Day 26: CDT to Reserve

Oh my goodness! After my late-day struggles yesterday, I set up camp in what I thought was a peaceful spot. Little wind, flat, great camping. NOT!

Shortly after I settled into my tent for the night, the wind – which had been blowing strongly all day, but not at night – revved up again. On and off all night it battered my tent, to the point that I had to push the sides back out or it would have blown over. There was some rain, too. But when I stuck out my pot to catch the water, it only caught a few drops. Weird.

Making My Way to Reserve

Because of the bad night, I woke early and got on the trail before 7 a.m. I didn’t make coffee because I wanted to preserve all of my water for the day’s hike. The app showed just two very sketchy places with bad water. I didn’t want to deal with that. I’d rather skimp on water all day.

I had a choice of taking a new alternate (Govina Canyon) that promised lots of water, but no set trail. You’d have to navigate with your phone the entire time. No thank you! I did that enough on the Gila River. So I took the traditional CDT, which went straight uphill for quite a while. Oh, well – at least there were some quite lovely views.

Later, the path tumbled downhill. The skies grew dark and thunder rumbled. I broke out the backpack cover, but it never rained more than a few drops.

Settling into Reserve

Leslie, a wonderful employee of the Mountaineer Inn, offered to pick me up at the trailhead on Hwy. 12. It’s a 30-minute drive to Reserve, so this is a huge perk. Her dad actually drove, since she stepped on a nail and is on crutches.

They told me the packages I’d mailed to the motel most likely were never picked up by the owners, so we went to the post office and I got them there. Phew! She also offered to do my laundry, saying that the manager charged for every little thing, which she thought was wrong. Wow!

I enjoyed one of the best showers ever, then headed into town (one block long) to buy some supplies. I also had a greasy (yummy!) dinner at the local bar (Uncle Bill’s) – the only place to eat.