About the Author, Yvette Beetley “Mtn Minnie”: I am a 45-year-old, single woman who loves the outdoors, gardening, my dogs, photography and wine! I have lived in New Mexico for a majority of my life and recently discovered that I need to adventure more around my own state! I have one son (25 yrs old) and two dogs – a Pomeranian (8 years old) and a Chocolate Lab Mix (4 months old).
To see more from Yvette, click her name above!
First trail poop was a success! Ok, now on to the important stuff! We woke up to thick clouds and thunder which played with our emotions for a good hour. So we ate and got ready leaving our tents last to break down….just in case! About 8:40-9:00 we started down the road figuring that the trail may not be too safe with rain and walking in the river bed. We covered our packs and made sure our rain gear was close by! We were able to get down the road about an hour before we had to set our tents up and wait it out! What a day! Oh! And if you do the CDT….bring spray mosquito spray! The lotion doesn’t seem to work well and they are hungry!!!
9:59 am….looks like we are sitting still until about 2pm. The thunder is so loud and seems to be close! I keep asking the good Lord to send it the opposite direction!!
10:16….the rain has slowed a little bit and the thunder is moving east. I am sure it is playing with our emotions again and I know the Garmin weather sure did! It told us 10% chance of rain! I think it left a zero off. Conclusion…the weather man and the Garmin weather likes to fib!
11:28….Rain sucks and mosquitos suck more.
12:21….the mosquitos are still buzzing around in the rain. Looks like weather has changed to all day rain until dark. How quickly the weather changes! The wind shifted and dumped on us before getting tents up again.
2:42….we got a lil hiking time in before we had to set up again! We see a ranch…so close but oh so far away!! We keep moving.
Come to find out that the ranch is not hiker friendly…thankfully we found out before making the walk to it. We continued on – toughing it out while it rained and the wind blew us. We had mud-covered shoes and slipped our way to our pick up point; we called Jeffrey from the bike ranch since we got wet!
We made it back to Hatchita…thank you Jeffrey! We hiked out 10 miles in the rain, hail, wind and thunder/lighting. Cold and wet. Rookie mistake – we should have stayed still and lost the day. Lessons shall continue and we will continue to hike with smiles on our faces.
