May 24, 2025

To Gila R Alternate mile 66.8

Hiked today: 17.1 miles / 27.5 km

Being deep in the Canyon, the sun does not reach us until after 8 am. We were up and walking by 6.20 and I was feeling quite cold so I put on my puffer jacket until I warmed up.

Straight away the trail took us across the river and we were back to the toing and froing that is characteristic of this Gila River section. The inevitable happened on the 3rd crossing. My foot slipped and I was half immersed in the cold river. The result was a slight twinge in my knee but no serious injury except to my pride.  It took hours to dry off and warm up and every 10 minutes or so we were again crossing the river.

Despite being cold and wet, we were both able to appreciate the beauty of the river bed and the majestic cliffs rising up all around. We saw a mule deer down by the water in the early morning and we spotted lots of birds but saw no sign of the nuisance bear.

As soon as the sun’s rays reached the Canyon floor we started to warm up and it wasn’t long before we were welcoming the cool of the river. Around midday Robert also took a spill while making a crossing so his splash was better timed for a cool down relief. One river crossing we made over a beaver dam and we have passed quite a lot of other dams, but have not seen a beaver. We did see hundreds of enormous tadpoles which is odd because we don’t seem to be hearing any frogs or toads.

Both the sloshing through water and the stomping through soft sand are slowing us down and, although we haven’t made many miles, we are both worn out from the hard work. We stopped for an early dinner just after 5pm and then continued on until we found a suitable tent site. On that short stretch we saw 2 similar snakes, both lying across the trail. Neither snake had a rattle so we are not sure of the species.