CDT - Day 5
Today I woke up around 7am after not sleeping very well in the hotel, I had a lot on my mind and that always causes me to toss and turn. The hotel complementary breakfast was okay and it filled me up. I needed to do laundry so I asked the front desk for $6 worth of quarters, each machine was $2 and the detergent was $1.25. I've quickly learned that doing laundry as a thru hiker is an awkward affair, I only had one pair of clothes, so I had to wear my rain pants and long sleeve base layer while running back forth to the laundry room, luckily all indoors. I'm going to look into buying some lightweight shorts and shirt when I get to Silver City.
After finishing laundry around 10am, I packed up all of my gear and headed into town. My first objective was to head to the local pharmacy to find some zinc oxide and tape for my shoulders a hips. The pharmacy was really small and had nothing that would help. They told me to head the General Dollar, which I did and was pleasantly surprised had everything I needed.
While outside the store filling my water and getting ready to head out I met a couple of NoBo hikers doing exactly the same thing. The hikers, Molly and Rainer, were headed to the same trailhead as myself. While chatting with them a guy in a truck pulled up and asked if we wanted a ride to the trailhead. We happily obliged, as that saved us from walking another 3 miles on paved road. The long trek across the desert was going to be brutal enough, and it was.
At the trailhead Molly and Rainer stopped for lunch and I started my hike. Eventually they caught up to me while I was resting under one of the very few shade trees. This was the first I used my umbrella on this adventure. The sun was intense, even though the ambient temperature wasn't too hot. I managed to hike about 10 miles and then camp for the night in the desert, carefully picking a spot with no thorns. The last thing I want on this trip is to puncture my sleeping pad. I made dinner and immediately passed out.