Week 3: The Gila

Silver City to Pie Town

174 miles

May 12th – May 20th

I restrained from consuming all of Wonder Woman’s limited Marmite supply at breakfast. One last snuggle with the cats (we’ve both now named one each, Poirot and Columbus, ‘Lumbus’ for short).

Our amazing hosts dropped us back to the trailhead via the grocery store (that’s a supermarket) for a resupply.

On this next 10 day section we’re headed first to Doc Campbells, an Outpost in the Gila (pronounced He-La) Wilderness. This should take us just over two days. We have mailed a package of food there, our bear sacks too. Then seven more days on to Pie Town through the Gila River, which is the part I’m most looking forward to.

It’s said to be the highlight of New Mexico, though other than that, all I’ve heard is: hundreds of deep river crossings per day so permanently wet feet, that it’s hard to navigate and full of poison ivy.

Doesn’t that just sound like a party?

Day 11: Back to the grind

From previous hikes, I remember heading back to trail from town being really difficult. This wasn’t, today was a joy and I was really excited to get walking.

Probably because we’d just had the best time with our new friends.

The first 7.5 miles was on our first (of many) alternate routes. The CDT offers a plethora of alternatives, either to make life easier, or more beautiful, and sometimes the more beautiful isn’t the easier and vice versa. Make sense?

We hiked out on the Walnut alternate which took us through suburban Silver City. This quickly turned into forest Road, probably quickly as Shelley was updating me on intricate parts of her life I’d yet to discover. Like who her best friends were at Primary School. Time was flying.

Forest Road became trail and soon we were in deep woodland easily crossing small rivers and enjoying it immensely.

Our target, as we started late today, was 12 miles. We overshot this and at 16 met a hermit called Doug (whom I’d been warned about) he’s lived in this middle of nowhere for 19 years. Initially, seemingly normal we took Doug up on his offer to show us about his place. Garden and cabin. It became clear this was a pre-rehearsed and one way conversation, one which we could not find an escape from easily. Social queues probably weren’t invented when he lived in normal society.

An amazing life I’m sure, but a shame something so incredible could be made to be so unbearable to listen to. he barely came up for breath so as to keep us from leaving.

Evidence of the Hermit. We should have run.

After he adorned us with a St Benedict medal each and a small leaflet explaining the good Saint, (great, more weight) we hurriedly left and walked a short while to be well shot.

18 miles on the day.

Day 12: The Gila, the worst day

Once more I’d successfully avoided bear encounters with my lofty climbing skills to deflect bears.

Spot our food bags, could this be any more inaccessible?

Out by 6:00am once more. Shelley (Snakes) woke up with a wet sleeping bag, she tends to get in my way while I’m busy sleeping, as a proactive problem solver, I just move her out of the way, into the side of the tent. This does not please her and leaves her with a dewy sleeping bag. She mistakenly said “today is not going to be a good day”.

I think Doug cursed us for not staying the night at his place. We began with a climb, which in itself would have been fine, but that every plant in New Mexico wants to kill us and they were all overhanging the trail lunging at us the whole way up this 4 mile climb. Our legs were crying red tears.

We reached the top, and met our pal Spooky Noodle (Super Noodle) who informed us that ‘straight ahead’ at this junction was not the correct route. This lead to the three of us climbing up and down the nearby hill, twice, entirely misplaced and blaming Doug for all of it. Bloody Doug.

After a lot of effort, a lot of time wasted, a lot of blood, a lot of swearing and a lot of hatred towards Doug, I found the trail. I called it a “stupid trail” and I felt better for it. We hadn’t even eaten breakfast! We hiked on one mile to water and to one of the best breakfast spots we’ve had. 6 miles by 10am, when we’d have usually done 12.

Onward, and 5 miles to the Gila River where water worries will be a thing of the past. Only, the trail on our GPS takes the direct route to the river, but in reality we switchback over and over and over down the mountain until all are hopes and dreams of ever reaching the river are crushed. The mileage is inaccurate and .9 miles was actually one million. I reminded the trail that it was stupid, but this didn’t make me feel better.

Lunch.

Here began the Gila River route and what I’d been waiting for. It was no less stunning than we’d been informed. There are too many rivers to ever bother taking off your shoes. Some were thigh deep. All of them were very refreshing.

We’re hoping for 20 miles but what with the stupid trail being as stupid as it was this morning and wasting 90 minutes of our time, we made it 18 miles before a thunderstorm rolled through and we decided to set up the the tent. Super (Spooky) Noodle joined us and because of this we felt safe enough that the bears would eat him and his food first, therefore we slept with our food.

Day 13: Doc Campbells

A swift and stunning 10 miles full to the brim of River before a mile road walk to DOC Campbells.

A 4×4 stopped as we reached the road and gave us sodas and bananas. ‘Trail Magic’ aka rewards for being on holiday.

We reached the outpost, meeting our pal Juke Box sat outside, and proceeded to execute the normal hiker chores, Shelley with extreme efficiency, me with the incredible ability to become entirely distracted while doing 12 things at once and not completing one. Namely chatting to mum. Which is of course a priority at this point.

We received our pre-posted food boxes picked up our bullet proof bear bags, performed laundry and set up our tent as there are hot springs up the road and no one walks away from them. We met a hiker here who we’d been yoyoing on this last section. He’d introduced himself as ‘Fraser’ (As that was his name). Fraser was opening an incredibly neatly packed resupply box, mainly full of baby food. After learning he had completed the PCT, we asked if he’d had a trail name. He said he had, but he wanted a new one for this trail, hence, Fraser. His old trail name was ‘Cheers’, but we heard him say ‘Jiz’ so we called him that instead. After profusely objecting to this, I told him it was Jiz or baby food. He chose Baby food.

After much frivolities with friends, we made the 0.3 mile journey down to the hot springs. This better be worth it seeing as that’s 0.3 miles no closer to Canada, and non trail miles aren’t fun miles. Actually a lot of actual trail miles aren’t either.

It turned out to be completely worth it. We had the whole spring to ourself and other than some woman talking at us for a solid 15 minutes while I lay there with my eyes shut looking as disinterested as I possibly could, it was just swell. We decided to camp at Doc Campbells, as although we could pay an extra $3 to camp at the spring and use it in the morning, we needed a fairly quick getaway to make some miles tomorrow. Stupid miles.

The family of Doc Campbells are incredibly hospitable and supportive, catering to our needs, welcoming us as they did, storing packages on our behalf, allowing us to explode all our stinky hiker crap all over their porch and garden and giving every hiker a free tub of locally made ice cream.

A security light turned on just as we went to sleep. And remained on ensuring we thought it was daylight every time we woke, which was a lot.

10.5 miles on the day.

Day 14: The Gila kicks our bums but we like it

We managed to peel ourselves away from the safety of Doc Campbells and return to the Gila after a 4 mile road walk. It was astonishing how quickly we move on roads. Back to the beautiful Gila, we were told the best was yet to come. Wet feet came imminently, but some of the water was warm, or hot even, so that was pleasurable.

We made it 7 miles before breakfast. We like a leisurely breakfast and stop when the sun comes up. We made it two weeks on trail without coffee, but by silver City we stocked up. Coffee at breakfast is incredibly exciting.

Our pal Spooky Noodle passed us and we agreed we’d all meet at Jordan hot springs, a natural spring on the trail.

Why oh why wouldn’t we?

It tied in nicely with lunch. Which was willies and poop on tortilla. Oh no, wait, they’re carrots and re-fried beans. My mistake.

Onward! Feeling smug about having done 12.5 miles super quickly the Gila laughed in our face and slowed us right down. The trail became hard to find and often non existent. The river crossings were continuous and so making forward miles was slow. The banks were rocky and many trees were down and blocking the trail.

One of the jobs Shelley and I had at Doc Campbells was to Google ‘Poison Ivy’ – I’d heard there was some about and was keen to avoid it. Naturally with all the snacks available, we forgot to do this, and so chose a plant which we thought might be poisonous and made every effort to avoid it.

Turns out it wasn’t poison ivy we were avoiding.

We still don’t know what poison Ivy looks like, but we’ve spent a couple of days avoiding some harmless plant and now our legs really sting. Oh well. At least we know one more plant which isn’t Poison Ivy.

Our goal was 22.5 miles. We made it 22.2 (we found a suitable camp spot and didn’t want to risk not finding one up the trail) and we were tired.

Shelley, informed me she had 8 tea spoons worth of grit (from the river) in her shoes. Normal people would just as ‘some’ or ‘a lot’ but no, 8 tea spoons of the stuff!

The mighty noodle and his magnificent jawline.

21.5 miles on the day

Day 15: High Desert, again

This morning was cold. It was 9:00am before the sun reached us. We’d already done a million river crossings and Shelley was convinced she had gout, (she of course means trench foot) and also convinced she has frost bite.

Eventually comes coffee and all is well again. Another challenging last stretch of the stunning Gila. A cathedral around every corner. Giant frogs, dear, fish and vultures. It’s most certainly the highlight of New Mexico so far.

Our legs are on fire. I’m dipping them in the cool river up to my knees every time we cross.

After 16 miles we round a bend and appear to be, very suddenly, back in the high desert.

Snow Lake campground had been a bit of a beacon, we had high hopes for soap, sinks and maybe even some magic. As we topped out on the camp there stood a lonely toilet block, clanging in the wind and looking sad in the desolation.

No sinks, no soap.

There was a guy named Russell, who informed us he did have magic, but that he’d run out. A simple ‘hello’ would have been more welcome, Russell.

I reluctantly donned my thermal trousers to cover my burning legs. A speedy and quite lovely hike along a dirt road then up a river bed into a canyon brought us 6 miles further along the trail to a large solar fed pond.

21.5 miles on the day.

Day 16: Wind

We’ve been mostly hiking at around roughly 2503m lately, but today we’re heading up to the lofty 3000’s. We climbed up above the pond to a plateau where we joined a dirt road, which we will be walking all day. After a pleasant breakfast the wind picked up.

Today was mostly road walking in the wind. And the first day podcasts were required. I hung out with Guy Garvey and Stephen Fry with Kirsty Young being seductively poignant with her beautiful intelligence. We topped up at a water tank then hiked up a hill into the wind to camp. Temperatures dropped to 0.

22.5 miles on the day

Day 17: I have nothing to say

Well, I have some things. Namely that today was desolate and had us hiking through cold burn areas at 3,000 metres, and drinking from horrible ponds which tasted like ponds.

We did take a handy shortcut which shaved off about 1.5 miles. Then we walked 0.8 miles in the wrong direction, so evened out our savings. Great. This was most frustrating and totally avoidable.

We pushed on to the next water source, tired and ready to stop. the miles dragging.

Things looked up as we made it to the large tank of water, full of fish, which didn’t look like someone had pooped in it or taste like frogs. Small joys.

We camped with Mr Noodle (who had arrived at the tank just after us) and watched him procrastinate around his camp set up more than anyone has, ever. As he slowly set up his tarp with the meticulousness of a molecular scientist. Every move was carefully calculated. After each peg went in the ground he’d step back to admire his work. He’d take a break, come over to our tent to adjust one of our pegs or guy lines before returning to his project, possibly readying himself to carefully insert another peg. Shelley and I were watching him, narrating his progress (taking the piss, really) from the comfort of our already erected tent, while inside our sleeping bags and thermals, and while eating dinner. He was still hard at work by the time we went to sleep.

22.5 miles on the day

Day 19: Devila Ranch

We’d planned a 22 mile day today, but pushed on to 27.2 as there was now a small group of hikers yoyo’ing each other all aiming for Devila’s ranch.

There was a bit of a beacon in this long stretch, a couple of ranchers had set up a little oasis in the barren wilderness. Showers, cookers, shelter, and soda awaited us, if we could make the miles.

Another day made possible by Kirsty Young.

Today was windy and cold, we’re still at around 2,500 metres.

Mid-way we landed upon a fire lookout. I’d recently read the book: ‘fire season’ about the 6 month cycle of a fire lookout in the Gila Wilderness (great book) so I was keen to have a look. The lookout was happy to have us call in and sign his register. A beautiful view from the top of his tower.

Onward to the ranch. We really pushed to get there at 6:30pm. We’d got word that winds were picking up and the weather getting worse over the next couple of days.

If we make it tonight we’d only have 14 miles to Pie Town tomorrow and would be a day ahead of schedule.

We arrived, exhausted to a fridge of soda a freezer of broccoli florets, a hot shower and laundry. The wind was really picking up now. Also with us were Juke Box, Spooky Noodle, and new Friends Kate, Ball flap and Gilligan.

I connected to the wifi to download the second half of a podcast I was involved with. My phone was flooded with messages. I’d read the top three lines of two messages which came through and without opening them, I knew, I just knew my brother had died.