Day 2: Water and wildflowers

Mileage: 21.7 miles (total 23.4-45.1)

I'm not sure if it was the altitude at 5,000 ft, the coyotes howling and scampering next to my tent, or just getting used to sleeping outdoors again but I didn't sleep all that well last night. This made for another early wake up. I awoke facing a challenge I often will have to on the CDT, which is finding good water.

I knew I had a little under 20 miles until the next water cache box, so I wanted to get there on the 3 liters I had (Note: a water cache is a brown bomb proof container that contains water stashed by the CDTC). Of course, there are other options along the way for water, but these are mostly cattle tanks which can be SUPER nasty (e.g. a combination of thick algae, mosquito larvae, tadpoles, and dead animals). I didn't get so lucky with the weather today though, with an almost a constant wind in my face and the sun beating down pretty hard, it made everything a bit more challenging. 

The wildflowers were once again on display and I even learned a few of their names from my handy dandy Audobon Southwest Nature app. It was also a great day for baby animal sightings. I saw two baby horses, a very tiny cow, a coyote pup, and a ton of jackrabbits which I don't think were babies, but they were so fast it's hard to say!

I also ran into 4 or 5 CDT hikers headed north from the border. We introduced ourselves and exchanged notes about navigation and water sources and got on our way. Most of them were in a hurry to make it to Lordsburg, where I started. The trail was not as well marked as the first day, but with my GPS it was super easy to find my position and then set a heading on my compass.

I was also lucky enough to have service for a window today so I could catch up with Laura (and as she mentioned, send an Instagram). I reassured her I hadn't slept on the highway and she sent me videos of her doing voice overs which were pretty silly. It's strange that I can be out in the middle of nowhere and so clearly communicate with the outside world. It's very different than my first trail experience on the PCT, where My only electronic was my flip phone. But I have to admit it's pretty nice to have my phone which doubles as my camera, guidebook, blogging device, wildflower manual, and everything else. It's the everything else I really want to limit so that I can still stay true to the experience. It's just the paradox of how we live and how we can choose to disconnect if we like.

After a pretty long day, I did make it to the water cache - the last mile seemed like forever because I could literally see the box like a mirage but it never seemed to get closer. Once I got there I drank a liter right away, used some of my gallon to was my feet, and then cooked my Mac 'n Cheese. I used the water box itself as shade, which was really nice because there are absolutely no trees (...besides the Joshua Trees, which don't really provide shade). 

After I ate, I packed up and walked a few more miles before bed. I camped in a great spot overlooking all I had walked so far, plenty tired and ready to dream.