Day 8, Part 1: Off to the Gila

Mileage: 17.4 miles (143.7-161.1)

I spent some time just hanging out in Silver this morning just drinking coffee and talking to my dad. The coffee shop was cute and had a killer egg and green chile breakfast sandwich. I met an older woman there who was a fire lookout in the Gila for a long time and also who had ridden her horse from Mexico to Canada (not on the CDT, but a route she made up herself .... back in the '70s ... which is way more badass). She gave me some numbers, including her own, and told me I could call her no matter where I was in New Mexico and she would help me out - such a sweet lady!

I took the Walnut Creek Alternate out of town - it is a more direct route to the Gila National Forest and cut a few miles off. After a 7 mile road walk which gradually went from two lane and well-paved down to one lane dirt. I passed the signs for the CDT on my right and left and for the first-time on the trip I was taking an alternate route.

The Gila River and Cliff dwellings are supposed to be one of the most spectacular parts of New Mexico, home to abundant history, wildlife, and water year-round. The water alone sold me as the official route through the Black range is basically waterless.

I followed jeep track most of the way to Bear Creek and then met up with a Forest service trail. I was enveloped by Ponderosa and Pinyon pines, for some of the best shade on the trip so far. Lethe clouds looked a little ominous but it only a amounted to a few a sprinkles and was clear again. 

I ran into two horseback riders and their dogs while I was walking over a crest in the trail. At first I saw three or four hounds and was like wow, they have a lot of dogs! Then, about 15 more came from behind - all hounds - and I was like, 'holy shit!'. At the time I just figured they must love animas haha. However, a guy down the trail pointed out that they were actually lion hunters (or possibly bear). So I'm thinking, 'oh, how cute, they love dogs' and in fact they were trying to tear a mountain lion to shreds. I guess the radio collars should have set me off ... or the guns, but I don't remember seeing any.

Anyways, I started following an ATV track that overlooked the whole valley, with massive red rocks vaulting up from below. I came to an intersection where the ATV track turned off to the right and in big stick letters someone had written 'CDT' with an arrow straight ahead. I followed the ATV path right, saw a little house, and that's where I met the Doug the Hermit (...continued in pt 2)