I met Pat and Judy at 6:30 AM, and we went to McDonald’s and bought burritos and lots of hot sauce for my pack.  I saw Ghost Hiker and Sparky and wanted to talk with them but Pat was in a rush so I had to go.

Judy drove us 50 miles back to the trail, turned off the engine, said goodbye and then the car wouldn’t start.  I stood by the highway with the jumper cables in hand and pointed to them as the first car flew by.  The guy waves at me and keeps going.  5 minutes later another car goes by.  The guy won’t even look at me.  Another 10 minutes and the third truck stops.  A nice rancher guy gives us a jump start and leaves.  We get in, Pat pushes on the brake, and the car dies. Sigh.

I return to the the highway with the jumper cables. The next truck is a New Mexico DOT truck with two super nice guys named Leo and John.  They give us a jump and stick around to be sure.  We eventually determine that the longer we charge Pat’s car, the longer it stays running.  It appears to be a bad alternator.  My job is to to try to keep them talking so they won’t leave too soon.  I think I’m getting good at this bullshitting thing, or they just loved not working (or helping others).  We get enough juice to get to Hachita which has a phone but no cell service though.  Pat calls his friend Gary who does the research and gets a tow truck from Demming.  The DOT guys followed us in to make sure we made it.  They would not accept anything at all for payment.  They were probably with us for 2 hours!

While in Hachita I met Gordon from England.  He was out in the storm the previous night.  It ripped his rain fly off and soaked everything in minutes.  He spent the night wrapped in his rain fly shivering.  Eventually he started hiking out at 4:00AM.  He was waiting in Hachita for a ride to Lordsburg so he could get his gear dried.

I also talked with the guy who runs Buddy’s shuttle.  He called the mayor of Hachita, who drove over with a giant quick charger and tried charging Pat’s battery.  What nice people!  He would only let us buy him a soda pop.

Soon the tow truck showed up and took us and the car to Demming where we dropped it off at an auto repair.  The auto guys got it fixed lickety split. Even the car repair guys are pretty cool in New Mexico! It was getting late and Pat was talking about getting a hotel room, but I managed to talk him into getting back to the trail.  I really want to get back hiking and I’m a little frustrated with all the off-trail BS. We arrived at the trailhead at 4:30 and managed to get 5 miles in before it started to get dark.  It was awesome.  The late afternoon was cool and pleasant with a strong wind blowing.

After 4 miles we met a Canadian girl named Heather.  She seemed a little concerned about where she was camping at the top of a windy pass next to a water tower (a really bad spot!). She packed back up and came with us.  We are now camped in this cool, protected sandy wash and it’s awesome being out of the wind. As we were laying in our beds about 10 vultures soared above us on the wind. They were up high enough so the last bit of sun still caught them.  They are so big and graceful.  And 10 of them!