Day: 012
Date: Saturday, 18 May 2024
Start: Moore Canyon
Finish: Gila River
Daily Kilometres: 27.0
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 330.3
Weather: Cool early then very warm and sunny.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Rehydrated meals.
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - painful left knee.
Highlight: Finally reaching the much-hyped (amongst the CDT fraternity) Gila River.
Lowlight: The very long descent to the Gila River was rough on the knee Julie injured in a fall two days ago and it was very painful by the time we reached the river. Now on antiinflammatories.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were hiking by 6:15am on a beautiful cool morning with vistas across the nearby mountains and crags.
The trail we are following is an official alternate to the CDT, but doesn't seem to be maintained much at all.
Throughout our day we had a real mixture of trail ranging from sublime single-track through pine forest to very gnarly steep trail covered in loose rocks with the chance of slipping high. Dave landed heavily on his butt once.
We often followed beautiful little valleys and canyons through the woods, but also crossed more open forested high valleys with pine-cone covered floors. After crossing a high ridge, which was hard work, we began the long descent to the Gila River. It seemed to go on forever, especially the last part switch-backing down steep slopes.
On reaching the river we encountered a group of male horse-riders camped in a nice spot. We stopped a little further along for a break before tackling our first river crossing and some of the guys came past us on their way to do some fishing. One buff tattooed he-man had a pistol strapped to his chest …. in case he got a big one, we guess.
The challenge of the Gila River Alternate is twofold. Firstly, you are compelled to make many crossings of the river and, secondly, you have to find your way along the banks of the river between crossings and there are no trail markings, or even a trail at all in many places.
During the afternoon we must have crossed the river 10-12 times. The current was usually strong and water up to waist-depth, but we took care and had no mishaps. As the afternoon wore on we became better at picking the route used by others and only a few times had to bush-bash our way out of trouble.
The river has a lightly-wooded flood plain where we hike, but is bordered by magnificent high mountains and red rocky bluffs. It is spectacular.
Around 5:45pm we found a place to set up our tent audibly close to the river and look forward to another day following the Gila upstream tomorrow.
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