Started day at mile 39.8 on the Cibola Alternate.

Didn't sleep all that well with how low the temperature got last night. Coyotes again woke me up, they're like the deserts rooster. Talked briefly with Napoleon (from Louisiana & Red Cross (from Switzerland) early in the morning as I ate my morning oatmeal on top of some big concrete piping watching the sun rise. I actually passed the water and had to backtrack a mile to a surprisingly good cow trough that was in a tire. Here I met up with hikers Stud & Dr. Bug (an older couple from South Carolina), and Atlas (an older gent from Minnesota).

Mid conversation I pointed out a lounging baby cow, must have been born within a day or so. It gave such a distressed moo once it realized us stopping for it. It stood and walked to Stud, she gave it a pet. We realized it must have been abandoned by its mother for some reason. We got ahold of the the local animal rescue, the got in contact with the ranch owners near where we found the baby. Soon after continuing on down the dirt road I realized that cow was likely going to be found refrigerated in a grocery store at some point in its life anyway. The hiking mind overanalyzes sometimes, or at least mine does.

Atlas who I walked with towards the end of the day got me thinking about hikes to do in the winter. The Te Aurora trail in New Zealand would probably be the best case scenario for this, but likely the most costly. The Florida trail was another option, but I'm doubting it's fun factor. I couldn't think of anything in South America other than the Great Patagonian Trail, however I'd have to brush up on my Spanish for that one.

I ended my day across highway 117 just past a solar well with a tank that looked like it was full of green tea under a tree. I border with a volcanic rock field. Where the ground looked like a thick black tar was poured over the land.