So after spending as many days taking zeros as I have hiked I decided to hike out today. My shin felt great yesterday but it was sore when I got up this morning. Whatever it's had 9 days to heal so I'm going.
I had a long hard hitch to get back to where I left off. I got the first 30 miles real easy, it took 3 hitches but basically the first car that I thumbed at stopped. The last 14 miles didn't go as well. After hitching for an hour and half with only seeing 4 cars and 2 motorcycles I decided to just start walking. If I got a ride great, if not I'd just stay at the hot springs again. After a mile and a half and 4 water bottles discarded by the bikers a truck finally showed up and let me ride in the bed. He was going to right before the cliff dwellings for his job but offered to take me the extra mile. He also gave me a coke so the wait was totally worth it.
The cliff dwellings were neat, not on as steep a cliff as the ones in Utah but still every bit as interesting.
After grabbing lunch I finally started hiking again. I'm taking a short cut up a slot canyon to get back to the river. It'll save me about 6 miles of hiking and I get to go canyoneering... sorta. The canyon was fantastic nice steep walls but still plenty of space. Nothing technical in here. It was pretty unnerving though since there was a thunderstorm blowing through right as I get to the steep part with no way out but down. Luckily there was no flash flood, just a nice spring shower with lights and sound.
I'm no longer hiking the full Gila. It splits back around the cliff dwellings. What I'm hiking now it the middle fork. It is spectacular. I highly recommend it to everyone. It has all the features of the national parks in Utah, hoodoos, canyons with big walls, crazy colorful rock walls, arches, cliff dwellings and art, plus lots and lots and lots of river crossings. I'm now up to 103 total. 61 on the main river and 42 on the middle fork. According to my maps there is at least 84 more to go.
After about 10 miles I came to the Jordan hot springs. The map notes say these are the highlight of the Gila route. I have to agree. While not as hot as the ones by doc Campbells the scenery is second to none. When I was laid up in silver city I watched a show about a guy who makes crazy elaborate lagoons for people and this natural spring blew the things on that show away.
Right before the hot springs was a perfect natural amphitheater. I got the right as another thunderstorm was rolling through. It. Was. Amazing. The thunder would bounce and echo off the walls. So a small little rumble would last for a good 30 seconds and a big one was crazy loud and just kept going. I really wish I had bought an alp horn like I wanted to for this hike. This would have been the perfect spot to play it. I'm going to have to get one and come back here some day.
After soaking in the hot springs for a bit I decided to try and push 8 miles to a place called the medows. There is a trail junction there to another route that will take me away from the river. As much as I'm loving hiking the river my shin splints are not. They were ok until I started crossing. Once I started crossing they started hurting and felt like they did a week ago. I think all the uneven footing and the water itself is making them worse. There is an alternate route I can take that follows the ridge so no more river crossings that I can get to from the medows. It's longer but should be easier. Plus if I get there I won't have to do any cold morning river crossings. I was probably going to make it, I had 2.5 miles left at 7 and it gets dark around 8 but it's slow hiking with all the river crossings and lack of trail. We'll never find out cause I called it quits early when I ran into a group of hikers around 730. I decided to go with company to comiserate with me in the morning about the cold wet morning river crossings.
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