[Cdt-l] Windy hiking in NM

Wed Feb 11 08:37:22 CST 2015

Hello All -

I hiked the bootheel section in January...shirtsleeve warm days with cool nights until a day below Silver City when I woke up to snow everywhere.  Walked in plenty of snow/wind from there to civilization.  Still a nice hike that I greatly enjoyed.

I did run into a lot of evidence of illegal border crossings on the route I took north from Crazy Cook.  I apparently showed up very well on the Aerostat and was visited a number of times by the Border Patrol ("Dang, it's just a gringo hiker...").  The BP agents I met were mostly young ex-military of Mexican-American ancestry (spoke better English than I did) and I always enjoyed visiting with them.  They were uniformly curious about distance hiking and about the camping/navigation technology I was using (mostly minimal).  They always offered a lot more navigation tips than I really needed (including about 5 lbs of marked maps one time that I had to find ways to politely refuse).

I never refused their water, though...it kept me out of the cow water in the dirt tanks I was using (I did not cache any water).  I would see their big white pickups bouncing across the scrubby desert (they really enjoyed seeing how fast they could drive in that challenging terrain) and would make myself VERY visible.  I wear a white shirt when I hike, so it was pretty easy to stand out from the dusty surroundings.  Once we got past who I was and what I was doing out there in the middle of nowhere, they always reached behind the front seat of their pickup and handed me an unopened gallon of drinking water.  Nice.

The next thing they always did was warn me about the MJ pack trains that were using the CDT markers as guides as they humped their MJ bales up to I-10.  The big 7-strand barbed wire fence at Crazy Cook had been very recently repaired when I got there - somebody had driven a truck through the fence from the Mexican side.  The BP guys were puzzled by this...the pack trains were getting through the border with absolutely no problem before and all it did was bring even more attention to this major illegal crossing along the CDT.  They always warned me to camp well off the trail at night so that nobody would trample me in the dark <g>.

One of these visits by the Border Patrol did catch my attention.  They asked me who was hiking behind me and, when I said that I was solo, informed me that the Aerostat had been tracking something "between the size of a German Shepard and a man" following about 1/4 mile behind me all day.  Their final suggestion that it was probably a mountain lion didn't cheer me up much at all...

I was curious how the ranchers in that part of the world made a living, so I elected to use an older route north instead of taking the "new" CDT route through Lordsburg.  I cut NE from where the CDT trended NW to get to Lordsburg and did a fair amount of bushwhacking up to where Separ Rd intersects with I-10.  I hiked Separ Rd up to below Silver City and got to meet some very interesting local folks along the way ("You OK?  Need water?").  

One young rancher said that their family had installed over 80 miles (!) of underground pipe to cattle water tanks over the decades...he asked a LOT of questions about hiking the CDT.  I got the distinct impression that we might see him on the trail one of these days. 

There was a lot of trash under the bushes below I-10 - cheap day packs, empty and even full cans of food with labels in Spanish, empty and full bottles of water, etc..  This was particularly true south of the nighttime strobe light that announced the "Border Patrol free zone and water stash" that had been established for the illegals. 

No wind of note during this section hike until I got into an honest to goodness blizzard just south of Silver City.  

We got into MUCH more wind during an April section hike from Pie Town south to the FS road between the Aldo Leopold and Gila Wilderness Areas.  My hiking partner for that section liked to listen to the radio as he hikes and he cheerfully kept me informed that we were hiking through 40 mph winds with gusts up to 70 mph as we skirted the Plains of St. Augustin.  He was using a GoLite tent that had a pretty high profile, so we always hunted hard for a campsite where the terrain gave us at least some protection from the wind.  I would pitch my Shires tarptent with its foot into the wind and would use rocks to snug it down to the ground all around.  My friend would use my tent as a partial windbreak - his tent would shake and bounce all night long, but never came down.

Nice memories!

- Charlie

> Hey Odometer,
> 
> It wasn't windy all the time in NM in 2012, the year we hiked it.  We had one windstorm, but most of the time it was quite pleasant weather wise.  I wouldn't go stove less due to wind.  We went stove less for the entire thru hike, but based on not wanting or needing the extra weight.  I make great soaked meals and when I hiked the AT last year, planned to cook, but sent the stove home after it warmed up in Virginia and was happier just soaking my lunches and dinners.  Go stove less if you want to lighten the load, but not based on the weather in NM.  You could have plenty of lovely evenings to cook up a great meal if that's your preference.  Then again, if you get a wind for the whole section this year, you'll be glad you don't need to fire up in the evenings.
> 
> Shroomer
> 
> On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 3:52 PM, Danandgailsc <danandgailsc at aol.com> wrote:
>  Gail (Gutsy) and I are planning to do a chunk of the CDT again, this year hoping to do most or all of NM.  We are planning to start at Columbus, mainly because of easy access to the border, but are still not certain.  In other respects, are Crazy Cook and Columbus routes very similar--water, resupply, private land, etc., etc.  It appears that most hikers are opting for Crazy Cook.  Should Columbus still be considered a viable option?  Uncle Tom's 2014 trail journal mentions inadvertently trespassing on private property which on a route traced on a Ley map.  Can this be avoided or is it inevitable?
> 
> 
> We are targeting an April 1 start date on the Columbus route, in order to beat the heat, knowing full well that we will have cold temps north of the desert.
> 
> 
> We are looking forward to the hike, but still have bunches of details to work on, such as where to park our vehicle.  I'm thinking of going stoveless through the windydesert.  Also thinking of using Ridgerest insead of Neoair to avoid puncture risk. 
> 
> 
> Thoughts or comments, please.
> 
> 
> Dan (Odometer)
> 
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