Day 33 – 5/25/13 – 26.8 mi (607.9)

On the CDT, there are no coolers of soda near a trailhead. One must create his own trail “magic”. Here are my suggestions, as learned today, for getting the conversation started that will end in food being offered to the hungry hiker.
1. Stand in front of the weekenders studying your map, looking lost. Ask if they know where the trail is, or if they’ve seen your friends.
2. Inquire if the delicious smelling burgers might be for sale.
3. Send Sweetfish ahead to do the talking. It’s really the most effective method.

The morning was your standard CDT jeep roadwalk. Just before lunch we took a JLey suggested cross country route to cut off about 1.5 miles of the road that looped around. Shockingly enough, this shortcut actually went as planned.

After lunch we got onto some real trail and reached a not more than knee deep creek with a log bridge over it. The log was leveled on top for easier walking, but had gotten rolled to one side, making it a bit precarious. Sweetfish, Stryder, and I all crossed easily enough.

Then Wired arrived at the log, “are you kidding me?” Wired is not a fan of log crossings and opted for the scoot method. It was exhausting for her and entertaining for the rest of us.

After the the log crossing we began to encounter the holiday weekenders. The only other spot on trail we’ve seen other people was around Jordan Hot Springs in the Gila. It started out be a few hikers and a whole bunch of ATVers. Then we started to pass clusters of RVers, with their grills fired up and the smell of hotdogs torturing us.

We planned to end the day near a campground at Hopewell Lake where our maps showed water. Wired and Sweetfish went ahead while the rest of us stopped for water. During the stop, I tested out leukotape as a leg waxing strip. This was a great way to kill 5 minutes. All this went on while a day hiker chatted us up.

When LoveNote, Stryder, Ninja and I arrived at the campground, we saw no sign of the other two or their prints. So we sat and waited a bit, thinking they’d somehow gotten behind us.

While we were waiting and trying to figure out what to do, a very nice woman, Missy, got to talking with us. She was familiar with the trail and has been doing small sections with her horses. She offered to drive us around the campground to look for our friends. She also gave us a nearly whole apple pie!

After over an hour of waiting, LoveNote went with Missy around the campground and ended up finding Wired and Sweetfish at another campsite, sitting around eating hotdogs and fajitas with some other holiday RVers. It’s far too complicated to explain, but it turns out they had been looking for us too, but due to differences in maps and waypoints, we were both “right on trail” at different spots.

We ended up joining Sweetfish and Wired, and despite having already cooked and eaten my own dinner, I found room for 2 hotdogs and a soda courtesy of Mary and Frank. We’re all squatting in their campsite for the night. A happy ending to a long and confusing day.

The Daily Ninjup Report
Complete.