Day 9: The Gila River

Mileage: 17.4 miles (161.1-178.5)

Got a late start this morning after coffee with Doug the hermit. He showed me his Native American artifacts before I left including a bunch of arrowheads, which were pretty incredible as well as some needle and thread made from an agave plant.

Pretty much immediately after Doug's the trail started making a steep ascent to Tadpole ridge, where the Columbus alternate route joins the Gila River route. I accidentally took the Columbus route for a few miles before I realized I was headed back towards Mexico. 

When I got back to the intersection I understood why -- a couple trees had blown down across the Gila route, completely blocking it and the sign marking it. Once back on trail I did quite a bit of downhill back towards Sheep Corral canyon and eventually to the Gila River. 

I had heard there was some cliff dwellings where we met the Gila, so I scrambles up about 50 ft to a cave and at the time was very disappointed because I saw what I thought was some orange graffiti on the ceiling. I thought to myself, 'the nerve of some people, defacing a beautiful cave like this.' Two days later, when I visited the Gila Cliff Dwellings national monument I realized what I had seen were pictographs from more than 800 years ago. The nerve of those Mimbres Indians! I guess I was more dehydrated than I thought...

As I hiked down the Gila River I realized it was less hiking along the river and more hiking IN the river. Over the five hours I must have crossed the river 25 times, sometimes up to my waist in the current. Luckily, the current wasn't ever too swift and I never felt unsafe, stabilized by both my trekking poles.

It really was exhausting making all the river crossings and for the majority of the time, there was no trail. I just knew I had to go upstream for 16 miles and needed to go through whatever brush, fallen down tree, or sand that lay ahead. Of course, I haven't mentioned how beautiful it was. It was really amazing seeing the canyon walls rising so steeply on each side, with lush greenery at the bottom to give some respite from the sun. 

By about 6:30 the sun had started to recede behind the west canyon wall. I took a look at my GPS and saw a note that there had previously been a hot spring just about 500 feet from where I just passed. Being the fiend I am for hot springs, I had to check it out, even if it meant backtracking a bit. As I headed south, down a long and straight meadow looking for the spring, I spotted a momma bear and her cub crossing the river not more than 100 yards away. They didn't notice me at all since I was downwind and perched on top of the grassy spot. I quickly fumbled for my camera (my phone), but it was too dark and too far away for my iPhone to get anything. 

I put down the phone and realized the only way to remember this would be to savor it and watch carefully. Since the spring was supposedly just where the bears crossed the river, I decided it wasn't worth it and headed back north to find a camp spot. I setup under a stand of cottonwoods and drifted to sleep with bears walking through my dreams.