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!
I’m not sure that I can say we slept last night but we were up bright and early and ready to hit the trail again. My hot mess continues….i put my pants on inside out! Ha ha! All I can do is laugh at myself! Today would finish us up at 50 miles! Original plan was to do from Crazy Cook to Silver City (120 miles). Oh! Back to the sleeping….we had two packs of coyotes making their way around us – howling and barking half the night. They would come in close then head back out towards the mountain side. Then to add to it, we had a herd of cows rush us after dark! I told my son- those damn bushes are moving! Then we were met with a ton of eyes reflecting back from our flashlights. The bull stepped forward almost to say….don’t mess with my bunch! The herd ran the other direction and he held his ground as we held ours. After the herd was in the distance- he turned and left. Talk about heart racing!!
We are on trail and headed to the next water cache box, the scenery is breathtaking, the sunrise is beautiful and we are feeling good! We hike along- mooing to the cows (they aren’t as scary now). They move off trail and we continue on. We weave our way along the trail seeing the CDT signs in the distance. The breeze kicks up and feels great on my back- thank you Wind Gods! Moving right along we notice the clouds moving in, keeping our eyes on them just in case of rain – I check the Garmin 0% yey!!! We follow the trail over the hill crest and see more CDT signs….it is now common for one of us to say….I see a sign! (With happiness) The whole trail has been well marked and in some spots over marked but we are thankful. We ended up using paper maps twice. We make good time to the water box- an hour before what I thought – but we are both in pain. My blisters are worse and I can feel them with each step and my son’s knee is giving him trouble too. We hobble to the box near Hwy 9 and I tell him….this is decision time. The trail takes us across the street and over the hill. We are currently at about mile 50. A great hike so far!
We decide this is it. We will have to stop and come back next year. The ibuprofen is no longer taking the edge off, we are hiking slower and we do not want to end up in worse shape and further down the trail with a long way back to help. We are disappointed and sad but looking back – we started waaaaayyyy over there and we covered all of those miles! We did good!! And, we are in the toughest section of NM. Not too bad for a couple injured rookies! This mama could not have done this without the support and team work of her son! I would not change any moment we had along this small section of the CDT! Until next year CDT…..we will be back.
