Mileage: 21.5 miles (203.7-225.2)
Natty and I got an early start this morning, hiking by 7am. He apparently had shouted over three times before I heard him at 6:30 asking if I was dead. The morning light struck the pinnacles in different hues of orange and red. The sun reached them long before it got down to the river bottom, so the first few crossings were ice cold. The rock formations surrounding us on either side almost seemed like upside-down icicles, melting from the top. The wind and rain has weathered the rock over tens of thousands of years giving the spires their unique shape.
It almost seemed like we were at church, with all the cupolas lit up. As we walked up the canyon, making more stream crossings than we could count, we realized we were following a bear's trail as his oversized paw prints were perfectly pressed in the wet mud on almost every river bank. We were worries we might run into him, but eventually the tracks disappeared up another canyon, perhaps towards one of the many caves tucked into the sheer cliffs.
I also roused a pretty good sized mule deer and he ran upstream to get away. I read the other day that bear will sometimes take a mule deer, so hopefully he didn't run into the bear either. Natty was a real trooper keeping up with me and I did my best to not push too hard. He's 59, but he can really hike. I'm headed all the way to Pie Town, while he's getting out at a day earlier and hitching, so we just need to keep up 20+ mile days so I don't run out of food.
It should get easier tomorrow as we hit the headwaters of the Middle Fork at Snow Lake after 3.5 more miles. After that we won't have to deal with stream crossings all the time and hopefully there will actually be a trail sometimes.
All in all I'll have done 100+ stream crossing in 2.5 days, and walked more than 50 miles along (mostly in) the Gila River. It'll be sad to leave it since it's been incredibly beautiful, but man, it's been tiring so I'll be ready for a regular trail again and not ice cold feet!
Natty and I stopped at 6:30 so we should get a good night sleep. Hopefully he won't need to ask me if I'm dead tomorrow to wake me up!
No comments:
Post a Comment