WalkingCarrot

We crossed the divide today from the east to the west and hiked along the Coyote Hills which are actually on the divide. In a strange quirk of trail location and geography, we are hiking northbound but our left foot is on the Atlantic (or typically east) side of the divide. It’s a bit hard to explain withouth a map, but there it is, not sure there are any other sections of trail like that!

Just before reaching our third water cache, at highway 9, we passed the halfway point from the border to Lordsburg – we’re right on schedule, thankfully given the slow second day we had battling rocks and cactus.

One of the stashed water bottles leaked out almost the entire gallon, maybe 8 ouces left, from a small dent. But the other bottless were intact and a 6 gallon container for general use was full, so we were OK.

The rolling tale lands, bluffs and knobs of the Coyote Hills were interesting to walk through, the first time that our horizons were drawn in close. In general, the terrain has been defined by the wide open vastness, the space between the mountains.

Desert plains, canyons,mesas or mountains – this is all cattle country. Which leads to one overwhelming question: do New Mexican cows taste any different than Montanan cows? I don’t know but aim to find out when we get to Lordsburg.

We found a source of water from a faucet at a stock tank and were able to splash some on the face as well as tank up. What a treat! The evening was more jeep road and cactus whacking, with nary a soul in sight. We have not seen another person, except distant passing cars, in four days – no hikers, bikers, horseback riders, ohv-ers, or cattlemen; no one…. We did spook several antelope watching the dust clouds as they ran warily away. By dark we were able to find camp between a triad of hills, even still with a wide open feeling.

17 miles