Moments in Dirt and Ink

Gila National Forest Click for map. I feel... incomplete after the hike up and around and not down the other side of Clayton Mesa, so I came over to Snow Lake to hike down the river and see the ruins I didn't get to see and maybe even sort out this impossible mystery geocache. That last is really unlikely, but I suspect that if I'd got all but one of the clues on the previous hike, I still wouldn't have got close enough to the cache itself to bother trying to find it. I might have a better chance now that I'm taking the "correct" approach. More importantly, I bumped into the second fire lookout of Mogollon Baldy and she indicates the Middle Fork of the Gila River up here is quite beautiful, but you do have to get down around the dam first. Snow Lake is just a really big tank with a great earthen dam at the end of it. The trail starts at the far side below Dipping Vat Campground and skirts around the edge competing with some fishermen trails. There are...

Gila National Forest Click for map. I actually found the mystery geocache hidden "on" Whitewater Baldy. It was about 40 feet down the hill from where my information said it should be and full of black crumbling paper, charred trade items, and a very corroded geocoin that hopefully some vinegar will clean up sufficiently for logging. (I quite like Geocoins and other trackable items. They get moved around and the travels are recorded. The people who pick them up can write a little something or post pictures. They have a unique code that is used for logging them when they get picked up, but this one will be difficult.) There is another mystery geocache "by" Snow Lake with points to visit up on Clayton Mesa. This one was actually found once they year after the fire. The expected hike for it is about 14 miles from the lake down Middle Fork Gila River and up on the mesa. I have my own idea to visit 5 out of 6 locations by traveling a loop over Clayton Mesa and ...

Gila National Forest Click for map. I came around to the north side of the Gila Wilderness to get some elevation, including the Catron County high point and the area has a completely different look and feel. I took the road in from Glenwood (trailers dangerous, high clearance recommended) and got quite lucky with it because this road (which is a state highway) that has made some peakbaggers with sturdy 4WD question if they really wanted to go is currently in really good shape. I did stop to question if I really wanted to come this way once through Mogollon and the first four stream fords, but figured as long as they were paved it should be fine. The next one wasn't paved. I decided I could use one of the lower trailheads, but I never even saw the next and the one after had a massive gully between the road and the parking. Still, with only a little chasing elk the size of moose as my greatest difficulty, I got to the most sensible trailhead at Sandy Point which includes a ...

Gila National Forest Click for map. I find myself in a state of waiting for a few more days and wanted another hike. I have gone into areas southeast as well as I can, northwest, and southwest leaving the northwest left to explore. I noted that if I head up the Middle Fork, there is quickly a trail heading out east over the North Mesa with a couple of possible routes to where the East Fork Gila River is not a collection of private property. It looks a little long, but measures about 18.7 miles. Probably will be 20 again if I go for a little bump labeled "Whiterocks" and a benchmark or two, so I tried for an early start. It's early enough at just after 8AM, especially for splashing through the river. Early enough starts are getting really easy with the lengthening days. Some of the Middle Fork Gila River that I missed out on when I took Little Bear Canyon to finish my backpacking trip. So down into the river canyon I go on some old road that vanishes in the...

Gila National Forest Click for map. I decided to go on the EE Canyon Loop, except that's not long enough and there are a pair of trails along Little Creek and the ridge north of it (Ring Canyon Trail, but not named for that part) that have a few connecting trails to make a number of possible loop lengths. I settled on a connector only shown on OpenStreetMap, but it has been good to me so far and the Forest Service is definitely missing a number of trails on their maps. The trail start in Woody's Corral is easy to find. The trail at Woody's Corral is easy to find at the west end and from there, I just climb up. There is soon a sign pointing out destinations. I'm on Granny Mountain Trail, although it is first "Miller Springs" until it reaches those on the map. There is no junction here, but one arrow points off in another direction and as I look that way, there is a trail down in the sage on the river flood plain heading off to Gila Cliff Dwelli...

Gila National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Click for map. There is not the slightest hint of frost in the morning. It is much warmer down here than it was in the park. My shoes and socks aren't quite dry from yesterday and chilly to put on, but they'll get even wetter soon enough. I devour my breakfast a little easier than usual and pack it all up. With a quick look over to make sure the place is clean and nothing left, I turn to see exactly how soon. The sun is not even thinking of peeking over the top of the cliffs (besides, the sky seems a little overcast) at 7:11AM as a cliff ahead forces the trail across and I plunge into the water with almost no hesitation. The water is not bad, really. It's the evaporative cooling that starts as I step out that is annoying. Here endeth the walkable land, so either I stop here forever or I cross the little river. It is 3/4 of a mile before I get to a better camp site and just across the river is a parti...

Gila National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Click for map. I can't help but notice the frost and just a little bit of freezing around my campsite. I am somehow still warm enough with just jacket and down booties to supplement the summer quilt. I don't really care to face that cold without my puffy pants, but I also want to hike until the GPS clocks another 20 miles, so out into it I must go. I fool a little with trying to keep warm with the quilt while moving about, but it is just too awkward. As long as I am sitting folded up, it is not too bad. Anyway, the sun is here and it will warm fast. Woodland Park Tank in the light. Some of the trail feels frozen as I start, but it is so close to the warm, shallow water of the tank that it must be my imagination. There is another skeleton like the last just off the trail. This one is a little more intact including two legs with two toes at the end. Okay, not a horse. It is not stocky enough for cow an...

Gila National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Click for map. My cat sitter reappeared from nowhere! Well, from Woody's Corral after some half completed communication. She said I can have another backpacking trip, but there is a deadline of 3PM on Sunday to complete it. If the communication had finished earlier, I might have had a week to play with, but so it goes. The weather seems to be changing and the predictions seem unbelievable. (The highs and lows are too close together to be real.) Last night was a lot warmer (56°F) than things have been, so I expect I don't need any puffy pants. I got packed and moved and my backpack packed and things charged and a plan sorted by 1PM, just an hour later than hoped, so now I am ready to head out of PJ Corral (about a quarter mile from Woody's) intending to finish some 40-45 miles in the next 50 hours. First up is the slightest taste of the West Fork, then climbing up to Grave Tank. The kiosk at PJ Corral wa...

Gila National Forest Click for map. Off the other direction from Grapevine Campground on a little spur of road is some day use only parking signed as a trailhead that does not appear on my Forest Service quad. What does appear is trail coming up the river just as far as a "spring (hot)" about two miles down. Besides the signs assuring me this is a trailhead, not just river access, there is not much indication as to where the trail goes. An information kiosk on the downstream side sits beside heavy trail to the water but nothing visible on the other side. Some trail wanders up a little to the confluence of east and west forks, but that way is private property. Asking OpenStreetMap for a second opinion indicates that not only is there trail here, but there is something too famous to bother to spell out: CDTGR. There are also a couple Continental Divide Trail through hikers splashing through one last crossing before heading up to Doc Campbell's, purveyors of homema...

Gila National Forest Click for map. I'm getting antsy about getting in my long hike. The weather yesterday threatened terribly, but it looked like the folks who took horses out in it had nothing particularly long or hard to deal with. Today only has the slightest bits of threat here and there, so should be better. I'm taking my rain gear anyway: the old non-breathable coat and a cheap rain skirt I picked up and my tall gaiters. The breathable coat leaks, so it's out, but my legs are most sensitive to feeling clammy anyway. The skirt technically doesn't breath either, but it circulates instead. My shoes are just going to get wet if it rains. Extra wet with everything getting pushed down to them. Ah, misery. Maybe it'll stay a nice, blue sky. The Military Road goes between points on NM-15 and NM-35 by Roberts Lake. This end has a loop with an information kiosk on one end and a corral and short 4WD road at the other. I start off at the kiosk, which does...