several mesas, offering stunning views and weak knees.
The day is hot, the hottest we’ve had in awhile, probably the hottest since we were in the “boot heel” between Crazy Cook and Lordsburg. The afternoon brings scattered clouds and storm cells with showers but somehow the sun shines on us most all the time, unrelentingly.
We linger a bit at lunch not wanting to leave the shade for the hot sunny trail. We hold out as long as we can for clouds to move our way but finally have to get up and go.
It’s a slow-motion afternoon. With a load of water from the one spring we cross today, with the heat and with the ups, downs and rocky footing of mesa walking, our pace falls off. We push on ’till almost dark.
18 miles
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