Day: 009
Date: Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Start: Saddleback Canyon
Finish: Silver City
Daily Kilometres: 27.6
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 272.3
Weather: Cold early, then very warm and sunny.
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: BLT roll/Turkey salad roll
Dinner: Sweet & sour chicken/pork & rice, icecream.
Aches: Dave - a few of the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: The first few kilometres of the day, before the sun rose, along the floor of Saddleback Canyon were magnificent with the only sound being the twittering of birds as the canyon walls were gradually illuminated by the rising sun.
Lowlight: None really.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were walking by 6am on our coldest morning so far, probably single digits Centigrade. Julie doesn't like the cold at all so was willing the sun to rise above the mountains. Of course, once it did, we were soon baking and wishing for cloud cover.
Apart from the early kilometres, it was quite a tedious day's hiking with the balance of the 26km to Silver City being along a fairly busy highway through undulating grazing country. Vehicles whizzed by at high speed, but were generally courteous, moving well over as they approached us. A few waved or gave us a toot. There was also a reasonable margin to the side of the road that gave us some safety.
We made good time and took just two breaks, sheltering from the sun by a roadside embankment or a tree.
Along the way, we were passed by a CDT thru-hiker, a Frenchman, who was carrying an unbelievably small pack. He was the first hiker (or any person) we had seen on the trail since leaving Lordsburg, four days ago, apart from those in vehicles on roadwalks.
We were speculating about how his pack could be so light. Probably only one set of clothes, sleeping without a tent and no stove. He had left the Mexican border three days after us so must be walking big distances each day.
We reached the outskirts of Silver City around noon and, as we walked a back road to into town, it was a bit demoralising for Dave to listen to Julie planning tomorrow’s run on the nearby trails on our day off. Dave will be lying on the bed in our motel recovering. Having said that, Dave did say that, today, his legs and feet felt the best they had since the start of the hike.
Silver City, whose historical origins revolve around mining and cattle, seems to be a thriving town, perhaps reinventing itself as an outdoor activities and art and alternative lifestyle centre. The downtown was attractive and well-kept and we found a bakery on a small plaza where we enjoyed some excellent rolls for lunch watching the world go by.
After lunch, we walked to the post office to pick up some gear we had mailed ahead to ourselves, before walking 2km to our budget motel (notice in the foyer about human trafficking) on the outskirts of town and checking in at 2:30pm.
Later, we had dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant before adjourning to our room for an early night.
No comments:
Post a Comment