CDT – Day 14 – Cox Canyon to Road Side Camp

Mile 99.1 Cox Canyon to A mile shy of Rt. 12

28.3, 277.3 Trip Miles

Mostly Sunny, 70’s Windy at times

6:41 to 7:??

54 Gila Crossings, 221 Final Total

Critter Count

3 Squirrel

3 Chipmunks

2 Lizards

1 Cotton Tail

Totals

102 Lizards

20 Elk

10 Deer

9 Horny Roads

5 Jack Rabbit

7 Squirrels

6 Chipmunks

4 Snakes

4 Cotton Tail Rabbits

2 Coyotes

2 Toads

1 Mouse

1 Skunk

Last night was another cold one.  I keep waking up due to me hips being numb. The preferred time seems to be 4:40 am. I’ve seen that twice now and 4:39 today. Just for the record it was 34 degrees when we got up at 6 am.

The day started with a 6 miles road walk/climb. Then we went right into single track lava and then into old burn steep hillside with lots of dead fall, followed by steep punchy climbs.

Death of an old friend

2w and I decided to take one of the Ley alternates. Jonathan Ley is the creator of one of the maps sets I’m using. It saved about a half mile and we got to hike through a great canyon. I believe it was called Ginova Canyon.

As we exited the canyon we saw two older guys on an ATV looking for deer antlers. Then while trying to follow the trail where it was obvious we ran across Tumbleweed. We only briefly spoke then we went for water off trail and we never saw him again.

Absolutely terrible section of trail

At this point we finished the climb we had been on then had the second major descent of the trip. It started with dead fall but for better. My left knee felt it some but so did my feet. I was happy when it was over.

Enjoy my breakfast shake.

The wind picked up as we descended into the valley. This was good as the wind mill we were going for was wind powered not solar. We got water then had to hike on to find a flat spot out of the wind. We did okay but I think it’s going to be a tough night of cold and occasional strong gusts. We’ll see.

Today I saw a Clark’s Nuthatch and a White-breasted Nuthatch.

I totally forgot about this section when writing yesterday’s retrospective.  The trail/road ratio might really be 20/80, 25/75 at best.  This day was long and covered a lot of ground.  It was full of challenges to test your strength and willing power.

The wind at the end of the day made it even harder.  All I could think about was how shitty of a night it would be if the wind kept up and we couldn’t find a place out of it.