Today was certainly a day of challenges. To start our morning, I was pulled over by the sherriff while riding through town. He wanted to see my paperwork for the horses. I keep my paperwork in my trucks for when I cross state lines, but did not have any in my saddle bags. So he took my information and gave me his email. I then contacted my mother and had her email him copies of the horses papers, including our permit for having the horses in New Mexico. Naturally, he couldn't even be bothered to respond.

Once making it out of town I hit one barbwire fence after another. We would either find a horse appropriate gate farther down the fence line, jump the fence if it was damaged and sagging, or cut through and then repair it. I carried cutters and 100 ft of wire for specifically this purpose.

In the afternoon the wind picked up dramatically. It was certainly some of the strongest winds I've ever experienced. I was getting really worried about making camp out there on the exposed flat lands, when I spotted a water tank about a half mile west of the trail. I headed for it hoping there would be a corral. There wasn't a corral, but it was by a very deep wash (about 15ft deep) that had trees in it. It was just what we needed for the night. I set up my tent and the horses' highline in the wash where we were completely sheltered from the incredible wind gusts that blew that evening.

#2018CDT