Day 5: April 28, 2019
Destination: Stealth Camp Mile 90.6
Today’s Miles: 8.4
Start Location: Stealth Camp Mile 82.2
Trip Miles: 90.6
Today I neroed into Lordsburg. I camped about three miles from town last night and could hear the locals firing guns and listening to loud music.
It was very distant, but definitely a little bit of what we in the south might call “hootin’ and hollerin’.” It didn’t go on late and, honestly, I was so tired last night I was just happy to get to bed.
As I walked into town in the morning, Samson the Bear texted me and said that he, Fluffy, and Joe Dirt were at the Econolodge. They had asked and the front desk had given them a room someone checked out of before it was clean so that they could shower. They said they had it for an hour. I walked double time and jogged a bit and made it into town in 40 minutes! Nothing makes Hungry Cat move faster than the chance to clean up for free! I could have taken a sink bath, but it is so dusty out here that standing in a shower is incredibly enticing.
When I got to the room, it was hiker trash central! Packs had exploded, and everyone was in various states of wearing, or putting on “town clothes” in preparation for doing laundry. Of course, no one really has town clothes, so it is always a mix of rain jackets, wind pants, etc. My outfit consisted of my wool t-shirt, because that doesn’t need to be washed yet, and my ex officio briefs under my quite transparent rain pants. Yep – real classy!
It was so nice of the guys to think of me and text me about the room. They didn’t have to, and so I found it quite thoughtful. It felt sooooooooo good to shower. I also remembered trail angel Ken’s comment from my AT journal last year and made sure to pre-rinse my hiking clothes in the shower in preparation for doing laundry. Everything was penetrated with layers of dust.
When clean, I went downstairs to return the key and asked if there was a place in town that does laundry. I didn’t think the Econolodge did, but the manager quickly told me they would do it for five bucks, and it would only take an hour. Hot dog! This was fantastic news because it meant I didn’t have to sit around in a laundry room and could go eat some food. That’s exactly what I did.
I went over to Kranberry’s and all of the guys were there. I said hi, but got a separate table so I could call my wife. I figured I would eat, then sit for a while and chat with her while I had coffee. I was able to charge my power bank in one of their outlets, ate the most delicious breakfast burrito, and caught up with my wife.
I then went back to get my laundry and change into less risqué attire. It was then time for resupply shopping. I was going to go to a local market called Saucetos, but it is closed on Sunday, so I settled for Family Dollar. I picked up a jar of peanut butter as they didn’t really have any tuna packets or something like that for protein. Ok, they had one lemon pepper tuna packet, but that is not a flavor I enjoy….
After that I spent the day catching up on my blog, calling my Dad to say happy birthday (Happy birthday Dad!) – his birthday is tomorrow, getting organized, and eating again. I need to put in a plug for the Econolodge here. Not only did they give us the room in the morning, but they let us all sit around all day in their lobby, charge our stuff, store our packs, relax, and fill our water bottles. They had a big hiker box. They were so incredibly kind and I would recommend that any hiker stay there if passing through Lordsburg. Make sure to call and ask for their hiker rate! They have that too.
I had to pop a huge blister in the morning, so I dealt with taping that up again in the afternoon. The skin was still soft though and I made the mistake of putting Leuko tape right on it, rather than putting a non-stick surface down first, so I’m a little worried that when that tape comes off it is going to rio the skin off too. I’m apparently really bad at blister care! Too late now! It feels fine and it won’t take that long to get to Silver City, so hopefully the tape holds and then I can see what I’m dealing with in town. I think it will be fine.
I hiked 5 miles out of town with Samson and Heatwave. They cowboy camped and I tented. They swear they don’t have bugs crawling over them at night, but I like my little pyramid shaped palace!
It was awesome to get to talk with Gillian today and FaceTime with her and Lucy the Cat. I got to catch up with family and a few friends, post some blogs, get clean, eat – what a great day! And of course, I survived the infamous Bootheel section of the CDT – yay! The first water is 10 miles away tomorrow, and then I think the next one is probably logistically too hard to make in the same day with heat + elevation gain, so will probably take another good long mid-day siesta and dry camp. I’m looking forward to it!
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