Today is the coolest!! Ever since I started planning to do the CDT I have been anticipating this day. Why? Because today we enter the Gila (pronounced he-la) River Valley and follow it for the next sixty miles! The cool part? The river winds up this somewhat narrow valley between rock walls on the east and west. It floods every rainy season and the floods wipe out the trail. Soooo, the next 60 miles we are working our way up the valley with only sketchy or no trail and since the river winds it’s way down the valley, first against the left valley wall, then the right valley wall the river must be crossed multiple times. Bridges? Nope. Ya gotta wade the river. How many times? Today it took 25 crossings to go 7 miles! The shallowest crossing is somewhat less than knee deep. The deepest was up to my crotch. The water is swift, but with trekking poles balance was no problem.
We only did seven miles of the Gila River today and are looking at 10 tomorrow to get to Dr. Campbell’s Outpost where I have sent a resupply box. They don’t open until noon. This gives us tomorrow morning to traverse and wade the 10 miles.
To get to the Gila River there were 10 miles to cover. A steep climb at the beginning followed by some steep descents all thru beautiful stands of pine and juniper. Most of it was trail, maybe a mile or two of dirt road. The weather was very cool in the morning with that wind continuing in the tree tops with a warm to hot afternoon in the Gila River Valley.
About 3 or 4 miles up the valley Dallas was looking up at the scenery as she walked on the nearly non-existent trail. She stepped onto an edge of dirt and rolled her ankle, bad enough to sprain it. She said it hurt quite badly, but with no choice but to keep walking we kept moving. We have food through lunch tomorrow. We have to keep moving.
We found a beautiful wooded area with deep pine needle and grassy duff to camp on at about 3:45pm. After tents were up and water from the river gathered she took off her shoes for the first time. Her ankle was swollen as expected. She kept it elevated for some time. Ice would have been nice, but . . .
A dinner tonight? As part of my prep for the trip I made multiple batches of spaghetti sauce and dried in it in the food dryer then ground the dried residue to a powder. Added to angel hair spaghetti and dried broccoli, brought to a boil and let sit in my cozy for half an hour and what a meal! I made about a quart of it and relished every bite. I also bring instant pudding. I made a cup of that for desert. Chocolate. So good.
The sun set on the rim of the valley about 6:10pm, bringing relief from its heat. It took another hour for the temperature to start to drop. The evening was comfortable as I rested in my tent, recovering and gathering strength for tomorrows trek. I am right on the schedule I hoped for.
In the coming days our route takes us further up the Gila then onwards towards Pie Town, NM. I suspect I will not have phone nor data services for a week. I will post when I get signal again.
You can see the trail climbing the ridge to the saddle to the left. Fix Mike is visible as a dark speck.
Down in the trees. Very serene and pretty
2 miles to go to the Gila River and about 1500’ of descent.
Dallas crossing the Gila for the first time.
Crossing again . . .
And again. . .
These beautiful trees are super common in the valley. Got to find out what they are.
Camp for the night
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