From the tent I yell: “What if we just hike to the river?”

I could hear Allgood’s mind working from his tent 20 yards away.

We had been discussing loops and river sections all to add up to 15ish miles of hiking tomorrow. Why 15? Well, cause we said that’s what we would hike out here. The reality? We could do what we want.

The map showed so many trails and so many options for a four-day hike that it was almost overwhelming. From the spot we camped last night we probably had 10 options for routes to hike back to the car in another two days. I was thinking about Allgood’s fishing rod in the side of his pack. Add on top the effort of permits and finding the right tackle, and this was something he appeared to want to do, but we hadn’t made the time to do yet.

“I love the way you think She-ra,” he called from his tent.

Alright, beach day!

We had fourish gentle ponderosa pine forest miles to walk and almost two miles of switchbacks 1,000′ down to the Middle Fork of the Gila. That’s the CDT baby!

There was no reason to move until the sun came, so we didn’t. Later after some stretching and slow packing we set off about 9am.

“I don’t usually hike like this,” Allgood said once on the trail. Allgood is a notorious mile-grinder and regularly hikes some crazy long miles on his trips. “But I could get used to it!” He chirps with glee.

“To the River!”

Yes we could find 15 miles to hike and then another 15 back to the car because we said we would, or we could hike to water where Allgood could have the time to fish, I could read, and we could chill. Go hiking and relax? Six miles today and 11 to the car tomorrow. No decision, really.

Right before the drop into the river canyon we see a thru-hiker coming our way. We stop. We have to stop! Kid was zooming along the CDT before he went to college in the fall. He was clocking 30s and feeling good until a brush with a swollen ice-melt river yesterday, and now he was on a high water alternate above the Gila. That had been part of our decision too, one of our route options included hiking down the Midde Fork of the Gila for eightish miles, but my full-face river dunk and slow progress on the river miles yesterday led us away from that choice. We had both hiked up the Middle Fork on our thru-hikes…and the water was cold.

Anyhoo…it was fun to talk to Kid for a bit and think ahead to all the adventures he would have. Allgood and I have been telling CDT stories for days now…

Once off again we pick our way down the countless switchbacks to the water below. My knee is bruised from my slip and rock encounter in the river yesterday, but it’s more the 46-year-old body I’ve been motoring around this week that had me feeling ready to sit down. That and the three hours I’ve gone without a snack. Being the same age, Allgood and I regularly chat about middle-aged body aches. Hiking while aging is a new experience for both of us. We can remember when we were thru-hiking in our 20s. That wasn’t that long ago, was it?

The river!

That beautiful aquamarine blue river.

The trail guides us down to the most perfect camping spot ever, and it’s a given: we will be doing some hard-core chilling.

Fishing
Snacking
Reading
Napping
Snacking
Chatting
Eating

With the evening came the cold, so we made a fire.

Neither of us usually have campfires, but we could and it was cold. Fire! Due to the many years of fire building and tending in my various outdoor careers, the fire stoker me comes out and I happily poke at the pit the rest of the night.

Oh, one delicious highlight from the hike so far has been Allgood’s Cipino fish soup. He and another hiking friend (Drop-n-Roll), bought a freeze drier and vacuum sealer and were making their own meals. His technique? Make something yummy, and freeze dry it.

Eggplant Parmasan, Spagetti and Meatballs, and Cipino soup were some excellent meals so far.

YUM.