DWTH Day 4: Cow Troughs and Javelina

Saturday, Feb 1st 2025, 0640-1820
Just outside SNP to past Saturn tank, section 1 mm 33.
23.5 miles.

I woke early and started walking a series of paved roads that turned into dirt toads, all leading west across the low valley. At times I was even following roads to the SW, which was slightly demotivating, since eventually I needed to head north. I entered the Ironwood Forest National Monument area…there wasn’t much to see other than a few boondockers initially. There were also some 4wd vehicles out and about, and even a guy on a gravel bike. One of the 4wds stopped to report that he’d had to turn around at a locked gate that had private property signs posted all over. I guess he was trying to warn me that I was about to run into a dead-end.

I checked my map and saw that another road curved to the NW just before the private property, the way I was supposed to go on the route. I tried to show the guy this, telling him it looked possible to keep driving that way if he wanted to, but he only looked at me dubiously. He’d already convinced himself that ahead was a no-go, so any amount of woman-splaining was also going nowhere. After a minute, he just drove off back towards town. I’ve also been down many a road in trying to give men directions or navigation advice, and it’s usually a dead-end too… ha!

Sure enough, when I got to the private property fence, the continuing road to the NW was so obvious, I don’t know how the guy missed it. This was just fine with me anyway, as I had the road to myself the rest of the day. The Roskruge mountains grew closer and I was back in the saguaro, mesquite, ironwood and palo verde forest. It was very pretty. I stopped at my first guzzler of the trip for a late lunch. The water in the tank looked pretty disgusting but I dipped my Gatorade bottle deep below the surface scum and pulled perfectly clear water. What a small miracle. I didn’t grab a whole lot because there were reportedly many more cow troughs in the next 10 miles.

I commenced my first short cross-country section of the day, which went well. I was surprised when I reached my target, a solar cow tank, in short order. The surrounding spiny and prickly forest looked intimidating at first, but it was easy to weave between the vegetation. There was another short xc piece, where I flushed a deer. Much earlier along the main road, I’d seen a herd of 12 deer, including a really good looking buck. Poor deer though…what a place to eek out a living!

I finished the day on a rocky road that went over a pass in the low hills. There were a series of 7 cow tanks and troughs along this couple mile stretch, but only 3 of them had water. I passed on the first one, then ended up doing longer miles than bargained for to reach the last 2. But there were no good camp spots along the pass anyway. The Saturn trough had a great float switch, so I was able to fill my bottle without even having to dip into the cow spit trough water.

After filling my bag, I turned around to spot a small animal standing less than 10 feet away. It was a javelina and there were a few more in the background. I knew they were just coming to get water and didn’t want a confrontation, but I was surprised by their sudden appearance and a little on edge, nonetheless. I’d been charged by a feral hog in Tennessee the year before and heard lots of horror stories about the javelina. I backed up a little and just observed. The little guy circled the tank and then wandered off… guess they decided to wait until I was gone.

This is precisely why humans aren’t supposed to camp in the vicinity of a trough or guzzler. Other users need access too. Additionally, there were lots of cows wanting to get at the water, so it would have been a terrible place to try to sleep, what with all their mooing and stomping about. I happily filled up and moooved on. After just a few minutes, I dove off the road into the shrubs and found a flat spot. It was just getting dark, so I did all my chores by the light of my headlamp… something I’m very used to.

As always, the stars were incredible. I can’t help but snort when someone remarks about the stars when I’m camping out east. Even on remote Cumberland island, off the GA coast, the visible stars didn’t hold a candle to these desert skyscapes. There is no match…ok maybe Antarctica but it’s too cold to star gaze there. What a great way to end my first full day on the route.