Brooks Mapped: Doc Campbells to Pie Town

This is a section that I was looking forward to. The middle fork of the Gila is an amazing place and I always wanted to hike the entire length to the headwaters. It was also going to be one of the longest hitches at 7 days before we reached the next town. That means I was leaving Doc's with about 16 pounds of food, Greg with more.

The middle for didn't let me down. We headed up Little Bear Canyon which is nice and narrow to join in with the Middle Fork. For lunch we stopped at Jordan hot springs, which is my favorite natural spring. The pool is about 15 feet across and 3.5 feet deep. It's only about 93, so not really hot, but perfect for a day soak. We showed up, and there was a guy laying in a hammock in the spring. It looked perfect. It seemed he had just finished the Marines recently and was now trying to live off the land. He told us how good the bullfrogs were and the best fishing holes and how good his rattlesnake stew was. He was a really good guy, and we left him with some of the food that we realized we didn't need.

The Gila Middle Fork is still one of my favorite hikes I've been on.

We finished the middle fork at Snow Lake and were dissapointed to find the water at the campsite hadn't been turned on for the season. That night it froze and our wet shoes were to stiff to put on. It delayed us leaving camp a little bit.

The next four days were back in the desert and along roads. Dirt roads, gravel roads, paved roads, lots of roads. Walking on roads is really annoying because they are not meant for walking. They are firm and hard on the body and feet. After a few days I was really feeling it.