My Trails

2/22/14 – 44 miles.
I wondered why I was having trouble keeping warm last night. I had on all my clothes and still felt chilly towards morning. When I crawled out of my tent the cold hit me like an iceberg. The water in my bladder was frozen solid and I am lucky it didn’t crack my filter. It must have been I’m the low 20’s to freeze that hard.

The first thing I did was build a fire. I’m not certain they are allowed here but this was a desperate situation. Once I had a good blaze going I made coffee and sat very close to the flames. It was hard to move away from the heat but eventually I packed up while returning often to the fire to warm my hands.

When I had been hiking a few miles up to Canelo Pass, I met two men who crossed my path while I was sitting on a rock. They were both carrying large, canvas rucksacks, a gallon of water, and when I spoke to them, answered back in Spanish. Can we say illegals? They seemed harmless but I wasn’t going to pick up my phone and call Border Patrol, that’s asking for a confrontation.

Later that afternoon I met a Border Patrol Agent on the trail. I told him of my encounter and he said they were looking for them. He told me that this has become a popular crossing area, and just last night officers raided a group nearby.

I told the Agent about my lion encounter and he said he has seen many in this area. I thought it was rare to spot one.

This area has been tough for water. Even though I load all my containers I still struggle to find good sources. A place called Down Under Tank was another cow pond but I took some there to make it to the next tank. Tanks that are fed by a pump are much tastier than ponds – at least the cows don’t poop in them.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 22nd, 2014 at 9:03 pm and is filed under AZT Hike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.