Sweet forEst
My brain decided it was on normal schedule and woke me up around 6:30, opposed to our late morning of 7. But was nice to just relax a bit before getting moving as we usually wake up and start packing and prepping right away.
We made our way to a breakfast joint and had some massive meals, and a surprisingly delicious canned mimosa, because hey, why not? Got a few more things from the co-op, including some CBD chocolates to celebrate 4/20. We went back to the hotel to pack our things and head on the way.
While we did leave quite late, around 10, the first few miles were an easy road walk. We weren’t thrilled about more roads, but it wasn’t terribly long before we got up to a recreation area where the roads turned to dirt. The dirt roads turned to dirt atv trail which turned into a gloriously shaded, foresty trail. Definitely more ups and downs as we get more into mountainous terrain, but it was beautiful and we were very happy to be out of the desert.
To my surprise, it’s about 21 miles of hiking on the Gila River alternate, to actually get to the Gila River. So today we hiked in about 18 miles from town, and are camped out over looking the valley below having grabbed our water from a great flowing source.
We had run into a hiker earlier (whom we actually saw going southbound to the border days ago, and must have flip flopped into Silver city) who said he saw a bear down the way. As we did see some bear poop not long afterwards, we were inclined to believe him.
Shortly after that, we hit a registree (a trail register built into a tree in the literal middle of now where). We saw that Helium, whom we started with) had passed through today as well! We’ve been following her footsteps since the first day when we split ways (her shoes (Hokas) have very distinctive treads. There was also a note in the register that said watch for mountain lions. Woo. We’re definitely in the wilds now!
We had hit a water source we planned to camp at, that had a gorgeous camp spot higher up, but at that source there was a note saying best water and large campsites just a mile ahead, so we pushed on only to be disappointed with the lack of epicness at the camp. Yes, the water source was definitely larger and better, but we actually back tracked about a quarter mile to have a better camp spot, and also not camp directly by the water as to hopefully avoid any animals that may be looking to wet their whistles. It also has lots of froggos make loud ribbits, and would have driven me mad.
We ate dinner a bit always from our tents, and watched the sunset, and now tuck ourselves in for another night. We were hoping to make it to Doc Campbells tomorrow, but with our late start we’re positioned 28 miles away. Especially in this terrain (and apparently shotty trail ahead) its highly unlikely we’ll be able to spend the night, and just have to roll on through. But who knows, maybe we’ll have a half day. Crazier things have been done (including pushing 27 to get into town, albeit flat east terrain).
Here’s to hoping we don’t wake up with cat prints near us!
