Onward!

What a lovely sleep I had!  I was so tired, but after food, sleep, and food I was ready to roll.  I walked out of town 5 miles down the road, 10 miles across the open desert and left the Hachita valley behind. The trail became a dirt road.  

It entered the hills and switchbacked up and wound around and through a canyon.  It's beautiful in these hills.  I've been wishing I had people to hike with, and the hike got off to a rocky start.  But when I came upon this view I felt the exhilaration of being on trail for the first time on the CDT.  

 None of my aches and pains mattered anymore and my steps were lighter.  For about two minutes!  It's wild country out here.  Give me a horse and I could be in a western.

I found clear well water from a spigot attached to a solar powered windmill.  At one point a herd of cows blocked the road forcing me to scramble up an embankment to get around them.  I didn't like the looks of the horns on a couple of them.  And then, what's this?  A real trail?  Not road, foot prints, track, or cross country. Trail!  

Once again I stopped early for the night at 6.  I could have done 2-3 more miles but I don't want to push to hard this early in my hike.  I'm watching the sunset from inside my tent after dinner.  I'm stove less at the moment, so dinner was a tortilla with fresh green pepper, onion, green chilis and cream cheese.  Mmmm