Day 7: Back to Silver City

Mileage: 13.6 (130.1-143.7)

The stars were still shining brightly when I my alarm woke me up at 4am. It was still pretty brisk without the sun so I got dressed quickly and broke down my tent. This was my first time really hiking in the dark the whole trip. I'm not a huge fan of night hiking because you miss out on the scenery and it also can be more dangerous (e.g. snakes, twist an ankle, etc). 

That said, I realized I had set myself to catch sunrise on top of Burro Peak, which turned out to be spectacular. The light slowly brightened the eastern horizon, while stars still shimmered in the west. When the sun did finally show itself, the sky turned burnt orange and the stars and the planets slowly faded back into the universe.

I tried to hike quickly, knowing it , could be a tough hitch, but I was going over the steepest section so far with a climb of more than 2000 feet. By the time I reached Deadman Canyon it was close to 7:45 and I was a little worried about time. Luckily, it turned out the Deadman Canyon route is a few miles shorter than what I had estimated (note: the official CDT route through here is about 30 miles longer, but it isn't finished yet and requires a lot of bushwacking). Contrary to what it's name might imply, Deadman Canyon, actually had the first running water I'd seen on the entire CDT! If I wasn't rushed I would have dipped my feet in. As it was, I made it down to Tyrone Mine Rd by about 8:30 and finished out the last 3.5 mile road walk to Highway 90. 

Thank goodness I'd already done the 12.5 road walk from Silver City, because I was ready to hitch. I got lucky and the first guy who passed me picked me up. The driver of the blue pick-up was an older man with a photography studio in Silver. After the 10 minute ride, he asked me where I wanted to go and dropped me off right at the post office. I rushed inside and went to open the second set of doors to the post office, but they were locked. My heart sank, had I misread the hours? Was all this crazy walking for nothing? I jerked the door again to no avail. Then I looked at the hours on the door and it said open 10am-noon Saturday. I took a quick look at my phone. It was 9:52, I had arrived minutes early.

After I took care of my package, I called Juan (the CDTC shuttle driver) and asked him what he was up to. He invited me to camp in his backyard, which later turned into him giving me a bed in one of his spare rooms. He's a very generous man. I had a nice hot shower and went to a potluck with Juan and his wife that night. The potluck was up in the mountains of Pinos Altos and it was quite a party. There was sand volleyball, badminton, mountain croquet, and plenty of beer and food. I was pretty zonked from waking up so early, but ate a ton of food and had a good time. We left around 8:30 and I immediately fell asleep when we got back to Juan's.