Monday, June 30, 2014
Friday, June 13, 2014
Pie Town - Grants
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We stayed at Nita's Toaster House in pie town which is her old personal house now dedicated to strictly being a hiker/biker hostel for CDTer's. This has to be one of the most unique places to stay along the CDT. We were greeted with huge, welcoming, warm hospitality. Nita loves us hikers and wants to talk about everything and anything! There's not much going on in pie twn except for world class pie at a few cafes. And not even a grocery. We sent our food box to Nitas. The relaxed nature of the hostel proved to be the best thing to come along up the CDT so far. She was very gracious and drove a car load of us over to the next town Datil for diner, having the largest steak I have ever had in front of me.
Leaving Pie was a bit daunting knowing we had a long gravel road walk in front of us which was really a continuation of the long road into Pie. No end in sight. Just road and vastness.
We stayed at Nita's Toaster House in pie town which is her old personal house now dedicated to strictly being a hiker/biker hostel for CDTer's. This has to be one of the most unique places to stay along the CDT. We were greeted with huge, welcoming, warm hospitality. Nita loves us hikers and wants to talk about everything and anything! There's not much going on in pie twn except for world class pie at a few cafes. And not even a grocery. We sent our food box to Nitas. The relaxed nature of the hostel proved to be the best thing to come along up the CDT so far. She was very gracious and drove a car load of us over to the next town Datil for diner, having the largest steak I have ever had in front of me.
Leaving Pie was a bit daunting knowing we had a long gravel road walk in front of us which was really a continuation of the long road into Pie. No end in sight. Just road and vastness.
Silver City - Pie Town
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https://picasaweb.google.com/117216991580298080803/SilverCityPieTwn?authkey=Gv1sRgCPyh4p2urK2ewgE
This section covers a large 165 mile section that includes the 45 miles from silver city up to Doc Campells general store resupply point wthin the Gila Widerness. In addition to the undertaking of hiking up through the heart of the gila middle fork river some 39 miles. This is a highly anticipated section because of the majestic huge canyon walls. Not to mention an abundance of fresh running water in the desert southwest, that requires fording the river some 85 times. This year was even more anticpated because the class of 2014 where the first hikers to experience the canyon after last fall's devistating flash flood that ravaged the canyon floor, including the trail itself. Accumalating too the most massive, tangled
debris pile's of trees one could possibily ever experience. Resulting in a duanting obstacle course over and around all of this. Not to mention now crossing the river some 200? times, from the count of other hikers keeping track. Also sludging through deep, thick sand now exposed on the shores and floor bottom of the canyon. A very challenging and exhaustive mixed terrain experience.
However within all of this, we still had a fabulous experience through the Gila. This is a jawdropping, enchanted place.There is alot of power here. One can feel the vibrancy of life thriving here in these canyons. An abundance of plant life growing in these riparian corridors. Sustaining an active wildlife population that frequent these rivers. Including the fresh mountaion lion and bear prints we came across. Loads of bear scat, deer and elk coming down for a drink.
One of the highlights for ourselves was also finding an array of wild edibles and medicinal plants we were familar with. Picking sample tastes as we walked up the river. The best was making a salad out of watercress, mustard greens and dandelion leafs. A delightfully bitter array. Something my body was craving, veggies full of vitamins and minerals. A source of extremely clean nutrition.
Other plants included canyon grape leafs, lambs quarter, cattail root, wild geranium, cordanopsis, lemon berry/buffalo berry, horestail seed heads and fern fiddle heads.
Also within this stretch includes the gorgeously wild Jordan hotspring along the gila middle fork.
And also unimproved native ruins up in the canyon walls.
Beyond the relief of clearing the river and the northern boundary of the Gila wilderness, included three more days to actually reach Pie Town. Climbing through the Tularosa and Mangas Mtns with a mixed variety of single track trail and mostly forest 4WD roads. And now back to finding water was a legitamate concern.
Manageable but with a variance of 10-15 miles between sources.
Finally arriving at our in town hiker hostel
https://picasaweb.google.com/117216991580298080803/SilverCityPieTwn?authkey=Gv1sRgCPyh4p2urK2ewgE
This section covers a large 165 mile section that includes the 45 miles from silver city up to Doc Campells general store resupply point wthin the Gila Widerness. In addition to the undertaking of hiking up through the heart of the gila middle fork river some 39 miles. This is a highly anticipated section because of the majestic huge canyon walls. Not to mention an abundance of fresh running water in the desert southwest, that requires fording the river some 85 times. This year was even more anticpated because the class of 2014 where the first hikers to experience the canyon after last fall's devistating flash flood that ravaged the canyon floor, including the trail itself. Accumalating too the most massive, tangleddebris pile's of trees one could possibily ever experience. Resulting in a duanting obstacle course over and around all of this. Not to mention now crossing the river some 200? times, from the count of other hikers keeping track. Also sludging through deep, thick sand now exposed on the shores and floor bottom of the canyon. A very challenging and exhaustive mixed terrain experience.
However within all of this, we still had a fabulous experience through the Gila. This is a jawdropping, enchanted place.There is alot of power here. One can feel the vibrancy of life thriving here in these canyons. An abundance of plant life growing in these riparian corridors. Sustaining an active wildlife population that frequent these rivers. Including the fresh mountaion lion and bear prints we came across. Loads of bear scat, deer and elk coming down for a drink.
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| bear |
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| lion |
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Other plants included canyon grape leafs, lambs quarter, cattail root, wild geranium, cordanopsis, lemon berry/buffalo berry, horestail seed heads and fern fiddle heads.
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| horsetail |
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| mustard |
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| fiddle heads |
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| wild grape |
Also within this stretch includes the gorgeously wild Jordan hotspring along the gila middle fork.
And also unimproved native ruins up in the canyon walls.
Beyond the relief of clearing the river and the northern boundary of the Gila wilderness, included three more days to actually reach Pie Town. Climbing through the Tularosa and Mangas Mtns with a mixed variety of single track trail and mostly forest 4WD roads. And now back to finding water was a legitamate concern.
Manageable but with a variance of 10-15 miles between sources.
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| road to Pie town |
Finally arriving at our in town hiker hostel
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| Nitas Toaster house |
Crazy Cook /Mexico Border-Lordsburg
This is the region of old Apache lands, a region the US Calvary ambitiously chased Geronimo into. Knowing this land better than any, finally made his surrender in the Peloncillo Mtns on the Nm/Az border. These Mtns hovered on the the horizon to the west.
The CDT is two mountain ranges over easterly in the Big Hatchets separated by the Animas Mtns. The actual geological divide runs through the Animas but is off limits. For the sake of making a southern terminus close to the divide this fit the bill quite nice. It had all the features any adventorous soul would want.
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| under the border and a push up for both countries |
The ecology is quite unique in these parts of the southwest. These mountains harbor more diversity than most would acknowledge. Plants grow vibrantly without much water here. The Hatchets are known for supporting a herd of desert bighorn sheep as well. These mountains in the southern latitude boast what would be referred to as "the sky islands region" where the land has drastically risen from the desert floor and appears exactly like an island, nurturing a select unique group of species that call it home. They harbor life in a transition zone between the even lower latitudes of Mexico's Sierra Madre and America's northern latitudes of sub/alpine life zones.
Even more specifically, bridging the greater Gila Wilderness, which holds the Mogollon Rim of the most southern edge of the Colorado Plateau.The plateau is a vast space below the Rocky Mtns. Where the land falls away and the water drains south westerly. Ultimately, the greater gila would be called the "Sierra madre occidental".
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| Big Hatchets |
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| ocitillo |
After all that, I'm not sure if the Big Hatchet's actually fit the criteria to be a true sky island. Falling short of the proper elevation. But they surely appear so and the sister range, Animas Mtns, a valley over to the west truly is.
The trail itself was a mix of very little single track, old 2 track BLM roads, and line of sight cross country. The route was pretty well flagged with sign posts leading you to the next. For the most part there really wasn't a trail and seemed as if all the hikers are gradually etching out a path with real time usage. A real "feet on" approach for trail construction. The route stayed low skirting the mountains, walking through some canyon washes, without having to make any ascents.
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| parry's agave |
Water was a concern but we found it more available than we would have expected. Between the 5 BLM cache box's and an array of ranchers cow tanks it wasn't so bad. Maybe 15 miles at the most between a source.
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