Twig Adventures

Friday Apr 9th, 2021, 0715-1000West Fork Gila cliff dwellings to Doc Campbells and hot springs, end segment 21, mm 400.63 miles I slept very well in my humble nest under the trees, like a little squirrel cradled in the pine duff. I really am becoming feral I think. We had a short walk to the trailhead and cliff dwelling monuments, but we immediately had to cross the river, over and over again. It’s pleasant in the hot afternoons but the mornings, when it’s in the 40’s, not so much fun. Where I slept seemed to have trapped some of the warm air from the previous day, but as I walked down the valley, it became even colder. We got to[…]

Thursday Apr 8th, 2021, 0715-1900Mogollon Baldy to West Fork Gila cliff dwellings, segment 21, mm 397.525.5 miles The wind howled all night, sometimes even shaking the metal container. It was a bit drafty, doing little to trap our body heat, but still far better than our tents would have been at keeping out the cold! Plus, we were well protected from flying objects, bears, and vampires. Ghosts still might have been able to seep through, I’m not sure. The sunrise on top the mountain was beautiful, if a bit frigid and blustery. I was glad we spent the night up there but also ready to get down to lower and less burned climates. The notes indicated that the trail ahead[…]

Wednesday Apr 7th, 2021, 0700-1800Mogollon Ghost Town to Mogollon Baldy, segment 20, mm 37220 miles I joked before we went to bed that the Mogollon town folks might come alive as vampires at dusk, preying on innocent hikers that had wondered into the area. Or maybe they were simply straight up ghosts that would haunt us. An axe murderer to boot? When you’re camped in the woods next to a ghost town, these things go through your mind. But there were zero disturbances overnight and I slept very soundly. Maybe the ghouls and vampires just couldn’t find me in my camo tent. We hit the road and made 7.5 miles in just 2 hours. The road was dead quite and[…]

Tuesday Apr 6th, 2021, 1300-1900Alma to Mogollon Ghost Town, segment 20, mm 35314 Miles This day was all about dragging our feet and being tourists. In fact, it was my favorite day yet! We started with a lovely and relaxing breakfast in the garden, followed by more play time with Mocha the dog. I didn’t want to leave this refuge but didn’t really have an excuse to take a zero. It’s always good to take a break but I find it hard to relax in the middle of a hike. Town days are usually more stressful for me. Plus, we’d only committed to one night and preparing meals for guests takes a lot of prior planning in an area so[…]

Monday Apr 5th, 2021, 0600-1900New Mexico Border to Alma, NM, mm 3419.5 miles We had a short road walk into town, where we planned to have a big breakfast and again lunch at the Alma grill…the only restaurant around for miles. Just as we set out, we saw a herd of elk and immediately after another herd of mule deer…like they were all hanging together. Oddly, a lone cow was running after them, comically too slow to keep up. Town was as expected: a few houses and trailers with their requisite junk collections and the Alma General Store and Grill. Top priority was breakfast, then checking out the store. It was a proper general, with some livestock supplies, a gifts[…]

Sunday Apr 4th, 2021, 0600-1900Pigeon Creek to New Mexico Border Seg 18, mm 331.524 miles We made camp in a wash after reaching a graded service road the night before. We passed one guy car camping but saw no one else the rest of this day. We got another early start and decided to make it easy on ourselves by just following the service road all the way to the Blue River. The official route left the nice road for some more cross country stuff. After the previous day, I needed a little break. Plus, anticipating a dry stretch of up to 25 miles, we planned to carry water from the river to last us the rest of the day[…]

Saturday Apr 3rd, 2021, 0600-1900Cottonwood Springs Corral to Pigeon Creek Seg 16, mm 30624 miles I was a bit restless overnight. While most nights are normally dead quite, this spot featured a series of weird sounds. I think most were birds but just as I was falling asleep, I heard a loud snort followed by a nicker. Wild horses…I knew I’d seen horse poop in the canyon earlier. They apparently smelled us and were afraid to pass, eventually going by in the nearby wash based on the sound their hooves made on rocks. Ironically, in all this time, I hadn’t been disturbed by cows overnight, save for the occasional distant moo. During a recent Florida backpacking trip, I’d been tormented[…]

Friday Apr 2nd, 2021, 0615-1800Bonita Creek to Cottonwood Springs Corral, mm 28221.5 miles I love waking up to dry tent, especially when camping near a stream. And did I notice even one mosquito the night before? Not a one. Arizona hiking. Yes please! We talked to our fellow GET hikers a little more in the morning, since we doubted we’d get much of a chance again. As such, we were off just a bit later than usual. We started up a side canyon and were shortly in a fabulous box, way cooler than the day before. Huge chunks of rock (chock stones) had come down to wedge between the tight walls. It was so cool but also nerve-wracking passing beneath[…]

Thursday Apr 1st, 2021, 0730-1600Outskirts of Safford to Bonita Creek, mm 26122 miles We had a productive town stop, but I was anxious to get back to the trail. Looking at the maps during my trip planning, I’d noted another long road walk of about 20 miles out of town. Most was on dirt roads heading into the mountains, which I didn’t mind, but about 5 miles was leading out of town through suburbs and past cotton fields. A nice endpoint at Bonita Springs waited if we could hike a 27 mile day. Or, if we could get a ride past the blah outskirts of town, we could hike a more moderate day and still have time in the afternoon[…]

Wednesday Mar 31st, 2021, 0610-1000Marijilda canyon to Safford, mm 23014 miles I’ll make this a short one since this was mainly just a town day…pretty boring. We had about 10 miles of dirt roads to walk in the morning, which quickly heated up under the fully exposed sun. I felt like we were walking through a wasteland on the outskirts of town. There were the typical revolting scenes…illegal trash dumps, charred remains of waste, broken bottles and beer cans, and impromptu target ranges with spent shells strewn all over. Am I painting a bad enough picture? These are the realities of off-road vehicle access and mismanagement of lands in such close proximity to people. It was a disheartening walk, not[…]