Day 6: Lordsburg to Goat Camp windmill, ~28 miles, ~122.3 total
Some days on trail feel like 2-3 days in one. This morning we hiked out of Lordsburg and crossed the last few miles of the Chihuahuan Desert. By evening, we were traveling through pinyon pine, live oak, and juniper country. An amazing day. One to appreciate the close proximity of different ecoregions and how far one’s feet can take them.
The last miles in the desert had us enjoying an abundance of prickly pear cactus in bloom, towering soaptree yuccas, and a speedy antelope jackrabbit (aptly named).
Walking out of Lordsburg.
My hat took a little beating in the wind. I think still has a few hundred miles in it.
Last miles in the desert.
Prickly pear were flowering everywhere!
The hedgehog cactus were also abundant.
Here comes my first spoonful of Nutella! This is our favorite trail junkfood.
We wandered up a wash between Golden Hill and Walker Mountain. With each mile, more live oak and juniper occupied the landscape. Things were getting greener.
A prickly poppy inspecting Gabriel.
A beautiful lizard. I wish I had my Audubon guide to the Southwest so I could ID this fellow and so many other new to me species.
A little after 1 pm we reached mile 100! Milestone! Time to celebrate. We were about to pose for our “traditional” first hundred mile photo when we saw someone else on the trail.
This rattlesnake didn't want us around. As we backed away, it went into strike position.
This rattlesnake was very cautious and didn’t want us around. Even though we were more than 10 feet back and backing up slowly, the snake rattled loudly and went into strike pose. Gabriel and I gave the snake a wide birth and then took our “traditional” 100 mile photo.
100 miles! Is it tradition if we've only done this once before?
By 3 pm we’d hiked to the Co-op water tank. 18 miles into the day. We’d intended to only hike 20 miles, but we still had 4-4.5 hours of trail time left. Dangers of easy walking. So Gabriel, Roadrunner, and I decided to hike onto the next water 10 miles up the trail.
We went up and over a few ridges and soon were on real built trail! Winding northward and down to comparatively verdant forest of juniper, live oak and pinyon pine!
First observed pinyon pine! Mile 105.
I enjoyed sampling a few needles. So refreshing, palette cleansing, and an excellent on trail source of vitamin C.
We crossed state route 90 and after a slight, mostly fun (extra barb wire fence rolling), detour were contouring our way to Goat Camp. Gabriel and I had never seen juniper and beargrass meadows before. We oohed and awed at the golden light on everything.
Pale golden grass and juniper meandering.
Fields of beargrass!
Made it to the windmill with just enough time to get water. Set up camp in the sandy was and ate dinner under the stars.
Gabriel needed a boost to get on top of the tank. He thought the acoustics of the tank were terrific.
It’s only been a few hours (and miles), but I am already in love with the Gila NF.
marmot's adventures 