Today’s hike brought me back to Lordsburg, the first trail town on the CDT, for a day of the three R’s: restaurants, resupply, and relaxation.
I started hiking at 8. Not surprisingly, I was the last person to leave from camp. With checkin at the motel at 3 pm, I didn’t see an urgent need to arrive in town early if it just meant waiting around. Then again, waiting in restaurants and eating food wouldn’t have been be the worst.
It seemed a little bit warmer than it was yesterday by this time, though with just a short day into town and no water carry, it wasn’t that difficult a hike.
For the most part, the trail this morning was over rolling hills and some dirt roads as it gradually approached and descended to Lordsburg.
Along the way, I saw a couple of rabbits, and a fair number of bones (probably cattle). At one place, someone had lined the sides of the trail with bones.
Lordsburg came into clear view about an hour before reaching town, as the last hills obstructing its view passed behind me.
The last 1.2 miles into Lordsburg began the first roadwalk along paved roads. Fortunately, NM 494 is not heavily used, at least not on a Friday morning, and I made it to town uneventfully.
My first stop was the EconoLodge, where I’d stayed on Sunday. I wasn’t able to check in yet — all the hikers who left camp before me had either taken the already clean rooms, or were “in line” to get them.
I dropped my pack in a corner of the lobby (with half a dozen other hikers’ packs), and walked across the street to Kranberry’s Chatterbox. I’d wanted to try the place when I was here on Sunday, but it was closed. Now, there were a few hikers were sitting outside, including Leah, Bumblebee, and Diva. They all highly recommended the restaurant (and especially the milkshakes), so I was sold. (It was either that or McDonald’s for breakfast, so, really, no contest.)
As promised, the food was excellent. I returned to the EconoLodge and sat in the lobby. A few other hikers joined me, and at quarter-to-noon, my room was ready, far sooner than I’d expected. So I checked in, made a beeline for my room, and got a shower. After four days of hiking through a hot dusty dry desert, it was glorious.
I relaxed for a bit, looked over the trail to plan for the next section to Silver City, dropped my dirty clothes off at the front desk to be laundered, and grabbed lunch at McDonald’s. There, I met Mummy, who had thru-hiked the PCT in 2018, starting about a month after me.
Afterwards, I bought my food resupply for the next section and returned to my room to pack it and relax some more.
For dinner, I headed back over to Kranberry’s, accompanied by Bumblebee and Rattler. Later, Pete and Katka (the couple from the Czech Republic), Plus One and Roger, and Mr. Freeze (also PCT 18) joined us.
Afterwards, I repacked my food, and patched my leaking water bag. It’s not 100% fixed, but the leak seems to be contained to being a tiny moistness on the outside of the bottle, which should be fine until I can replace it.
Tomorrow begins an all-day climb out of Lordsburg towards Silver City, the next trail town.