Reaching the Great Divide

day 3- 5/18/08

start- Hachita

end- Big Hatchet Campground

mileage- 80 miles

After 2.5 days of migration from El Paso, TX, we finally reached the official start of the Great Divide Route. The morning started out with trying to find agua in Hachita, which proved to somewhat difficult. We found a trail angel's house, grabbed some H2O and started the 45 miles on a super boring road, hwy 81, to reach the border around lunch time. The border station officers were amazing, fueling Mark with a huge piece of animal soul and me with salad and a potatoe- it was all followed by chocolate cake and ice cream! An awesome treat after suffering for four hours in the heat in a seemingly never ending, straight, relentless road. Following that, we both entered a well deserve state of food comatose, while are parasympathetic nervous system took hold and delivered me into a state of true nirvana. Now we have the divine opportunity to backtrack 35 miles on the same road we came on to a campground. Quite the day- and we're finally going to make northbound progress on the GDR. Heck ya! Time to learn a bit of wilderness medicine prior to starting the 3 hours push towards camp. Stewie out, peace. Stewie back. Well we made it to our destination of Hatchet State Park, but not without some difficulty. About 5 miles away from the border, Mark got a flat in his rear tire, so we removed the causative thorn and placed a patch over the puncture. As we're putting the rear tire back on, we notice that the front tire is also flat. The procedure is repeated, another patch applied and we were off. Three miles later, both tires are going low- so we stop to put new tubes in both tires. Mark used his two spare tubes, so we really hope we don't get any more flats, or we would be kindas screwed. 2 days until we reach a store to buy new tubes. All of the plants out here seem bent on this mission to evolve with the bitchiest little thorns that can pierce anything. It really sucks. I know I currently have a thorn in my rear tire that has punctured the tube, but it's not leaking yet, so I'm just going to wait it out. On a more positive note, we've finally made northward progress and we should be off of the pavement by tomorrow. Gracias a dios! Tomorrow we're heading to Separ and then onto Silver City where I should have a package waiting for me. Yay!Also- I had probably the most amazing dinner tonight. Vegan instant sloppy joe mix, rolled into a wheat burrito with avocado mixed in. Might not sond to appetizing to many people, but I thought it was off the proverbial chain. Too bad I will probably never find instant vegan sloppy joe mix out here. C'est la vie. Time to appreciate the stars and read a little. Stewie out.