Date: 9/25/20
Daily Miles: 23
Total Miles: 1646
It was nice to sleep at a higher elevation last night…the air was cool but not cold. At least we didn’t wake up feeling like it was already too hot.
We started the morning with the final half mile of the climb we had started at the end of yesterday. We came out onto a very flat mesa. It was really nice walking for a bit as daylight started to come.
The path was sometimes roughed up by the cows, but we could usually find nicer ground to the side of the trail. There was also a lot of rocks on the trail today that looked volcanic in nature. We definitely had to keep our eyes on our feet in order to avoid twisting our ankle on a rock or putting our foot into a cactus.
We came to our one water source of the day about nine miles in. The spring was about a half mile off trail downhill. Beardoh went down with our gallon jug and all of our 1L bottles in a bag. SweetPea had the easy job of guarding our packs. We loaded up with seven liters of water between us. We had 17 miles until our next water and today was another very hot day.
Once we left the junction for the spring, the rest of the day was on a dirt road. As usual, the dirt road walking was nice to be able to keep a quicker pace and also just to have smoother tread (after the rocky and cow-mangled trail of this morning). The flip side is that it can be a bit boring after awhile. After lunch, we both put in our earbuds and spent the afternoon listening to podcasts…definitely helps to pass the time.
We stopped for an early dinner and then had to walk another three miles in order to get to an area where there were trees again. As soon as we saw the first trees, we called it a day. Our legs were tired, and we felt zapped of energy from the heat of the day.
When we were in Cuba, we both ordered new shirts. We had them sent to the next reasonable spot, which sadly is a town we wouldn’t reach for two weeks. We figured our shirts could hold out that long, but it seems that they are rapidly disintegrating. Beardoh was commenting earlier today about the many holes that are forming on SwertPea’s shirt, even though she just sewed up a bunch of holes in Cuba. And then, tonight as Beardoh was taking his shirt off, he ripped a hole that went about half the length of the back of the shirt. It looks like we will both be buying new shirts as soon as we get into Grants in a few days.
As we set up camp, a nice breeze started up which helped to cool things off. We had a nice sunset as we settled into our hammocks.
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