October 21st, 2024
Mile Marker: Gila River Alternate
Miles Hiked: 22
I woke up this morning to the inside of my tent covered in frost and the outside of my sleeping bag sopping wet. I peered outside my tent and saw the ground frosty and so were Aster and Whatever who were cowboy camping.
It was a slow start this am and we got out around 8 AM. It was chilly and I had all four layers on this morning; my hiking shirt, my mid layer jacket, my puffy, and my rain jacket. I wanted to be toasty. We hiked along and started to see the sun shine between the trees.
Grateful.
That was the overwhelming feeling this morning. I’m so thankful for this journey and being here. Even though it’s been a lot of ups and downs, I know I’ll look back on this adventure and think how epic it was and how much I’ve learned being out here.
After about 5 miles we started our descent into the low route of the Gila alternate. We could feel the temperature drop as we descended and I was wishing the sun would rise faster.
We reached the bottom of the canyon and found our way along the river. At our first river crossing we walked through it with our shoes and socks on, we were going to go back and forth, in and out of the river all day. There was no use in taking time to take off our shoes.
Since it was still morning the water was cold, and the more we splashed through, the colder our feet got, to the point where they felt like ice cubes we were just flopping about down the trail.
We started counting how many times we crossed the river, almost every 100 feet we would snake back around to crossing it. I got to around 30 crossings under 2 miles in and eventually gave up keeping track, it was going to be a lot and that was enough. 😅
About 3 miles in we stopped for a quick break in a sun beam, trying to warm our feet up. We had 5 more miles to go and decided to break it in half, stopping in 2.5 at a hot spring.
The canyon was stunning and the trail was incredibly overgrown. We found ourselves able to see the trail but had our shins take beatings from the pokey overgrown bushes. The amount of scratches on my legs is a little bit concerning if you didn’t know I was thru hiking.
We made it to the hot spring around 12:30 and had to decide if we wanted to take a short break here and hustle down trail to get to the cliff dwellings before they closed, or chill here and do the cliff dwellings tomorrow.
We decided to try and hustle down today. We got in the hot spring, enjoying the warm temperatures and feeling our feet thaw out, having a stinging sensation reach up to our ankles.
After about 20 minutes we popped out, had a snack, and turned on turbo mode.
I don’t always love having to hustle but on days like today, I was all about it. Sometimes it’s fun to see how fast you can go and boy, were we flying up the trail.
The crossings became less and we passed weekend hikers with ease. The canyon became more intense and I was in awe. How incredible this area is.
Eventually we reconnected with the orange line alternate to connect us to the cliff dwellings.
We arrived at the cliff dwellings around 3:30, when they closed at 4. The man then told us the last people they allow in is at 4, so we were 30 minutes early. We didn’t care though, we were just happy to be there.
The cliff dwellings is a mile loop and in the middle we are able to see the actual dwellings. This area is one of the places you will frequently see on the CDT as a side trip people take.
I was floored, this is just so cool.
I explored each area I could and kept trying to imagine what it would have been like back in the day. I also thought it would be such a neat place to camp in for thru hikers, if only!
I took a ridiculous amount of pictures here but will share just a few!
We then headed back to the orange line on a paved road and stuck our thumbs out to anyone who drove past us as we wanted to get 3 miles to our campground for the night so we could dry our tent and sleeping bags.
Thankfully a man pulled over and we all hopped in. The man was finishing a 3 week journey around the US, seeing sights and family members after retiring from the Navy.
We then hiked down to the Gila campground and set up a spot to camp. Then we walked back up to Doc’s convenience store to grab our resupply boxes. The store was closed but we were able to call the owner and they opened for us and we could order a pizza. I was incredibly hungry and devoured the whole thing with ease.
Hiker hunger may be back!
We then made it back to camp and got in the natural hot springs that make this campground popular. I could have sat in there all night. To finally be so warm was such a delight. Also, Akela and Karma are here tonight too! Yay!
After a while I got out and realized the warm water made me very very sleepy.
What a day!
Goodnight!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 