The Final Week: Silver City to the Mexico Border (Days 138-144)

HD: We set out on the road south from Silver City just as the rain was clearing up. 24 miles later, we were drinking beer at a small farm brewery in the middle of nowhere. They made a fire for us to ward off the 20 degree temps and we pitched our tent on their property for the night.

The 3 day walk from Silver City to Lordsburg still included some elevation; we were at 8,000’ in the mountains with 6” of snow on the ground the day before we arrived to Lordsburg. The terrain finally began to change on the final day as we dropped out of the mountains and onto the alluvial plain – there were barrel cactus, prickly pear cactus, and creosote shrubs all around.

Our pit stop in Lordsburg was just long enough to acquire champagne for the finish line festivities. We stayed the night and ate a large early lunch at McDonald’s before starting out on the last leg of our journey.

The final 84 miles from Lordsburg to the border took us 4 days. This part of New Mexico finally looked like what we thought most of the state would be! It was mostly desert with prickly things, very little wildlife, and awesome sunrises. The weather held for us, as there was little wind and the lows steadily rose – it was even above freezing on the final night! One last kick in the teeth from the CDT was a 10 mile section next to some pretty tall mountains with no trail, several deep dry riverbeds to navigate, and thorny shrubs grabbing us at every step. A fitting finish indeed.

Water is managed by the Continental Divide Trail Coalition in this section. Water caches are kept in bear boxes every 20 miles, making that part of our logistics quite easy and dependable. There was also a Coors beer at one of them that we shared for our last dinner on the trail.

We walked in to the Crazy Cook monument at 4pm on Vererans’ Day with our moms waiting for us. It was not bittersweet to be finished; it was time to stop walking. This was a difficult 144 days. We finished a day earlier than planned, and maintained our continuous footpath to the end. 

My sincere thanks to everyone who helped, contributed, encouraged, or just read along with us. The pressure of knowing that people expect us to finish is a powerful motivator!

We’ll post one more time with lessons learned and final thoughts in the next couple of days. For now we’re preparing our  gear for airline transportation (probably need to take out that half empty isobutane canister before we board) for a flight to Michigan and a reuniting party with our dog Loki.

Happy Trails!!

MC: our final week brought us from Silver City to the border of the US and Mexico; it was long, as to be expected, and full of surprising terrain. Hannon and I both had it in our minds that we would be walking our last seven days in the desert, but we stayed shockingly high in altitude, walking amongst the mountains for the last time. We walked in six inches of snow, uphill, for four miles. It goes without saying that our weather planning and understanding of the state of New Mexico was severely lacking! We admitted to countless folks that we met during this last stretch how beautiful the state was, and how cold its weather could be. Out of the last five states we have walked through, two remain on the short list to revisit – Wyoming and New Mexico.

As we finished our last several days on the CDT, the terrain eventually turned to what we expected long ago. We saw no animals (well, one bunny and some lizards but that’s all). We were serenaded at night by the local coyote population, or as we like to call them “those little assholes”, because they like to be very vocal from the hours of 3-5am. Other than those handful of interactions, it was Hannon and I and the prickly things.

The last night we spent in the tent, the weather graced us with a low of 38, which felt like a heat wave. We started talking about all the “lasts”, the last tent set up, last dinner, last breakfast, last tent breakdown, last lunch, the last break, and then finally the finish.

Our moms flew from their respective states to Tucson, AZ and drove a rental car to Lordsburg, the closest town to the border. From there they met up with Tim, the local shuttle driver for Southbound finishers. We were able to walk the last quarter mile of our trek to our moms, it was pretty adorable.  

To say I am happy to be done would be an understatement. I am proud of how Hannon and I interacted with each other for five months in the wilderness, there is no better partner to have shared this journey with. I am excited to sleep in a bed for the foreseeable future, but I am mainly excited to be with my dog Loki again. He is the most perfect dog anyone could ever ask for, and I am beyond blessed to have parents who were willing to watch his cute little butt for the last five months.

Hannon and I will write a final post that will highlight our personal self reflections from the trail, but until then, we are finished.