Day 11 – 5/3/13 – 15.6 mi (189.2)

Oh what a wonderful day! We followed the Gila river upstream for about 15 miles, crossing from bank to bank between the steep canyon walls. The water was usually knee deep and not very fast or cold. It was fairly slow going with over 30 crossings, but we didn’t mind taking our time through the beautiful scenery.

We also saw lots of interesting footprints, including bear, mountain lion, and even wolf!

Emerging from the wilderness to a bridge, we followed a road up to Doc Campbell’s Trading Post, where we all had resupply packages waiting. We also got a few essential supplemental items, like ice cream and Cheetos.

Fellow thru hiker Sweetfish was at the store when we arrived and he showed us the way to Wildwood hot springs and campground. For $12 a piece we got a camp site, showers, use of an outdoor kitchen and most importantly, hot springs! There were 8 of us thru hikers there, and we had the entire place to ourselves. We had a relaxing evening soaking in the hot springs pools, which are heated by water that has been pushed up along a fault line, but doesn’t have that stinky sulfur smell like many hot springs.

The Daily Ninjup Report
5 completed.