Day: 013
Date: Sunday, 19 May 2024
Start: Gila River
Finish: Doc Campbell's Post
Daily Kilometres: 23.1
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 353.4
Weather: Cold early, then very warm and sunny.
Accommodation:
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Pizza, ice cream.
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - left knee still a problem.
Highlight: Our journey upstream along the Gila River was a delight. Our path meandered through woodland or grassland by the river beneath towering ochre bluffs and steep mountains. Sheer cliffs descended to many bends of the river, forcing us to frequently ford across. We must have forded the river scores of times.
Lowlight: None really.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were hiking by soon after 6am on a cold morning. Because of the surrounding high cliffs and mountains, we didn't see any sun until after 8am, but it took another hour for us to warm up. Then, it became very warm.
Our goal for the day was to complete our transit or the southern section of the Gila River gorge and to reach the remote Doc Campbell's Post where we had sent resupply packages. Although it was only supposed to be 22km, we knew it would be slow going.
And it was, at least for the morning. Although the scenery was fabulous (see above), following the trail, such as it was, was quite difficult in parts, especially when entering or exiting the river after a ford. It was sometimes hard to judge the river depth and there was always a strong current. Then, many of the exits required clambering up steep crumbly banks. We tried to see where people had crossed before, but there was no guarantee they were following the best route either. Often, on managing to scramble up the bank, we then had to bush-bash to locate whatever trail there was. It was an adventure, but a slow one.
In the late morning, we came across about eight hard hats and trail maintenance tools in a clearing, likely waiting for the owners to return after the weekend and, from that point on, the trail became much easier to follow and the river crossings much more obvious. Later, we met two guys and some pack horses who were carting in supplies for the trail maintenance crew.
We made faster progress in the afternoon and were happy to reach Doc Campbell’s Post around 3pm, given it was supposed to close at 4pm, though we have been told they will open any time for CDT hikers. While we had an ice cream and cold drink we debated where to stay for the night and finally settled on an RV park across the road. We collected our very heavy resupply box from Doc's and adjourned to the pavilion in the RV park, unsure where to put up our tent, since no one was in attendance.
We killed time the working out our food for the next leg and having showers before just erecting our tent in what we thought was the best place.
Later we went back across to Doc’s to do our laundry and get pizza and ice cream for dinner. They opened up especially for us.
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