The Gila

What a quiet night and morning it was. I woke up from sunlight.  Where was everyone? Was I ready to hike the hotsprings?  Sadie looked tired.  I watched her move and decided that the 13-mile hike would be too much for her old body.  I had to give her a break.  Instead, I would hike the shorter route to the Middle Fork springs just a quarter-mile from the trailhead behind the visitor's center.  Two cars were already parked there, telling me I'd have company.

The Middle Fork here winds through a floodplain that today was covered in sunflowers along the banks.  No significant trees also meant much exposure, and it got hot fast this morning.  I wanted to check out these hotsprings, measuring 109F, much hotter than the Jordan springs.

The trail descends quickly to the valley floor and follows the creek.  The creek here is densely foliated with the tall sunflowers.  But I quickly lost the trail.  It suddenly stopped going uphill against a rock wall.  Either the trail got covered by a recent rockslide, or I was to follow the stream.  A rock cairn points to the hotsprings location, among tall reeds and some really muddy, steamy water.

Sadie put her front paws in the water and quickly pulled out.  The edge of the river felt warm, not hot, but to her paws it surely doesn't feel normal.  I was not about to take what surely would have been a steamy mudbath in the center of the springs.  I simply turned around and walked back to the truck.  We barely hiked over a mile.  Now what?

The Gila Cliff Dwellings are just two miles north on the road and I wanted to explore the foot trail just north of the fee trail to the Cliff Dwellings.  I had been to the Dwellings before and they are worth visiting, but dogs are not allowed and I didn't feel like paying $10.  A uniformed volunteer brunette gal stood guard by the wooden footbridge over the Gila. When I asked her details about that trail, she couldn't say much other than that she and a few other employees got disoriented hiking there and ended up doing a big loop.  Well, that is encouraging.

The Gila River trail promised to skirt the creek for several miles.  I'd just do a few miles out, then back, and call it a day.  This trail, however, quickly got away from the river and across an exposed meadow.  The dogs enjoyed the two river crossings at the start, but the trail quickly got hot.  Shortly after the first signed trail intersection, I concluded that this heat was not going to work well with me and the tired dogs and I turned around.  The park volunteer was right:  the trail here is poorly marked and confusing.  I wanted a river walk, not a meadow walk.

I quickly came across a group of four men, a dad and his boys, who were looking for the TJ Corral trail.  The trailhead for that is two miles south of the Cliff Dwellings, but I know there's also the marked trail that takes one into Bear Canyon.  Again, it wasn't marked on the sign, and their park map didn't list that trail anywhere by name or number.  I chatted with them for a bit and then wished them well, as they opted to hike uphill to Bear Meadow and camp out there somewhere.

Clouds were getting dark again.  It looked like rain.  We had hiked just under four miles on this trail and had had enough of heat and sun.  Time to call it quits.  I washed my hair at a water pump at a campsite across the road from the TJ Corral, and drove back toward Silver City.

I love this area, but it was time to leave.  Two tired dogs, this constant heat and daily threats of storms were enough for me.  I don't ever want to be caught in a flash flood in this valley.  Thirty minutes into my return drive, it began to storm.

More later (I promise!)