October 7th
Up early, I walked through a quiet Cuba. I stopped at McDonald’s to get a breakfast on the road. The day was to start with a walk along a highway, although it was not a heavily traveled road.
Despite the chill, I enjoyed the road walk. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I walked an extra mile past my turn off. Shame on me. I checked for and did not see any private property or No Trespassing signs. Seeing none, I set my sights due south and bushwhacked to intercept the trail.
The trail was amazingly well marked. Unlike last section where it was blue paint on trees, posts, or rocks, this section was white paint on wooden posts or cairns. I thought because of my missed turn I would find myself behind SBJ and MLL. I did not see their footprints. I could see a few others that looked to be a day or two old.
Eventually the trail wound over to the edge of the Mesa Portales. It was a pleasant diversion to walk along and be able to look out. The only bad news were some developing thunderheads.
The trail drops off the mesa to some flat terrain. Some trail angels had left a supply of fresh water just before Jones Canyon. This time, there was plenty left. I took a liter and drank a liter. The next water stop was Jones Canyon which was a cool old spring with some abandoned stone structure nearby.
I gradually climbed the La Ventana Mesa. I looked back and saw a pretty bad thunderstorm in the direction of Cuba. I hope my fellow southbounders were out of town before that hit. As it got dark, I found a place in the junipers where I could cowboy camp up high. It was a good spot, but I was reminded of one of the real negatives of desert hiking: the sand.
Desert sand is not like beach sand. It is finer and sneakier. It sticks to you and gets into places you don’t want. For backpackers, this means the fine gritty sand gets in your sleep system, perhaps your food and water, too.
backpacking over the hill 