Hiking in the Gila Wilderness

Trail Map

Day Five: Lower Scorpion Campground to intersection of Middle Fork of the Gila River and Little Bear Canyon

This morning we broke camp at the Lower Scorpion CG and packed our backpacks. We opted to leave behind the rainfly and cold weather gear in honor of hiking in the desert in the middle of a drought. Our packs ended up being about thirty pounds, according to our indispensable handheld spring scale.

We finished the leftover romaine as we hiked to the trail head.

The trail was easy to follow, seeing as we were tracking the Middle Fork of the Gila River the entire way. The main problem with this was that the canyon was fairly narrow and the walls were sheer, when the river meandered close to one side of the canyon we had to cross to the other side. When it meandered back to the other side of the canyon, we had to cross back. There were about six river crossings each mile. The river was pretty low and most crossings presented little problem, but we were constantly having to search up and downstream for the best rock or log selection. Our goal was to keep our boots on and dry, but this was challenging. Robert's boots are completely waterproof, mine will leak if the laces get wet, which they do when your stepping rock shifts mid-step and dumps you into the water. Grr. I dried my feet at lunch, but then opted to switch into my Chacos and just hike in those. This, too, presented a challenge because the trail was pretty sandy and wet Chacos don't play well with sand. It was a constant battle.

The Middle Fork of the Gila River

Lunch was remarkable in its horribleness. We had cheese and crackers, yum, and a wheat tortilla, yum, and then we had a new brand of instant humus - inedible. The taste was somewhere between rotten plastic and old sunflower seeds. We buried it.

We reached camp in the early afternoon and played in the cool river water for a long time. We even found a place where a sheer rock face forms one side of the riverbank and makes a perfect sitting/reclining spot. We stayed there until our skin threatened to slough off due to severe pruning. We passed the rest of the afternoon playing cards, lounging on our tent footprint and taking a short photo safari once it cooled off to only near boiling.

Cooling off in the river after the first day's hike.

Robert prefers the push-up method

Dinner was a new recipe from Lipsmacking Vegetarian Backpacking, Logan Bread. We ate this with cream cheese, which greatly improved the eatability of it, but it still took a lot of chews. (This phrase is taken from a guy we met while staying at the Youth Hostel in Boulder, CO. He delayed answering some question by about five minutes while he finished chewing his romaine lettuce, saying finally, "It takes a lot of chews.") Also in honor of this guy, we started the hike munching on our leftover romaine leaves.

You might ask why we chose cream cheese. It wasn't a choice of freewill, rather necessity. We left our food unsecured on a mini-hike the day before, just across the road and down the river a bit, and an unscrupulous raven ate our entire package of bagels, package and all! Lesson learned.

Logan bread and cream cheese

After dinner we enjoyed watching bats hunt over the river, two skunks frolicking on the far bank and a trail of ants being very industrious. I sliced their scent trail and was quite dismayed when it took them an impossible amount of time to reconnect their trail. In fact, we went to bed before they were able to span the inch wide gap. How could they not see each other?! I checked on them in the morning though and they were busily using a little stick bridge Robert had made them the night before. Phew - no lasting damage. Sorry, little fellas.

Can you find the trail marker?

Day Six: Little Bear Canyon to Jordan Hot Springs

So in an effort to try and help Jen with some of the work of the blog I, Robert, am writing some of the days in this post well really just one and as it turns out Jen is sitting next to me with my usual job, reading the paper while I write. Wonderful role reversals.

This morning we decided to wake up early so we could try to hike in the morning when it is very nice outside. The plan was first light which is around 7am our time. Jenn managed to be up by 7:15am while I took a little longer. We left camp set up and delayed breakfast until we got up Little Bear Canyon a little ways. We started up the canyon at around 8:30am. The day before we were told that there was a large cave 45 min up the trail and was looking forward to seeing what they were talking about; we arrived at the cave maybe 5min after we started, maybe he said 4 or 5 min.

Robert enjoying the view from the cave

I decided that we needed to climb up into the cave to see what it was like. It took, as Jen calls it, a Spiderman climb to get up to the cave which really is just using your legs to apply pressure to both side of a little craves like it's a chimney. I went first and it turned out not to be very hard so Jenn couldn't be left not seeing the inside of the cave and actually is a better climber than I am. Once up in the cave there was evidence that other people had a small fire while they were up in the cave.

Spiderman climbing

Little Bear Canyon is a box canyon and very windy so you can see 50 ft at most up the canyon and at the widest parts are 20 ft across which makes it a very interesting hike. After the cave we hiked another 20 min or so before stopping for breakfast as the canyon widen and were no longer the cool box canyon it started out being. Our breakfast of cereal, nestle nido, raisins, and broken up pieces of left over logan bread was actually quite satisfying. This was the first that we tried the logan bread in with a liquid and it greatly reduces the number of chews it takes while the milk actually compliments the taste of the logan bread nicely.

After breakfast the canyon became much dryer as it widen. We had been told that this was a nicer route to hike up to Jordan hot springs and wanted to see what it was like and thus decided to hike to the intersection of the trail we were coming back on. This was the first time we hiked out of the canyon and had a little elevation to see what was around us. It turns out that as soon as you get away from the river everything is very dry and no longer green. What took us 2 hrs to hike up to took us just under an hour to hike back.

Once back at camp we broke camp and started eating lunch trying to draw it out so we could kill some of time in the very hot afternoon before we hiked up to Jordan hot springs. This took much less time than we had and we spent the afternoon sitting on the river bank keeping cool. After about an hour I started packing my backpack hinting at my boredom a desire to start much earlier than our plan which was missed until I moved my pack to the other side of the river and started putting on my boots.

Robert makes a very graceful river crossing, one of many.

The hike up the middle fork from Little Bear Canyon to Jordan hot spring is only 2 miles but 15 river crossings and took us just over an hour. As we were nearing Jenn started taking about how it is easy to miss the hot spring and we should keep an eye out for the run off into the river. As it turns out few people go much past the hot spring and the trail lead right up to a beautiful pool.

Jordan Hot Spring

Once there we immediately dropped our packs and very carefully got into the water as Jen warned that a brain eating amoeba was prevalent in the hot spring in the Gila.  Of course I had seen nothing in the way of warnings but who wants to take a chance of getting something so terrible so we both kept our heads out of the water (that was evidently the proper defense against this amoeba). The rest of the evening melted away very quickly as we soaked our bodies in the wonderful hot spring.

We drug ourselves out of the water with just enough time to setup camp and eat dinner. We did pledge to wake up early the next day for another soak.

Day Seven: Jordan Hot Springs to The Meadows 

Switching back to Jenn's voice...

OK, ready to go?

We got up early and took advantage of our primo campsite near the hot springs to take a morning soak. The air was cool since the sun had yet to reach into the depth of the river canyon and the water was delightfully toasty. We spent an hour lounging and feasting on the promise of a new day in the backcountry. The only problem came when we had to get out…evaporative cooling. We decided to make our exit slowly and in stages, allowing the top half to dry while still maintaining warmth in the bottom half – it worked like a charm.

Back in camp, we un-treed our bear bag and ate a quick breakfast of cereal, powdered whole milk and pulverized leftover Logan Bread. The Logan Bread has a great flavor; it’s just too dry to eat. Mixing it with the milk in the cereal turns it into a wonderful and nutritious mush. We decided that from now on we will pack a serving of powdered milk for every serving of Logan Bread. Problem solved. 

Another river crossing

The day’s hike continued up the Middle Fork, with its attendant stream crossings. As we went the landscape began changing: more water, bigger trees, more grass, etc. The change was welcome. The only part that didn’t change was the soaring cliff faces, which was welcome as well. We passed many inviting river pools and eventually found one too enticing to pass up. We stopped around noon when the heat was starting to get oppressive and planned to hang in the shade of a cliff for as long as possible. I swear it was at least ten degrees cooler in the shade. 

My favorite part of our break was the wading pool. It was about three and a half feet deep, far deeper than most other pools along the river and full of fish! To Robert’s dismay, they were mostly invasive carp with only a few trout mixed in. To my delight, they were quite friendly and seemed almost to enjoy sweeping my toes with their slimy tails.   

Tail sweeps... Carp are not afraid of people in the water.

We ate good humus, tortillas, cheese and crackers for lunch, sprawled on a nearby gravel bar and practiced our cloud bursting until the sun stole our shade. Back on the trail, it was hotter 'n snot and we did our best to stay cool by stepping only on the most tippiest rocks we could find and drowning our boots during every other crossing, oops!

Eventually the canyon opened wide and the trail seemed to disappear in a maze of marshy bits, river bushes, old beaver ponds and plentiful elk scat. It was gross and difficult going. Finally we found a new beaver pond, which was quite amazing in both its size and quality. We crossed around via the beaver dam only to realize there was no way to go further between cliff face and beaver pond. After retracing our steps a bit we finally found a bit of a trail and a decent camp area. The camp, however, had been fairly recently burned and was pretty uninviting. It was the best around, so we went with it. It also had the distinct advantage of being at the base of what we figured was the next day's trail (it went straight up, out of the canyon).

Our camp at The Meadows

Between the beaver damage and the fire damage, "The Meadows" did not live up to my high expectations. Beavers are great; don't get me wrong, but when they abandon pools or build them all wonky they can cause disgusting, stagnant water, a breeding ground for all sorts of vile organisms and couple that with the Giardia that thrives in even active beaver ponds, due to the high excrement content in the water; beavers are not hiker-friendly. As for the fire, we aren't sure when it last burned through here as the area is a mix of green and ash, but it seems to have been fairly recent since the ash hasn't been scattered, making long ghost trees along the ground where trees fell and burned into nothingness. The damage was quite depressing. Why again are fires helpful?

Robert trying to get around the beaver pond.

We killed some hours searching for clean water and a shady spot by the river. At one point we split up, (I was more than likely chasing a bird with my lens.) and then I hear Robert exclaim, "Help!" All manner of scenarios flash through my mind and I call back to him as I begin crashing towards him, underbrush be damned. He stops responding to my calls and I imagine he is being eaten by a very quiet bear. Once I get to him, I see that in fact he is just staring into the river, calm as could be. WTF??? He said, "Elk. You just scared them away."

Jen calls this a ghost tree.

We headed back to camp, water-baby full and brewing into drinkability. Dinner was better than previous nights, a package of lentils and green peas courtesy of my Mom (thanks mom, we used up all the Nido, too!) and a package of Ramen soup, raw, sprinkled with the chili flavoring packet. Both together and a hearty amount of water and we were reasonably full. A few hands of Gin helped pass the time, but summer days are long and we still had a couple HOURS of daylight. We decided to tree our remaining food (especially conscious of bears after finding quite recent bear tracks on a sandy trail nearby), and find a nice spot to enjoy our chocolate pudding dessert.

This little walk improved our mood about this place immensely. We found a fallen tree near the beaver pond and hardly had a chance to sit when Mr. Beaver, Mrs., baby 1 and baby 2 came out to play! I tried for some pictures, but they were across the pond and the light was waning. One of them was busily chewing on something and we were close enough to hear his chews. ("It takes a lot of chews," he said.) We also got to hear them slap the water with their tails - it was really cool or we are really easily amused. A bunny came near to nibble and I used a beaver stump as a tripod to take a grainy picture of him. Finally, we heard elk, multiple. They were making a low, honking noise and calling to each other. They seemed to have the pond surrounded. Wait. Where could the elk be hiding? We could see where all the noises were coming from and there wasn't enough cover to hide an elk. Bullfrogs! Robert had mistaken little chirps followed by splashes to be angry beavers and then the honking to be elk, but no - they were both bullfrog sounds. We tried and tried to lay eyes on the little devils, but they are very shy. Eventually Robert found one and then I scared it away. Sploosh!

It's papa Beaver

He found another and I was determined to take its picture. Never mind that it was practically dark out, I had no tripod and they were skittish as could be. Imagine: Robert standing stock still, Jenn collapsed onto her butt to make a tripod with her knees, then trying to very slowly approach Mr. Bullfrog using a slow crab crawl. Once reasonably close, I leaned forward, basically laying in the dirt on my belly to brace the camera with grounded elbows, still too shaky and too far away. More crab crawling, then laying in the dirt again. Robert and the bullfrog were very patient as I painstakingly arranged a rock to be my tripod. I balanced the camera on the rock, set a four second exposure and used the ten-second hands-free shutter release to capture the portrait below.

Bullfrog!

It was officially too dark for taking more pictures, so we walked back to camp. In my headlamp beam, though, we spotted one last treat. Momma and tiny baby skunk!! They had more than likely been checking out our camp, looking for leftovers, thankfully we had treed everything. The baby was absolutely adorable. Think of the skunks in Bambi, but in real life. The baby was no more than eight inches long and as the mother led it up a very steep embankment, it kept sliding back and squeaking for help. Momma quickly tired of helping and just scruffed the little guy and carried him up in her mouth. This place wasn't as desolate as we had initially believed; it just took an evening sitting by the beaver pond to discover it.

Day Eight: The Meadows to Lower Scorpion Campground

Today was the longest, hardest hiking day yet. We left the security of the Middle Fork and thus had to carry a full day's ration of water. Additionally, we had to climb a fair bit to get out of the canyon. We opted to do this strenuous bit before breakfast in the cool morning air to avoid dying on the trail. We are not yet in great hiking shape and the trail crossed quite a few contour lines on our topo map. The climb turned out to be tough, but manageable due to the numerous switchbacks. We enjoyed that there were no boot prints on the trail ahead of us, only elk, deer, wolf, coyote, and skunk. (I like trying to identify tracks as we hike, can you tell?) We stopped for breakfast at the top of the canyon, overlooking the beaver pond from the night before and thoroughly enjoyed having the hardest bit behind us.

Robert's birthday breakfast.

The rest of the morning passed fairly uneventfully, one foot in front of the other. We walked down into Big Bear Canyon, crossed its dry creek bed and then up the other side, plus numerous other ups and downs of various sizes. All told we walked about eight miles before stopping for lunch at the trail sign marking two miles out. We enjoyed trail tabouli with the last of our cheese, which just so happened to have been chilled by the cool river water in my water bladder! Robert also got to enjoy a small package of chocolate covered peanuts, which I had hidden in my pack as a surprise on this day, the anniversary of his birthing.

Almost out of the Wilderness

The last two miles went quickly and soon we were back at the truck, safe and sound despite being in full sun. We anxiously checked the cooler, worried the nice wine Robert had stashed would have spoiled if the cooler got too hot, but no - the cooler was still cool! Not cold, but certainly not hot. A trip to the Visitor's Center allowed us to wash our faces in the bathrooms and ascertain the nearest source for ice and swimming. Once the wine was chilling and our lawn chairs were set up in a shady bend of the river, we feasted on some books and BBQ flavored sunflower seeds. Not a bad way to spend the heat of the day. As the hours melted by, the wine was drunk and so were we.

It was tough, but we eventually pulled ourselves out of our chairs and moseyed over to our campsite at the Lower Scorpion Campground. We chose to go back to Scorpion to avoid all the families flocking to more choice campsites nearer the river for the holiday weekend. The park service seems to be gearing up for the weekend traffic as well. Stepping up its efforts to inform the public about the ban on campfires, all the fire pits and BBQ grills were covered in hot pink caution tape and hot pink "no campfire" signs. There was also a large sign by the bathrooms: Think you can't go camping without a campfire? <picture of burning forest> Try camping without a forest. Good work, Forest Service. I approve.

We sorted gear, set up camp, reheated leftover gumbo and filled a bucket with hard-earned shower water. A vintage Airstream 290 graced the parking lot and a small family came to be our neighbors, but there was plenty of space for us all, darkness concealed our nudie showers and no one was the wiser.

All told, an excellent first hike.

Here are some wildlife pictures that we took on the trail:

Giant Tadpole

These wasps or hornets were at every water source.

Robert caught the first horned lizard we found.

Giant Whip Scorpion (Thelyphonida) we found as we broke camp at Lower Scorpion Campgrounds.

Tarantula Hawk that just wouldn't hold still long enough.

I'ma, I'ma, I'ma bee...

He really wanted to join us in our swim at Jordan Hot Springs

The biggest lizard we saw in the back country about 8in long

Jenn really likes dragonflies, especially red-headed ones

There were bunnies all over the place.

Jenn found a Black Bear print

I think a Short Horned Lizard