CDT Days 14-21 Doc’s- Onion Alt.

Leaving Doc’s was difficult knowing we had about 130 miles of difficult terrain. We didn’t want to have too much extra weight on food, so we divided this section into 6 days. Each day’s food weighs an average of 2 pounds. The water also became much less plentiful after we left the Gila River on the second day, so we again had extra water weight. The Gila was beautiful leaving Doc’s, but halfway through the day, the trail became impossible to find. In reality, there wasn’t much of a trace. It should be washed every year after heavy rain and snow. There was a lot of looting, which is stressful with the huge amount of poison ivy around. Going up and down the river bank was exhausting. The river became slower and muddier, so the rocks were sometimes slippery. We learned that two hikers had fallen. There were abundant signs of beaver activity, which is adorable to me. A little dirty when walking through its streams though!

The second day was another morning in and out of the Gila looking for a route, but we finally crossed the river for the last time. Although the ending was bittersweet, we were happy to be on dry land. From there we took the alternative of fire. There was a lot more elevation than the actual CDT. We climbed and climbed with a lot of water on our backs, then covered 8 miles of trail before detouring to get some water from a .8 tap off the trail. Then our backpacks were heavily loaded with a day and a half of water. Suddenly we were in a desert terrain again, it was hot! At the end of the day, after our last climb, we finally got to see The Hummingbird Fire. It was burning about 5 or 10 miles from us.

The next day consisted of walking 18.5 miles down a crowded dirt road. Luckily we were very fast, but in the end we were all quite sore. Towards the end of the day we all put on our rain gear for the first time. It hailed and rained on us for only five minutes before the sun came out again. This was the first sign that a storm system was approaching that would chill me to the bone most nights and mornings. After our third day of riding 23 miles, we were very tired. We slept at the top and it rained lightly intermittently with strong winds as well. The day before I noticed that my sleeping bag was slowly getting softer throughout the night. I was pretty sure it was close to the valve. Tonight I had to inflate my air mattress at least 8 times throughout the night! We woke up freezing, with literally freezing temperatures and some frost in our tent. The next half day I walked with the swollen bag because it was very cold. We did about 20 miles this day and 20 more the next to get to Davila Ranch. Davila Ranch is this heavenly-scented rest stop for CDT hikers before reaching Pie Town, 15 miles the next day. The stop had windbreak shelters where you could pitch your tent, hot showers and laundry facilities. They had a flushing toilet and provided canned eggs, potatoes, onions and beans. There was a gas burner installed in one of the sheltered cooking areas. I made the three of us an amazing meal with the help of Ultra while Hornet did the laundry. It was one of the best things I could have tried at that time. We met John Davila, the owner. He was an amazing person. A rancher dressed in denim from top to bottom. He told us that they organized the stay because he noticed that hikers were getting burned and running out of food nearby. What a kind soul.

Pie Town was a strange and surprising place. The Toaster House is a donation-based lodge passed down to hikers by the family that grew up there. His mother started the legacy, and when she died in 2023, they kept it open to hikers. A beautiful gift. It was such a nice house with so many things for hikers like first aid, snacks, a hiker box, and a place to rest. We slept in the loft upstairs. Before that we ate at The Gathering Place II, the main restaurant in town. They treat hikers like royalty there and my favorite part was their Mixed Berry Pie Wing mode.

Pie Town was stressful for me because this is where we had to make some difficult decisions about how to move forward. With at least three different routes we could take to get out of there, it wasn’t as simple as just following the Red Line as we had planned. With great sadness we decided to move from the brown line to the red line, cutting off 40 miles we had hoped to walk. This meant we had to mail the extra food we sent, which ruined our morning plans since the post office closes early. To do this, I had to get two pieces of cake to drown my sorrows and make me feel better for not being a purist and sticking to the red line. We’ve already taken an alternative a couple of times, but we’ll never hitchhike like many of the people who were with us that day. I guess we’re pure now. Something you have to give in to when hiking the Continental Divide Trail. Unfortunately, our miles no longer match the red line, but I still keep track of each milestone. On this trip we traveled 300 miles.

The day outside Pie Town was quite a dirt road. It was exciting for several reasons. One, a wolf was seen on that road the morning before, we didn’t see it. Two, a CDL trucker hauling a large truck pulled up to us after driving back and forth many times. This time he offered us bean and cheese burritos and Twinkies. It was a very fun magical trail. Third, we had a crazy storm again that dropped the temperature 20 degrees with its wind and dark clouds. Finally he greeted us with dogs and cats! We jump into a large sewer to take shelter. When the hail stopped in about five minutes, we emerged onto a VERY slippery clay road. We slipped and slid for the next three miles to the TLC ranch. The mud stuck to our shoes in inches, adding at least a pound to each shoe. TLC Ranch is a smaller, but also impressive stop 15 miles outside of town. They let the hikers take shelter in the patio of their old wooden cabin, with some chairs and a table. They give him water and the Ranchero went out on an ATV with his little daughter. They had made us some apple sauce muffins that were delicious! It’s still hot too! The wait at the shelter was incredible as it started to rain lightly intermittently. It was so cold that we had to walk another three miles after preparing dinner for our hiker there, to warm up.

The next day we woke up to the most ice in our tent! It covered the roof inside and out with thin sheets of frozen condensation. We slept until after 6:00 because it was very cold. The tent was too bulky to fit in his stuff bag, so Hornet had to clip it to the top of his backpack instead of inside. The hike from there was quick and down a dirt road about six miles to a water tower run by Jen, thanks Jen! Here we jump from the CDT to the Brown Line, “The Cibolla Alternative”. I was supposed to walk the entire path, but the dirt road was so old that it wasn’t a path anymore! It was five miles of nice trail before turning back onto a small dirt road. Camping tonight was so cold! We woke up the next morning and it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit! Thank goodness we were able to set up in a perfect tree tunnel because we had no condensation and therefore no ice in or on top of our tent!

We had a slow packing process, for obvious reasons! Finally, as we got going, we tried to walk fast enough to keep our little shorts-clad legs warm. After just a couple of miles, we were on a black paved road for four miles. At the trailhead, we were lucky enough to meet Mozy! He is an angel of the triple crown. He gave us something to drink and we all exchanged stories. He supplies many of the crucial water tanks in the next section and some behind us as well. From there we jumped off the brown line to walk on a trail parallel to the road, but we stayed off it! The Narrows was a beautiful trail that overlooked a beautiful stone arch after three miles. We went down the mountain cliff to reach the cliff (a route most of the brown liners took). We reached the base of the arch, it was beautiful. From there it was another eight miles of black road to the place where we were camping. Unfortunately, this morning I noticed a rash on my leg when I went out into the warm sunlight. Hornet suspected poison ivy, but we haven’t seen any since almost a week ago in Gila. That night at camp we ran into a group of four hikers we’d never seen yet. Immediately, a hiker, a paramedic, noticed my rash and said it was poison ivy. She had the same one a few days before. TERRIBLE NEWS! It looked pretty bad, I was nervous but happy that I only had 15 miles left to walk to the city tomorrow and then zero the next day.

The continental divide affected us a lot these last two weeks. From freezing temperatures, threat of wolves, hail storms and poisonous plants that leave oozing sores, we encountered it all. Despite all that, the good days outweighed the bad and we finally started to find our groove with what is approaching a 20 mile average.

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