CDT Day 3: BP Visit & Coyote Hills

Daily Miles: 21.3, Total Miles: 53.3

Last night was a strange one and, in hindsight, could have ended badly. I was awoken the first time by footsteps and the flashlight of someone walking down the wash behind me. The walker stepped over my tent guy strings and then connecting northbound on the CDT.

At 3am, I jolted awake again, hearing someone else coming down the wash except this time , the bright light bore into my tent. The person came around the tent, shoved the bright light into my eyes and began shouting questions in loud Spanish. I was still groggy with no glasses on but it wouldn’t have done any good. I was blinded by the light. Not knowing who the hell this was, to each question I repeated, “go away”, “get out of here”, then “goodbye”. After rounds of this nonsense, I started to get out of the tent to better assess what was going on. Or at least, friend or foe? The person finally asked his first question in English, “what’s your name?”. I responded, “what’s yours?”. His comeback, ” I asked you first”. Clearly getting nowhere and not getting a response from me, he finally identified himself as a Border Patrol agent. I appreciate the job BP is doing, but this should have been the first words out of his mouth. He said BP were in the hills trying to chase someone down.

A pleasant day skirting the edge of the Little Hatchet Mountains and then on to the water cache. After a siesta on a cloudy afternoon, I hiked up along the edge of the Coyote Hills and set up camp in another dry wash.

A short time later, Trivia showed up with Lint, who I hiked with a bit on the PCT. Great seeing him again and having a little chat. Lint is starting his 3rd CDT hike and working on a Triple Triple Crown.