Had a run in with two new hikers early in the day, Dion and Acorn. They had gotten a ride from Lordsburg to 25 miles north on the trail to a parking lot where I was filling up from a convenient water cache stowed under a tree. They were friends from Denver, Acorn is going for the triple crown as well, Dion a triple crowner and father of "Buddy Backpacker" the soon to be youngest triple crowner having already finished the AT & PCT at the age of 8.

Up trail strange chalk marking started popping up, little blue dots on rocks, trail marker, trees. Then notes began denoting "connect the dot's for magic", "make the connections", I eventually came across a genie bottle with a note inside congratulating hikers to making it through the boot heel of New Mexico, that little extra chunk of land at the bottom of the state. The dots and cryptic messages continued for miles, it obviously was a sign for trail magic coming up, which is actually something that I wasn't expecting on the CDT. 5 miles later I finally ran into the Genie, an older lady, greyed with tattoos on her calves, said, "Hi I'm Genie!" Followed by the same gesture that the old classic TV show Genie does folding her hands and bobbing her head once. I told her I admired her creativity, and she exclaimed that she had lots of cold drinks and food up ahead. I couldn't stop smiling after she continued on in the opposite direction down the trail. People like that make the trail life much more like a storybook.

Once at the magic Chris, has already made it there, the Acorn, and Dion soon followed. We all had our own descriptions on our encounters with the genie, all began with that same arm fold head bob. We sat an munched. A new hiker, Fainting Goat, strolled in and did not hesitate in making a pb&j sandwich. I thought it was funny how they, while sitting cross legged, balanced the two slices of bread one on each knee and smeared the two speads on as if there was a table in front. Dion surprisingly pulled out a miniature drone from his backpack and began unfolding it. It had to be the first time I've seen anyone carrying one of those on a thru hike. I had a chance to fly it too, it brought me back to when I used to tinker with RC cars down in my basement when I was a kid, except there was a camera attached to the car and I could view what the car was seeing through the controller, and of course as if the car flew.

We all gradually dispersed from the little trail magic oasis up Burro mountain, the first substantial climb on a trail, not a road, on the CDT. I ended my day just outside the Burro Mountain homestead near water. Where I treated my blisters and audiobook'd as the sun set. Tomorrow I road walk 20 miles into Silver City, NM.