Trekker's Log, 4-26-07

4/26/07, first day of hiking, Mexico Border to trailhead at Sheridan Canyon.

Several people hiked together on this first day of hiking. Writer John Fayhee walked with us for at least 100 yards while photographing the beginning of the hike. His article in the Sunday Silver City Sun-News was a wonderful article, thorough and complete in coverage of what the Rotary CDT Challenge is all about.

Challenge team member Julie Mercurio provided the shuttle service, and had the cars waiting for us at the end of the day. Hikers included Audrey Matson and Suzanne Barkley, team members from Conifer, Colorado, team member Jon Mercurio of Las Cruces, Pem Sherpa and Mat Matson, celebration group team members, and celebrity hiker (official team member not yet) Joseph Gendron of Silver City. The group endured the 88-degree heat of the desert while hiking into the Big Hatchet Mountains on the way to the top of Sheridan Canyon. The water supply ran low, and the hikers were exhausted by the time they reached the bottom of the canyon near sunset. At the end of the day, the hike had logged 13 miles, several more miles than most of the hikers had expected.

The hike started out on the newly designated official trail through BLM land. That meant that we were looking for the trail signs and the windmill landmark as we went along, but instead of being on carved-out tread, we were walking across grassy desert, sometimes with a few bushes and sometimes with some brambles to negotiate. The worst of the brambles, according to Jon, is aptly named the "Spanish Dagger!"

Heading into the mountains on a two-track tread which became less evident, then disappeared into the kind of trail most people expect, we were suddenly surprised as we crossed an old two-track road of some kind, to meet an empty school bus with only the driver, then a pickup truck with a driver who yelled at us that she was having the time of her life, and a tractor with a front-end loader and backhoe carrying some soil, trash, and a plant. We never figured out where that set of three rigs came from or where they were going!

The group arrived back at Pancho Villa State Park just in time to get some pizza at the local super market. The evening ended with the group discussing at length just what should be the plan for the next day, particularly given what had happened to Mat. As it turned out, the group made what later seemed to be exactly the right decision.