Day 25: Break Time!

I'm Day 25

5/17: mile 575-602.8

Miles: 27.8

Total trip miles: 460.2

I woke up once or twice to the sound of rain/hail but nothing to dramatic. By the time 6 am rolled around the skies were almost totally clear. Unfortunately my sleeping bag was pretty wet from condensation and my tent had a petty respectable layer of ice on it. Oh well what do I expect camping next to a meadow? 

I packed up shivering and whining the whole time. Bigfoot was no where close to ready and waiting around wasn't going to happen so off I went. It actually took me a good half hour to get back on trail. I guess we had cut west to find a campsite right when the trail veered east. Not to hard to find just farther than expected. Based on my maps I had about 12 miles of dirt road ahead and hopefully some water in about 3.5. 

Maybe 2 miles into the morning I rounded a corner and saw Kramers packing up camp and Mountain Spice heading down to road. I stopped at the mile marker for water and stared around. 

Quality puddle water

Kramers caught up as I broke some ice on a puddle. Mountain Spice turned around and joined us for what turned into a solid hour long break. Even Bigfoot showed up. Quality water source is stretching it a bit, it's straight up described as shallow pools at the top of a canyon on our maps. We all use a few different data sources out here and it was great to find the water, just a little frustrating that the water report we have access to has totally wrong mileage (I looked for these pools 9 miles earlier). 

The goal for today seemed to be to take as many breaks as possible, to make up for yesterday's pathetic lack of break time. So the morning rolled on. Mellow miles, lots of breaks. Moist and Nightcrawler showed up. It turns out we lost their footprints because one of the utility rooms up by the lookout tower had been unlocked abs they had stayed in there for hours. Bummer about missing the warmth but no big deal. 

Passing through forest and old burns the trail eventually cut down and we descended over 1500 getting off the Mesa we had been traveling across and finally getting some more views. Taking a break partway down staring at a snow capped mountain in the distance Moist tries to figure out what mountain it is, holy shit guys Colorado is close. Yikes, yes it is. In fact it's less than 200 miles away. 

Shade was getting sparse

Down towards the bottom we head down a spur towards our water for the rest of the day. Our maps said to check across the road from the cattle trough under the plywood. Well no plywood in sight but we did find at least something cleaner than the trough, and possibly the quicksand. It wasn't really that bad, just good and silty.

 Oh J.Ley. The guy who writes our maps has quite the sense of humor 

Tasty yes?

The views were just getting better and I was moving slow with all my new water. Our upcoming sources are a little questionable so I'm probably carrying too much water. Across down and over canyons and mesas we went. Totally different than anything we've seen before. 

Camp on a Mesa? Why yes please

Bigfoot, Kramers, Mountain Spice and I decided to take advantage of the views and called it quits on top of a Mesa. Everyone seems to be having little foot or shin issues so stopping was pretty welcome. The bottom of my feet feel like they have friction burn, super strange. Hoping they feel happier tomorrow. For now it's cowboy camping under stars, and in 50 miles I'll be in Cuba. 

Day 10: the Lower Gila

5/2

Day: 10 mile 14.5-35.3 Marie Hot Springs (on Gila Alt route)

Miles: 20.8 (but definitely more in real life!)

Total trip miles: 187.3

I woke up knowing it was almost 24 miles to Doc Campbell's, my next resupply. This is my favorite kind of place to resupply, I think it's sort of a convenience store/resort type place. It's a town day with only half stress. Because all I can do all day is get my package of food, eat homemade ice cream, sit in hot springs and check wifi. Silver City was awesome but I spent half the time walking around. Compact little places are the least stressful town days. Originally I thought I might try to camp a mile or so outside of the resort, then I found a hot spring only three miles away. It was perfect, 21 mile day and then almost a whole day off. 

When I woke up no one else was moving and I felt guilty but backpacking gear is so crinkly and loud! By the time I left Thatch and Rafiki looked like they were almost ready too and Bigfoot and Moist were still in their sleeping bags. So I was guessing my hike would be another solo one. 

It started out great, steady downhill in a creek canyon through forest. The trail was super rocky and even when it was a road I found myself tripping all over the place for the first miles. The trail got steadily steeper, it's hard to explain but right now I tend to walk 2.5-3 miles per hour. I was barely getting 1.5, but as I descended into the canyon I could see the Gila River. I had finally looked at my map and it looked like once I reached the river I would be following it the whole day. 

Rocky steep trail

Elevation profile heading down (courtesy of Guthook app)

I finally made it down and was so excited. I've been hearing about this section for ages and it's totally worth the alternate. The rocks and the river are so different than the first 150 miles. They are amazing in their own right. 

And so I spent my day crossing back and forth over the river. My feet were wet all day and I easily crossed over 20 times (later this week it will be 85 in a section!). The whole thing is beautiful with towering cliffs, lush green trees everywhere and I even got ominous clouds to occasionally give me some shade. 

One of the highlights of the day was accidentally scaring a group of I think Javelinas (or wild pigs?). I came around a corner and saw one, it grunted and then like a porcupine it's back seemed to totally poof out and it went leaping away, I was so surprised when at least 4 or 5 others started grunting and puffing out and headed towards the hills. It was a great day for lizards and butterflies too. 

But I'm not going to lie, it was tough going. There was some trail but often it was just wandering along very rocky or sandy areas full of spiky bushes and tree branches hoping I might see a cairn marking the trail. In the beginning the water crossings were usually only ankle to knee deep. After my lunch break they tended to be crotch deep, thankfully not too cold at all. It was fun and exciting but I was feeling the miles. When I got to where the hot springs should be I collapsed and peeled off my wet shoes. After a nice break I went searching. Across the river up under to cliff I found them. They weren't particularly hot but they were still pretty nice. I'm tired and happy to be done hiking for the day. 

The wind is starting to pick up and the ominous clouds are still lurking, plus I'm camped in low spot. 

Something tells me I'm not making it through the night dry. But hey, I have plenty of time to dry stuff tomorrow. 

I propped my neon pack on the top of the riverbank so the folks right behind me might stop if they were looking. Turns out it worked perfectly, first Moist, then Bigfoot and even Thatch said they saw the pack and crossed the river to check it out. The only one who missed it was Rafiki, oh well. We'll all have hot springs tomorrow. 

Day 5: Town Day

4/27

Day 5: mile 78-84.5 (6.5 miles)

I wasn't in any particular hurry since I had so few miles until town but I woke up at 6 and figured I would head out since I was awake. 

Staying in town today has been a real debate for me. I'm trying to be less hard on myself and stop comparing myself to other hikers, rather just do what feels right at the time. And a long town day sounds great. I regret how few towns I actually stayed the night in and explored. Town days are filled with chores, catching up on real life (bills, emails etc) and most importantly food for the next section, sorting gear, replacing bad gear and sometimes making up resupply boxes for farther ahead in the trail. Most post offices and resorts/hiker trail Angels will hold boxes 30 days which works great for hikers. 

Buildings...

It was a quick morning, rolling sign to sign over rocky tread and finally a road walk down Main St and hiker central in Lordsburg, the Econolodge. And there was Thatch in his bright orange wind pants walking towards me! Turns out he pulled into the cache right at dark and slept on the other side of the fence. He left before me trying to catch Hanitizer to pay him back, missed him by a few minutes. But we killed the morning chatting up all the hikers at the motel, drying all of our gear and even got a room early when one of the cleaning ladies felt sorry for us. 

Town breakfast (and lunch)

Yard sale. It didn't rain last night but I woke up soaked covered in frost 

Prewash socks before real laundry, they get cleaner that way. 

Thatch had to resupply for 12 days, this next stretch and 2 full resupply boxes. His entire pack was food in the way back from the store. 

Easiest hitch ever. Some guy pulled over offering us a ride back to hotel, we hadn't even been trying. 

The rest of the day disappeared in an instant of showers, resupply and do many other chores. Tomorrow it's breakfast and then 58.6 miles to Silver City. Should be good.