{"id":135,"date":"2016-05-12T20:27:34","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T20:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=135"},"modified":"2017-05-14T22:16:11","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T22:16:11","slug":"last-dance-with-the-gila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/12\/last-dance-with-the-gila\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, May 12 Last Dance With the Gila"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"may-12-7\" SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>We tiptoed past the horse packer camp at 6:00 am, but the dogs spotted us and set up a ruckus!\u00a0 Our goal was to hike down to the Middle Fork of the Gila River, then take an alternate route to Snow Lake.\u00a0 But we decided to do one last dance with the Gila–it really is pretty there, and it was only 7 miles, so it was back to lots of river crossings, hunting for trail, crossing debris, and admiring the dramatic beauty of the canyon.\u00a0 We reached Snow Lake, hung out for awhile with “Hippy Longstocking”, and headed out on the next leg of our adventure–a crosscountry (no official trail) run up a canyon and into the hills beyond.\u00a0 But we missed a turn somehow and are camped tonight somewhere…not sure exactly.\u00a0 Hopefully we’ll relocate the trail tomorrow!<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>We did our best to tiptoe past the horse packer camp at 6:00am, but the dogs spotted us and set up a ruckus!\u00a0Then we spotted a couple of the wrangler “students” already up, chopping wood and building a fire.\u00a0 They gave us a wave, and we headed back to the trail. \u00a0Our goal was to hike down to the Middle Fork of the Gila River,\u00a0take another trail up the other side of the canyon, then\u00a0roadwalk to Snow Lake.<\/p>\n

We’d stopped at the Gila to\u00a0AquaMira some water, when along came 2 more guys who were part of the Prior Cabin group.\u00a0 One of them was limping badly–turned out that he slipped on one of their Gila River crossings and really hurt his ankle. They stopped to talk, and told us about the route we were planning to take.\u00a0 “It’s quite a climb up from here to the road,” they said.\u00a0 “We know, because our car is parked up there.\u00a0 And distance-wise, it’s the same as staying with the river.”\u00a0 Fixit and I thought about it and decided, “The river route is flat–no big climb; it has water; it’s pretty.\u00a0 Let’s do one last dance with the Gila.\u00a0 It’s only 7 miles.”<\/p>\n

So it was back to lots of river crossings, hunting for trail, crossing debris, and admiring the dramatic beauty of the canyon walls and the shimmering green shade of the trees.\u00a0 Halfway or so along, we met another hiker, Hippy Longstocking, who was waiting for her boyfriend.\u00a0 “Have you seen him?” she asked.\u00a0 No, we hadn’t.\u00a0 “Well, I stopped here to warn him about which way to go,” she cautioned.\u00a0 “You have to be really careful.\u00a0 Can you see the river there?”\u00a0 We said we could, no problem, and pointed to it.\u00a0 “That’s NOT the Gila,” she said.\u00a0 “It’s Iron Creek.\u00a0 The REAL Gila is sneaking off into those willows.\u00a0 Lots of hikers get messed up here–they follow the creek instead of the river.”\u00a0 Fixit and I inwardly groaned.\u00a0 We knew from experience what that was like!\u00a0 I thought to myself, “AGAIN God puts just the right person in our path to help us know where to go.\u00a0 Thank you!”<\/p>\n

We took care to CROSS Iron Creek, and follow the Gila as it went sneaking along, till finally we could see the Snow Creek Dam up ahead.\u00a0When we\u00a0reached the campground, we all (Hippy L. had caught up with us) more or less collapsed.\u00a0 “Tired” does not even begin to describe how we felt.\u00a0 Finally we recovered enough to load up on water for the next leg of the hike (no water for a long way).\u00a0 Hippy was still waiting for her boyfriend, and worrying about whether he was OK.\u00a0 But the delay was just what I needed, because I discovered we were missing a couple of key maps for the trail up ahead.\u00a0 Hippy (like all the younger hikers) uses Guthook on her cellphone, but she did have paper maps as a backup, so I was able to take pictures of the maps we were missing.\u00a0 Again, I do NOT think this was a coincidence.\u00a0 Many younger hikers do not carry paper maps, but she did.\u00a0 I said\u00a0a silent, “Thank you, Lord, for sending Hippy to help us out AGAIN!”<\/p>\n

Just then, her boyfriend finally arrived, and we discovered why he was so slow–he was loaded down with a huge pile of “hiker debris” he’d found lying along the trail.\u00a0 He had an air mattress, a sleeping bag, a tent, and more.\u00a0 Fixit and I had seen the stuff he picked up, but we walked by it.\u00a0 We’d even stepped over a camera lying in a mudhole.\u00a0 Amazing what the hikers have lost\/abandoned.<\/p>\n

But it was time to get going.\u00a0 Up the road we walked, into a very different sort of country–rolling, grassy hills, hardly any trees, and no water.\u00a0 By keeping a sharp eye out,\u00a0 we found the\u00a0CDT turnoff, only it turned out to be a route, not a trail, which followed a grassy canyon as it twisted and turned.\u00a0 Because there was no trail, we missed a key turn, and found ourselves up in a vast rolling grassland with no clue or hint of where the CDT was, and the sun going down.\u00a0 So we set up our tent (no cowboy camp after our experience of being “frozen” a\u00a0few nights ago) and before I went to sleep, I studied the maps very carefully.\u00a0 I think that maybe…just maybe…I know where we are now.\u00a0 Will find out tomorrow!<\/p>\n\n\t\t