What a day! I’m EXHAUSTED. Walked for over 12 hours (not including breaks) and they were some of the toughest miles yet.

Bearclaw and I set off together up the Gila canyon, and while the trail was fairly easy to find the first few miles of the day due to heavy foot traffic, as soon as we passed some popular meadows, the flood make the going much more tedious. In and out of the water, bushwack in hopes of finding a trail…no trail? Walk in the sand or on the rocky shores. The going was uneven and very hard on the feet. Sand in the socks, wet feet, prickly things…all these challenges were washed away though when you looked up. The walls towered the whole day…cool caves, hoodoos that looked like people loomed, and it was hard not to keep a close look at your feet when you wanted to peer towards the sky.

However all of these things added up to a very challenging day. At one point I was grumbling about wanting to be done with the Gila section when a minute later I slipped on a rock in the river and fell part-way in. It felt like the Gilas way of saying “stay present!” Ok Gila…lesson learned.

Not sure what i was doing...but enjoying the canyon for sure!

We took the opportuity to climb out of the river canyon over 20 miles from camp this morning…an alternate to the alternate (isn’t the CDT grand??). Tonight we are camped up high and a chorus of coyotes and wild turkey are singing us a lullabye.

I’m living life as hard as I can.

Two weeks on the trail, 200 miles, and I cant imagine being anywhere else. Sleeping when the sun goes down, waking just before the day begins…it’s as if I’ve been transported to an alternate universe where time takes on a different pace. Two weeks back in Bend pass quickly…the routien (no spell check out here! oh well, who cares) of the everyday has certain qualities that are blissfully absent out here. No bills to pay, no obligations other than to my feet and stomach. I’ve already lived a lifetime in these two weeks, and the prospect of 4-5 more months of this is pretty exhillirating.

Do it people. Unplug for a while. You will find a peace and inner strength that will amaze you.

I woke at 5am today…the call of nature can’t be ignored, but there was also a hot spring pool mere feet from my tarp. I made my coffee and slipped into the waters while the sky was still dark. Watching the sky lighten, brighten, and the clouds slowly breeze over the canyon walls is an experience that is hard to capture in words or photos. Come see for yourself!

I decided to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings, so road walked the 4ish miles to the park, and walked the mile loop through a large dwelling. Beautiful. I’d love to live perched in a cliff deep in the mountains, what an existance! There are quite a few other cliff dwellings to be found in the area…some along the Gila River, not sure if I’ll remember to notice, but the river canyon we have been walking through is sure to hold some treasures.

Then i hiked the Bear Canyon Trail to meet the Gila River, and holy slot canyon, it was a great side trip!! But the best was the awe-inspiring first glimpse of the Middle Fork. WOWOWOWOW I had no idea that canyon would be like this! You MUST make it a point to visit some day. A fire and flood two years ago took out a lot of the trail through the canyon, you can tell it is loved heavily…but I was suprised at how much trail there was.

The few miles to Jordan Hot Springs took much longer than usual beause I kept stopping to look up and try and capture it all in a photo…but the cliffs where much too large to accurately capture the experience.

I made it to Jordon Hotsprings…a little oasis set up off the river with clear blue water…and I had it all to myself! A little shelf just above the springs was open, so I set up my tarp. Meanwhile Dan, a backpacker from back home in the North West came in, he was just out for a short trip, but we had a good time talking trail while soaking.

My view from camp

And then Bearclaw came in! Woot! We shared stories from the past week and ate dinner, finishing just in time; the sky opened just a bit to let a few sprinkles down, but we are tucked safe and dry in our tarps. The sound of running water will lull us to sleep and we face another wonderous day in the Gila canyon tomorrow.

The CDT is a trail of contrasts. Take the last 24 hours for example. I went from having one of the worst nights of my hiking career, to today, basking in the simple luxury of a well-run hotsprings with some pretty solid folks.

The speed at which things can turn bad or good out here is astounding. After I cursed my external battery for not working…having a phone that only had 20% charge left for the next 8 days of hiking (oh did I mention the battery needs to charge my bluetooth keyboard, headlamp, Ipod, InReach and phone which is my blogging device, camera, video camera and link to the outside world?) and decided the slice of clear sky I could see over my head was sign enough that I could cowboy camp tonight, I proceeded to derliously hit the hay…exausted from walking through the river over and over and over.

Cut to about midnight when I felt a few sprinkles. No worries, I simply whipped out my tarp and wrapped it around me, much like I did last week with a passing cloud. The drops continued, and continued, and continued. Soon i thought it was too late to get up and put the shelter up (no idea why in retrospect, I could have salvaged the night), but no. I stayed like that, realizing that things were slowly getting wet despite my best efforts to wrap myself tighter in the tarp. I know, Ill put my feet in my pack, and save the bottom of my down sleeping bag…already wet somehow. I know, I’ll put up my umbrella so my head isnt getting wet. At no time did I think it was a good idea to put up the tarp, everything was already wet. Shit.

To add another layer to the tale, when I arrived at the little spot against the Gila canyon wall I noticed a dead tree, broken and rotted at its trunk, ready to fall…its only saving grace the other tree on which it was leaning. To mitigate any risk of it falling on me, I wedged myself in between another tree and the old fire-ring of the abandoned camp. A fierce wind was ripping through, and I could hear the popping and cracking of the trunk about the give up its fight. I began pleading with the tree to stand for one last night. All night the wind would rush and the tree would crack. Why oh why did I stop here?

So I didn’t sleep due to the rain, wind, and tree. My phone was dead for all intents and purposes, and in a pause in the rain at day break I sat up, made my coffee…oh wait, the rain started again. Huddle under the umbrella. Start to pack…more rain. Finally I just made a run for it, put on my raincoat and cuben fiber rain skirt for the first time, and emerged in the gray and rainy day that had taken over the Gila River.

Start fording the river in my already wet shoes and socks. Stop to get gravel out of my shoe, bushwack to find trail, avoid poison oak. DON’T TOUCH THE POISON OAK!

I was hiking towards relief…towards the Gila Hotsprings and nothing was going to stop me, I had nothing to lose. At this point I came up with a poem, that Ive surely forgotten, but it included some swearing, some pleading with nature, some bargining…pretty pathatic…but putting that poem together took me to my first glimpse of three new hikers…Race, Genny and Seth (or Mini…maybe). Hikers!!! They looked as cold, wet, and over it as I was. But I followed them and talking helped ease the discomfort…and before I knew it the rain had stopped, and the closer we got to the hotsprings…blue sky!

And just like that I was at Doc Campbells store heating frozen buritto after frozen buritto, drying out all my gear in true yard-sale form, and wouldn’t you know it…the age old adage came true… I had just forgotten. When something doesnt work, hit it or kick it. I hit my external battery good and the lights blinked on. Well wouldn’t you know!

My tarp is now set up at the hotsprings, I’ve soaked multiple times, and I shared a package of hotdogs over a campfire with my other hikertrash. Axel, Kramers, Race, Commando, Seth, and Genny and I all hashed over the last two weeks with glee. What a difference from this morning.

Soaking my pain away

Weenie roast

Taking selfies with the gang...Axel, Kramers & Commando

My phone doesn’t have much charge left and my external battery, which is supposed to charge all my devices…is not working! Blast! Technology fails me. I’ll try and get a charge at least on the phone when I get to Doc Cambells, a little store and hot spring stop I’ll get to tomorrow. It will be about 7 days to Pie Town from there, so if all else fails I won’t get to take any photos 😦

We entered the Gila River today! The approach was long and I thought I would never get there. I finally saw some more hikers on the trail: Axel and Commando. Great guys. After I got down to the river I had lunch and Commando and I decided to pick our way along the river.

This next stretch will cross the Gila River just under 200 times…but who’s counting? There is some times trail, and sometimes you just look for the path of least resistance. I don’t know how many times we crossed today, but with wet, sandy feet, I was elated to make it as far as I did. These river miles don’t come as easily and while it was refreshing to get in the water, I think in the cold morning it will be a different story. Ok keeping it short. AMAZING place, Kirk and I will be back to packraft this baby.

Crap. I just lost my whole blog entry..I don’t think I have it in me to type up everything all over again so here is my abbreviated day:

Butt feeling GOOD!

Hiking into the Gila is freaking amazing…the rocks and hoodoos and everything is quite stunning.

Cowboy camping.

Butt feeling GREAT! and stretched to make sure I can manage it ok.

The Gila rocks!

Whew. I needed rest. Being barely able to walk will do that to you. Rest on a long trail is just as important as days you make miles…especially for someone like me who has led a relatively sedentary lifestyle the past few years. Granted Kirk and i get out more on the weekends than a lot of people we know, but this level of activity is a big change for this 37-year-old body of mine, and everything was screaming “REST!”

After breakfast at the Silver Cafe, I headed to Coach Massage next to the Little Toad Brewery for an amazing treatment by Marshall…he assured me I would be right as rain, and as he worked on my back and legs I really did feel better. He gave me a few more stretches to do on the trail, and that hour and a half gave me confidence that I could manage this sciatic pain…and affirmed what I already knew…doing regular yoga on the trail will help keep the pain at bay. YOGA I LOVE YOU.

Silver City

I’ve had a regular yoga practice before the hike, and let that go the first week on the trail, but it makes sense that I need to continue…even just 20 minutes before hiking each day, and a few minutes at night will be a nice compliment to spending months in the wilderness…yoga is a moving meditation and can only help me connect to the world around me in a deeper way.

After that I ran errands and was picked up by Steve, my dear friend NEMO’s friend’s parents who live in Gila, 40 minutes west of Silver City. They put up friends Dude & Trouble last year on their hike. He and his wife Nena are no strangers to the aches and pains of the thru-hiker and I knew i would be in good hands for a few days.

I figured 2 zero days would give my back and hips a chance to heal, get the inflammation down… and wow, what a little oasis…a few strawbale buildings peppered their 2 acres, and I had my own little guest cottage retreat.

My abode

We immediately found common ground, and I felt right at home in their simple and rich life in the desert. Steve set me up with some books and I spent hours in the little cottage reading “A Story Like the Wind.”

Mmmm, book

We had fascinating conversations about everything under the sun, I helped Nena pick rocks, ate delicious and healthy meals, and most of all had plenty of time to rest up.

Yep, laid around a lot

I’m excited to enter the Gila River canyon and spend some time soaking in the numerous hot springs along what will be one of my only river experiences in New Mexico. There will be cliff dwellings to visit, dramatic canyon walls to marvel over, and water. There will be water!

I’m so grateful to Steve and Nena for their generosity, and hope to cross paths with them again in the future. Steve even convinced me to take a book, Aldo Leopold’s essays from his time in New Mexico and Arizona. (I’m a sucker for books, and all three of us are big book lovers.)

Ah. Now to head north…

I consulted Google last night to find out what I could about sciatic nerve problems, watched some videos of stretches, and stretched the hell out of my lower half…and it worked! At least for the first few miles. I could walk without limping, without much pain in my hip, although I did stop often to stretch during the first 5 miles on Tyrone Road out to Highway 90.

I put on my power wrist band, a gift from NEMO, hoping the tailsman would get me through the day

And i wore my fancy Point6 socks..I knew i would need all the luck i could get

The morning was cool and quite pleasant. My mood was quite optimistic as the stretching seemed to do the trick, at least I knew it wasn’t something more serious…

I arrived at the highway and prepared myself for the long 12.5 mile road walk into Silver City…some kind soul had left some bottled water at the road junction, and I was grateful i wouldn’t have to drink the dank brown bug-infested water I had picked up from Deadman’s Canyon. (No dead men that I could see).

Mmmm, brown water

Hey, its better than nothing!

And things got worse. Soon my hip was shooting pain, and I started the limp that would take me into town. I distracted myself with an audio book, a Haruki Murakami novel, and tried to absorb the novel, not the pain radiating down my left glute.

Now normally I hike a 3 mile an hour pace, but I was slowed down to 2 miles an hour, and at the end it was more like 1. I DID NOT want to have to come back and hike these miles when I was feeling better, so forced myself to turn down a ride when a kind soul stopped to ask if I wanted the easy way into town. But I did encounter IBM (Itty Bitty Mexican, self named! I didn’t make that up) who gave me a burrito out of his lunch box…he was so concerned about my walk along the highway that he returned in his maroon pick-up an hour later with a cold bottle of water. I knew he couldn’t fathom why I had to hike the highway, and telling him I was walking to Canada didn’t help matters, but he was a kind soul whose encounter helped me to keep limping.

I felt like I was making progress, and when I saw the sign for the Visitors Center i knew I was getting close, but when I expected to see it was just 1-2 miles ahead, and getting closer saw it was 5 miles ahead, I lost it. Tears streaming down my face, I decided if someone else stopped to ask if I needed a ride that I would take it. No one did, and in the end I was glad. The last 5 miles I grimaced through the pain and knew that if I wasn’t doing myself permanent damage, that I would thank myself for walking this 17.5 miles into town.

I had almost forgotten the pain the last few miles, having moved beyond it, and I was close enough to see civilization, I couldn’t stop now.

The view on the highway walk

Finally, after over 6 hours walking along the highway, I hobbled into town, went directly to the visitors center and gave myself a quick sponge bath in the restroom, and went in search of hikers.

I knew I would find people at the Little Toad Brewery, and sure enough Bearclaw was there ready to buy me a pint. RELIEF.

We were there for the next few hours, catching up with others that came in, Axel, True, Carol & Teresa…we started to fade just after dusk and wandered over to a near-by hotel to spend the night. My dear friend NEMO had arranged for me to stay with her good friend’s parents in Gila, and I planned to connect with them tomorrow…but first sweet, sweet sleep. Time to let my bum rest.

Today was a pain in the butt. Literally. I had tight hamstrings last night, and rubbed some arnica on my legs, but this morning when I started to walk I had a shooting pain in my left glute. What???? I didn’t know what was going on, it felt like there was a problem with my hip…and I had a flash to my friend Luigi who needs to get his hip replaced…his quality of life has been severely impacted by the bad hip…and I didn’t want to fathom that this could be happening to me too.

I took some vitamin I (Ibuprophen) and hobbled down the trail. I wasn’t going to let a little pain stop me from making some miles! The trail was beautiful and climbed up and up, trees and grasses bordered the trail and I reveled in the change of scenery. After a quick trip to a cow tank to get more water, I kept going…and found that climbing Jacks Peak and Burro peak wasn’t nearly as painful as flat walking.

Lovely

Views

I called Kirk from my lunch spot on top of one of the mountains and described my symptoms…he said it sounded a lot like a tight or pinched sciatic nerve. He used to have the same issue when he was a competitive runner, and explained a few stretches that might help.

And they did! Or it could have been the handful of Vitamin I…regardless I was able to put in some more miles and really enjoy the views all around. A few hours later however, I was back to hobbling and before long could barely walk.

Big trees!

I hobbled down Tryone Road trying to get as close to Silver City as I could so the walk in would be bearable tomorrow, but had to call it a night before it was even 6pm, I was barely walking a mile an hour.

I can be really stubborn. A woman offered me a ride, and I declined. If I got a ride from here I would have to return when my bum was feeling better and walk it again. I’m cowboy camped just off the road and will do my best to walk into Silver City (17.5 miles) tomorrow, but if I just can’t I should be able to hitch in. I’ve already gotten the name of an acupuncturist in town, and I’ve looked up a bunch of stretches that should help.

This sucks. And I can’t believe I still hiked as much as I did!

What a day! I passed the 100 mile mark and I got to walk on actual trail! I love the fact that the first 100 miles of the CDT are cross-country/old roads, it lends a certain bad-assitude to the trail, but when that first section of trail tread comes, wow! It’s such a treat! The flow of a well made trail is pretty awesome, banked turns, markers on trees, shade from trees…oh, and there are trees now!

Trail!!!

When I woke up this morning I made a concerted effort not to pack up as quickly as I could to start hiking… lets savor this hike.

When I got on the trail, it was a long 10ish mile cross country walk, and with the trail heading east, it was a bit challenging to see the CDT posts. But as with the previous sections I would keep walking while scanning the horizon for the elusive markers, the CDT makes a killer game of “I Spy.” I could just head straight for the spot I knew the trail entered the mountains, but with so many fences, by sticking to the posts I wouldn’t have to keep taking off my pack and sliding on the dirt to get under the barbed wire. At least the
official route usually has gates to pass through.

Can you spy the trail marker?

The day was still which made the walking hot. I used my sun umbrella for the first time, and enjoyed the shade.

I got to a windmill/cow tank around lunch time and took a 2 hour break and read more of the ebook I downloaded from the library at home. (I LOVE the Deschutes library…free ebooks, audiobooks, and music!) I met a couple of hikers (Een? I’ll have to check the names…wasn’t quite sure I caught them correctly), a father and son from Breckenridge out for a section hike. They were cruising and enjoying the hike quite a bit.

After lunch I bumbled along the route and the CDT entered a beautiful set of mountains…where I saw my first trees! Beautiful! And when the old road bed I was hiking along crested a saddle I got a glimpse to the north. I took another break and soaked in the view. Then the sweet stuff: trail!!!! I cruised down the path and decided to call it a night early in a beautiful little forest…no hiding from the wind behind a bush for me tonight!

Look at that beautiful trail!

Camp, and it's not behind a bush!

I’m really looking forward to this new section…