Day 14 - May Day! May Day!

Date: Wed May 1

Start Mile: Gila River Alternate Mile 27.7

End Mile: Gila River Alternate Mile 39.7

Total Mileage: 12 mi

Highlights: Gila crossings, Doc Campbell’s, and hot spring jacuzzi

Don’t worry, I only made this title because it’s May 1st!

This morning we slept in a little bit, hiking out at 7am rather than 6. Our original thought was that we wanted it to be fully light when we were trying to find the trail between river crossings, but the sky was light enough for that by 6. What we really should have been sleeping in for was the cold, for which we probably should have given ourselves even a couple more hours of sleep before hiking out.

All this to say, the morning was cold. Very cold when you are crossing a cold river over and over again and then climbing out into the shadow of mountains. The river crossings on the whole were also deeper than yesterday, with the deepest few above the waist. And not shorts-band waist. Above the belly button waist.

The first two hours quickly became very miserable. Our legs felt like pins and needles in the cold and our feet like blocks of ice. Though I tried to generate some heat on the hikes between river crossings, the crossings were too frequent for this to really happen. And, despite wearing thick gloves and never actually getting my hands wet, they too were painfully cold. I kept balling them up in my gloves to squeeze my thumbs in my fingers. At one point, Shawn even put them in his armpits. Love.

But really there was nothing to do but keep moving and wait for the sun. And so, we made our way across the river again and again as we watched the sun slowly filter down the mountains to the tops of the trees, the mid branches, and finally - in some areas - the ground. Finally, after over and hour and a half of freezing, we exited a crossing to find sun amidst the trees just a little ways from the bank. We made our way over to stand in its rays and warm up for a bit.

As we continued, the sun would eventually fill the river valley and we would thaw. We stayed in our extra layers still for a while after this, luxuriating in the warmth. I promised myself I would not complain about being hot ever again (I will). Eventually, I was able to remove my rain jacket, the buff around my neck/mouth, and even my gloves.

All told, we would cross the river over 30 times today. There were several crossings that had some deeper, swifter bits. I could deal with the swift currents up to my thighs or so, but once they were closer to my waist, I generally needed to take Shawn’s hand through those sections.

And so, the morning and early afternoon went like this. In and out of the river, crossing the banks either as the map showed or simply where it made sense. The map was not always correct about the route - for example, it might show us staying on the east bank when clearly that wasn’t possible because there it had become vertical cliffs. But, generally the idea was to keep making our way up river.

You’ll never see any pictures of the deeper water crossings because generally we were going through them together.

A few miscellaneous happenings of the morning: we saw several squirrels, some deer, oh - and I slipped and fell in the river. Drat. Most of the crossings are very rocky and many of the rocks are covered in thick green algae. They are very slippery. I must have hit one of those. Luckily I was near the shore and thankfully it was after the sun was out. I slipped to one side, falling to my right, and hitting my right knee on a rock. I quickly pulled myself up, half of me wet. It’s amazing, really, that a klutz like me hadn’t fallen earlier.

Another perk of the morning was that, the closer we got to civilization, the better and more defined the trails became, which also made the going much much easier - and quicker. This is typically the case with trails, as trail maintenance is obviously easier in areas with better access.

To that end, we saw a trail maintenance crew out working. First we actually saw two saddled horses, roped up in the shade. Someone must be nearby. There were actually six someones out with picks, hoes, and shovels, working near a river bank. They gave us a bit of beta about a small hot spring not too far away, and we thanked them for their work. As we neared the river, one of the girls said that this “was a deep one”. Comparatively speaking, it was not the deepest we’d crossed through the morning, but it was nice of her to warn us anyway.

It wasn’t too long before we were counting down how many crossings we had left for the day. Four… three… two… one. Finally we hoisted ourselves up the last river bank of the day. Not too far upstream from where we crossed, a couple was fishing. We stopped and chatted with them for a bit. They were an older couple, now retired and had been living out of a van full time for the last three years, having sold all of their stuff they were now living the simple life. We chatted about the trail a bit and then wished them a good day of fishing before climbing a steep hill to the road.

Our final stretch into Doc Campbell’s would be a mile and a half along Highway 15. It was a scenic route, but still a road walk.

It was about 1:30p when we finally hiked into Doc Campbell’s, where we found three other hikers - Little Spoon, Azul, and SoCrates (pronounced ‘So Crates’, as they say it on Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, rather than the correct pronunciation of the philosopher’s name). They were quite the dynamic trio. Apparently they had only picked up Azul for the last section from Silver City, but Little Spoon and SoCrates had been hiking together since day one.

Little Spoon in particular was a riot. Naturally funny and a good storyteller, it came as a surprise to no one when we learned he had tried his hand at improv for a while. We would later learn he did have a fall back plan, as he chatted with a local and tried to land himself the job of the electrician for a new house the guy was building in the area. “It probably won’t happen,” Little Spoon said, “but I might as well try.”

The five of us were the only hikers there for a bit and we traded laughs about other hikers we had met and stories from the trail.

Hiking into Doc Campbell’s, we actually been under the impression that they were closed on Wednesdays (mostly because our mapping app and Google said so), but it turned out that they were open for a couple hours in the morning and afternoon/evening which was great news as Hot Mess and I were doing our full resupply for the next section here. Most hikers had shipped themselves boxes here, which we had thought about before we learned they had plenty of options for resupply.

And so, with Doc’s opening at 4p, we hung around, chatting with everyone as more and more hikers trickled in. Firecracker and Judd were simply on an errand mission from Silver City (via car) and would be heading back there to hike this section. Cat Water was an older woman, weathered but feisty.  She was just out training for the Rim to Rim, quick to let us all know that she had already triple crowned.

We also met the infamous Sweetwater, burly and bearded, with a thick Boston accent. He was the hiking buddy of Groot, who had apparently dumped him and continued ahead as Sweetwater moved more slowly with a healing sprained ankle. Sweetwater was not shy about voicing his displeasure about this. He and Groot were friends and had planned this whole hike together.

A German hiker named Confucius had a meeting of the minds with SoCrates, though Sweetwater later confessed that he dubbed the guy Confucius because he was never doing anything right. He was afraid the guy was going to die out here. Later we saw Confucius shopping in the store. “Is he buying clothes?” Shawn asked. “Yeah,”Sweetwater said, “He didn’t bring anything. He’s been borrowing my jacket.”

Later in the afternoon, Salt, McGuyver, and Dr. Zoom arrived. Most of our interaction with these guys was like two ships passing in the night. They would hike by our tent in the evening. We would hike by their tent in the morning. Yesterday morning, McGuyver had greeted us with “good morning” from his tent as we hiked by.

The store ended up opening closer to 5p, not that we were in a hurry. Inside, we loaded our baskets with what would be a seven day resupply to Pie Town. Ugh. Seven days of food is very heavy. Outside I organized everything into my food bag, which I was barely able to close.

Once everyone had done their shopping, the store was closed again and many of the hikers made their way over to the RV park across the street, where hikers were allowed to set up tents in an open lawn. They also had a gazebo with outlets to charge devices, a hiker box, and several picnic tables - another hiking luxury.

Hot Mess had come over before me and already set the tent up. I finished setting up my stuff and then head down to the bathrooms to shower. I’d found a packet of “conditioning shampoo” in the hiker box - JACKPOT - and the shower had a bottle of Dove men’s soap, so by the end I smelled like a very clean man. Good enough.

While we ate ramens for dinner in the gazebo, Little Spoon was searching for beer, using his gregarious nature to chat up those staying in the RVs. He too hit the jackpot, finding a friendly group that invited us all over for beers. And this is how I found myself in an outdoor lounger with a blanket, my feet cozily tucked into an electric foot massager.

To be fair, I did not ask for these things. I came by, sat in the chair, and politely declined the beer I was offered. Then came one of our new friends, Kathy. “You look cold, do you want a blanket?”

“Oh - no-“

A blanket was produced. Oh yes, this is nice.

The next thing I know, a cord is being run from the RV with a foot massager attached to the end. It was set for heat and high intensity, and - having showered - I was not shy to take advantage of this. Best trail magic ever. People are awesome.

Eventually I gave up this coveted seat so Salt could also take advantage of this cozy set up as well. But now I needed to get warm again. Hot Mess and I thanked our hosts and made our way down to the hot spring jacuzzi, which we had paid $5 each to use. The water was blazing hot, which felt great once we’d eased our way in. We were soon joined by Dr. Zoom and Little Spoon, who - naturally - had also procured towels from our trail magic hosts.

We sat in the jacuzzi until a little after 9:30p, my eyelids starting to grow heavy. After another quick shower rinse, I was back in my thermals.

On the walk back to the tent, a shooting star soared down the sky, possibly the longest shooting star I’ve ever seen. A beautiful way to cap off a fun day.