{"id":76,"date":"2025-05-10T12:29:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T18:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/?p=76"},"modified":"2025-09-11T22:50:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T04:50:30","slug":"day-1-crazy-cook-or-just-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/2025\/05\/10\/day-1-crazy-cook-or-just-crazy\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 1: Crazy Cook or just crazy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

May 11, 2025
‘Red line’ mile marker 0.0 to 16.4
Hiked today: 16.4 miles \/ 26.4 km
Hiked so far: 16.4 miles \/ 26.4 km (approx: 0.5%)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alarm went off at 5 this morning and we hurriedly dressed, finalised our packing and headed off in the grey predawn light. One mile from our motel, we rendezvoused with 2 other hikers and our shuttle driver, Clive. We are starting the hike with Russell, a local from New Mexico, and ‘Young Fabio’ from Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The drive from town to the starting point took 3 hours during which we listened to interesting chat and useful information for this first section of trail. The shuttle pulled over close to the US-Mexico border which was clearly visible from a long distance due to the lush farmland on the far side of the fence contrasting with the grey brown of the New Mexico desert floor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before heading us off to the starting monument, Clive showed us a rock engraved with the story of how, in 1805, a group of men were camped here, and someone complained about the food. The cook took great offence and killed the complainer with a hatchet! Clive supposed that was how the nearby mountain ranges (the Big Hatchets and the Small Hatchets) got their names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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USA (left) \/ Mexico border<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Russell, Little Fabio, us<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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After the obligatory photos at the monument, we all headed off along the trail. Although we had seen antelope, coyotes and a rabbit from the shuttle,\u00a0 the only wildlife we spotted on the trail were some lizards, a rabbit and some cactus wrens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mile 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The trail was nice and flat, but we found it a hot slog in 30deg+ temperatures. By early afternoon, we were ready for a siesta and managed to catch a short sleep despite the rocky ground we were lying on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Slow going along the washes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Midday siesta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was starting to cool down as we set off again and we got to the water cache at 6.30. We joined Russell and 2 other hikers for dinner but decided to move a bit further down the trail before setting up our tent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 11, 2025‘Red line’ mile marker 0.0 to 16.4Hiked today: 16.4 miles \/ 26.4 kmHiked so far: 16.4 miles \/ 26.4 km (approx: 0.5%) The alarm went off at 5 this morning and we hurriedly dressed, finalised our packing and headed off in the grey predawn light. One mile from…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/05\/10000085996078615202806339064.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79,"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/79"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudonweb.com\/cdt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}