On the CDT: Bethany starts north the (very) hard way
Bethany is the first CDT hiker I’ve followed who is starting at the remote “official” southern terminus of the trail. And she is not catching a jeep ride there as we did, but bushwhacking 28 miles to reach it, then turning around. Guts. She says:
trail days are big, full days. i forgot just how much can happen on a day when you’re just walking… in city life, you ask me what i did with my day and i’m likely to respond, “i don’t know… nothing”. that doesn’t happen very often on the trail.
By day 5 she’s in the groove, or something:
here’s some excerpts from the voices in my head today:
“is it too soon to be talking to myself out loud?”
“ooh, a fenceline. that’s exciting” sadly, there was no sarcasm involved here.
“old mcdonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o…L” not kidding here either
“oh look, are those… woah, that’s 2 javelina pigs!”
Meanwhile, a ways north, hikers are fanned out all over the maze of dirt roads near the divide in southern New Mexico. From Haiku:
This road soon led to what looked like a large mining camp, with six bunkhouses, and a few store-looking buildings. No one was around. As we walked through we heard someone call out to us, and a toothless man emerged from one of the buildings. He introduced himself as Buster, and told us we were at the Royal John Mine. He said it was no longer in operation, but was very elusive as to what the property was used for now. He did offer us each a Coke, and talked for a while – I’d imagine he doesn’t see many outsiders. He told us that if we followed the dirt road for 11 miles we’d come to the highway to Mimbres.
