Article and Photos by Mary Alice Murphy, unless otherwise noted.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Back Country Horsemen, trail clearing custodians, -?sending some of their equines to the CDT Trails Day-?event. (Photo Courtesy of Doug Dexter)
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Tristan Loar, Angie Houck and Eric Johnson showed off Vasque shoes.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
A vendor touts the durability of Darn Tough socks, made in Vermont.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Grant County Search and Rescue members tell the public about their services. From left are Kyle Meredith, Shari Chandler, and Brian Fuller, with Scout, the dog in front.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
A teacher and Aldo Leopold Charter School students talk about their school. From left are Jon Bjornstad, Rose Sierra, Ian Ocheltree and Gabriel Martinez.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Megan Gaskill and Dee Casmiro show a poster of the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Connie Zuniga and Phyllis McQuaide give out information on the Silver City Museum.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Allyson Siwik of the Gila Resources Information Project talks to Gwen Payne.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Dave Menzie was showing the public samples of water from the Big Ditch.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
The Gila National Forest booth was busy Saturday afternoon.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Ethan Hemphill, 8, paints a butterfly.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Addison Pearson, 8, works on painting a butterfly.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Zeyah Pearson, 7, shows off the butterfly she just decorated.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Eric Ernst of the Las Cruces District of the Bureau of Land Management talks about the agency's role in the CDT.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Nathan Newcomer, the local contact for the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, and Lois Manno of the NMWA.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Rocky Mondello at his Morningstar booth.-?`^
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Ron and Peggy Hamm promote Ron's new book on Ross Calvin.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Aracely Villa and Michele Giese promote Grant County trails.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Chris Schlabach of Gila Hike & Bike shows off some of the store's wares.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Michael Tam chats with Sirena Dufault of the Arizona Trail, which runs 800 miles through Arizona to Utah.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Michael Seals of Gossamer Gear and Whitney Allgood Law-Ruffa of the American Long Distance Hiking Association team up for a booth.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Chris Solinsky promotes Zero Day Supply, which is a mail resupply service for through hikers on the CDT.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Ted Presler, Christy Curd and Carol Martin are selling items to support CDT Trail Days and memberships in the CDT Coalition.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Julie Shang sells Toaks products to Steve Marlatt of Willcox, AZ.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Three hikers on their way through Silver City northward bound to complete the CDT. From left are James McBride, Elijah Spray and Boston Chris, who introduced himself with his trail name.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Wesley Trimble of Palmer Lake, CO, talks about the American Hiking Society.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Renee Patrick of Hikertrash, out of Bend, Ore., who completed the CDT last year, chats with Silver City's Scott Kennedy.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
A family made up of Andrea Rego, Christian Thomas, 8, and Dion Pagonis, plan to complete the CDT Trail this year.-?`^
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Lance Pendleton and Riley Ybarra, 10, saw off a wood piece for her.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Phillip Ynostroza of the Gila National Forest finished branding a tree chip for Riley
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
Rocky Mondello of Morningstar and Lee Gruber of Syzygy Tile chat about downtown.
Continental Divide Trail Days - Saturday, April 16 in Big Ditch
James McBride, who is doing a through hike on the CDT, tries on a new set of Vasque shoes, helped by Joe Peters
Saturday dawned blustery and chilly, but the weather did not deter a continuing presence of visitors in Silver City's Big Ditch Park to visit the vendors and booths, relating to all thing Continental Divide Trail-related.
Some highlights of those in the park included Dave Menzie, who had taken samples of water from San Vicente Creek and done coliform tests on them. He put in the sample as colorant, which fluoresces under black light. "The amount of coliform in the water varies by the day and season. Sometimes, it's high, but more often than not, it's normal."
Two sets of hikers were photographed during the time this writer was in the park. The first, a trio of men, were geared up to continue their trek along the Continental Divide Trail northward to Canada.
A second set of three included Dion Pagonis, Andrea Rego and Christina Thomas, 8. They had begun their trek along the CDT near the Mexico border, and planned to reach Canada by mid-October, with a few breaks in between. "We have already completed the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trial, this is our last big hike to complete the Triple Crown. This is the hardest trail, but Christian broke the record for age on the previous two trails. They hail from Crested Butte, Colorado, and work all winter to make the summer hikes possible.