It’s been over a year since I finished the CDT, and I’ve been slacking hard on finishing my journals from this trip. In the time since I finished this trip, I’ve stopped working in a bike shop and become a freelance writer for my primary source of income, thru-hiked the Grand Enchantment Trail, backpacked a high route in the San Juan mountains, completed the Sky Islands Odyssey bikepacking route, ran my first 50k race, ran a 70-mile self-supported route, and lived in Honda Element for months at a time.
I’ve been busy, but the CDT stays present in my mind. Looking back on it, I feel like thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail was more difficult. But that doesn’t mean the CDT was easy. It means I was ready for the challenge.
I was ready for the long, hot, dry stretches of trail after I hiked out of the mountains in Northern New Mexico. I was prepared for objectively boring walks on long dirt roads. I knew what I liked to eat and could easily find 4-5 days’ worth of food in any grocery store, regardless of size.
I thought I was ready for night hikes, but I wasn’t. After hiking across New Mexico in October, I’m prepared to walk as long as I need to in the dark.
The first epic night hike came a few days after leaving Cuba, New Mexico. William, Nav, and I hiked a long day to get to a spring, which was one of the best water sources in all of New Mexico. I didn’t take any photos because it was almost dark by the time we got there.
The spring was disappointing, but still not a cattle trough. Nav and William were preparing to drink the water untreated, straight out of the pipe that led to what we thought was an underground spring pool. The pipe came out from behind a barbed wire fence. I heard trickling water, and there were more flying bugs in the area than is typical for New Mexico. So I climbed the fence to investigate.
I followed the pipe to a large pool of water full of dead bugs and decaying plant matter. The remains of a dead rodent floated in the stagnant water. I followed the pipe and climbed back over the barbed wire.
We should filter this water, I reported to William and Nav.
After we’d filtered enough water to go another 15 miles, Nav spoke up.
Do you guys wanna do some Kratom and night hike?
What?! Where’d you get Kratom?
It turns out another hiker in Cuba had ordered a lot of Kratom. He’d ordered so much he was shipping most of it home to himself, but he gave Nav a large bag of the ground-up plant matter. I had only taken Kratom once, and it was years ago. We each ate a large spoonful and washed it down with water.
We hiked another 3 hours after sunset that night. The trail was mostly non-existent, and the cairns would have been easy to follow during the day. But in the dark, it was challenging and slow going. This would have been damn near impossible to do in the dark alone.
The three of us, energized by the Kratom, wandered across slick rock paths, looking for stacks of rocks that marked the route with our tiny headlamps. After an hour, we made our way onto loose, sandy dirt. The hiking got easier since there was some semblance of a trail here.
By 11 pm, we were ready to stop for the night. We inflated our sleeping pads, laid out our quilts, and went to sleep under the stars. I stopped keeping track of the mileage we hiked in New Mexico for the most part, but I suspect we walked at least 45 miles that day.
The following day, I woke up and made cold instant coffee in my water bottle. I drank the coffee with a granola bar and some trail mix for breakfast. The hiking was easier since we didn’t have to rely on our tiny headlamps to see.
We made good time all day and realized we could summit Mt. Taylor before dark if we hustled. Mt. Taylor is the highest point on the CDT in New Mexico, and it was the obvious choice to take the short alternate route to the summit. The dirt road leading to the north side of the dormant volcano was smooth and wide. It was easy hiking all day, even though it was uphill.
By this point in a 3,000-mile hike, I never felt like I wasn’t hustling, but I also never felt like I was working hard. Walking 3 miles per hour for 10-15 hours per day was easy after doing it for so long. To this day, it still feels easy to walk for, well, forever.
Just before the final ascent on single track to the summit of Mt. Taylor, a pickup truck pulled up next to us and stopped.
What are y’all doing out here?
We’re hiking the CDT!
Oh! You going up Mt. Taylor?
Yes we are!
You guys impress me so much. Do you want any elk jerky?
Uhhhhhhh, yeah!
We stood on the dirt road, eating elk jerky with a local hunter. He had several gallon-sized ziplock bags full of the delicious jerky he made himself. I had no meat for this stretch of trail, only peanuts, and only lime-flavored salt for “electrolytes,” so the jerky was especially delicious.
Energized from the elk jerky, we scurried up to the summit of Mt. Taylor just as the most epic sunset I’ve ever experienced started. We stayed at the top until it was almost over, taking in the 360-degree views of New Mexico under neon-pink skies.
We hiked down the other side of the mountain in the dark, absolutely elated from the sunset we’d just witnessed from the best possible spot to experience it.
The hike down from the summit consisted of scrambling over loose rocks for the first few miles. This was challenging in the dark, but there were three of us, and we tackled the rocky trail together. Hiking with other people at night makes everything easier.
We arrived at the bottom of the mountain and began walking another dirt road in the dark. There was a water tank somewhere along this road, where we’d refill our empty bottles and find a place to camp. We found the water tank and hiked on, packs loaded with 4 liters of water.
We made camp in the trees and fell asleep under the stars. The next morning, we left at different times. I left camp first and quickly made it to the road that leads into Grants, NM. William and I had been talking about banana bread consistently for the past week, and the first thing I did when I finished the walk into town was go to the grocery store.
I bought banana bread, a pound of butter, and a can of cold coffee. I enjoyed a second breakfast overlooking the City Market parking lot. What a view! William showed up next, then Nav. By then, I had eaten five slices of banana bread and almost an entire stick of butter.
Oof. I bought another coffee to counteract that excessive amount of butter a sweet bread, and we walked to the hiker hostel in town. We washed our dirty clothes and relaxed in the yard for the afternoon.
We made spaghetti for dinner and mixed a half pound of butter with the warm noodles. This would be one of our last town stops on the CDT.
Sam Schild 