Day 83

Day 83: 19 miles

First off I just want to say that this area is beautiful and if you are doing the cdt you should do this alternate. It is fabulous area.

Got moving around sunrise this morning but damn it was cold getting ready before that. Quite a bit of insulation has leaked out of this sleeping bag over a few years so although it’s a 15 degree bag I don’t think that the case anymore.

After about 5 miles I finally got into the lower gila route following the river and it was a doozey of a day. I’ve read that there’s over 50 river crossings on this route but I did at about 20 today so I wonder what that number actually is. The river was never dangerously high at a crossing and according to a hunter I talked to it’s pretty low compared to normal. There were a couple where the water came up to my shorts but I never felt unstable. That being said it was still an exhausting day. For the first 75% of the day there was no inkling of a trail so I was just walking on one side of the river until I hit a wall then flipped to the other side and repeated this for 10ish miles. Later in the day there was finally a trail and some cairns marking it.

I was hoping to make it to doc Campbell’s post today but fell a few miles short. I probably could’ve pushed on to it but decided against it. I found a decent camp spot as it was starting to get dark and I’d prefer to not do river crossings in the dark, especially with this questionable trail anyways. Also this is free camping and if I pushed on to doc’s I would’ve had to pay. So it was an early day but I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to get an early start tomorrow. It’s so damn cold before 8:30-9 I’m not sure I wanna do river crossings when it’s below freezing.

Saw a lot of ducks today and I felt like Tony Soprano cause they kept leaving me

Lost my tripod😔

First time setting up this tent since last summer, like riding a bike

Song of the day: closer-nine inch nails