Day 22: Frozen shoes, frozen socks

May 12: The first sign of a problem was when I tried to pour water out of my water bottle for breakfast. I typically eat granola for breakfast, and I'll mix up some powered milk with water, sprinkle on some dried cranberries or something and presto! Instant breakfast! But what came out of my water bottle wasn't water, but rather it had the consistency of a partially melted slushy. 

That wasn't supposed to happen, I thought.

My sock was so frozen, I could have beat someone over the head with it!

I powered through, eating breakfast anyhow, but afterwards, when it was time to pack up camp, change into my hiking clothes and get back on the trail, I realized that not only did my water freeze, but so did my shoes and socks. I was stunned! I knew it was getting cold at night, but to freeze that cold? I hadn't suffered from frozen shoes and socks since the High Sierra while thru-hiking the PCT eleven years earlier. Crap.

The frozen socks weren't much of a problem since I could wear a spare pair that was still dry and therefore hadn't froze. The frozen set I could just attach to my pack and let them thaw (and dry) during the day. In fact, that had been my plan this whole time, switching out socks each day to air out and dry each afternoon. Giving them time to thaw as well would come with the package.

My shoes were also frozen solid, but that doesn't show up so well in photos except that you can see the shoelaces sticking out and defying gravity. But really, the entire shoe was a frozen block of ice.

The shoes, however, would be more problematic. They felt like frozen ice cubes, and I couldn't shove my feet into them no matter how much I tried. When this happened on the PCT, I ended up hiking in my Crocs for the first hour or two of the day until my shoes thawed enough to fit my feet in, and that was my initial thought for dealing with this problem. Just hike in my Crocs until my shoes thawed. I wasn't looking forward to hiking in Crocs, though. Not the least of which was because it was still cold outside, and while Crocs might be famous for their comfort, they weren't so well-known for keeping one's feet warm.

But in a fit of inspiration, I had a new idea for thawing out my shoes quickly: I could throw them into the Gila River! Of course, my shoes would be soaking wet afterwards, but they would become soaking wet the moment they thawed anyhow, and they'd get wet as soon as I reached the first river crossing. There wasn't really any downside to soaking them in the river at this point, but it would thaw those shoes out quickly.

So that's what I did. I found a small pool of water at the edge of the river and weighed the shoes down and let them sit in the water for a minute or so.

And when they came out, they were thawed!

I poured out the water from the shoes, then slipped them onto my feet. It was squishy and wet, but no different than how my feet felt the last few days with the 200 or so fords.

The Gila River became increasingly small and easier to cross without getting one's feet wet.

The morning's hike was otherwise uneventful. According to the photos I took, there were 18 more crossings of the increasingly diminished Gila River, and most of them I started rock-hopping across. At one crossing, a beaver had built a dam directly on the trail. The trail had eroded down a bit and I guess the beaver thought that would make a nice pool and built the dam right there, making the creek crossing surprisingly deep. So instead, I just walked across on the dam. It didn't seem to hurt the beaver dam any. Still hadn't seen any beavers, though.

And finally, about 8.5 miles from camp, I reached Snow Lake which marked the end of the Gila River. No more river crossings! In all, we forded the river about 240 times from start to finish. I'm pretty sure that's a record that I'll never break for the rest of my life. I don't even know of another hike that would require that many river crossings!

But water, once again, would become a rare sight and I'd have to start carrying considerably more of it. Along the Gila for the last several days, I never carried more than a liter a time. Now I'd have to carry several liters, filling up just once or twice per day.

I had imagined Snow Lake being a beautiful, clear-blue, pristine lake. It sounds like one, but I knew that there wasn't going to be any snow around despite its name. Perhaps in the depths of winter these mountains got some snow, but that had long since melted in this area--assuming it was even around in the first place. But it drained into the Gila River, and the Gila River's water was clear, cold and delicious! This was the water that filled up Snow Lake, so logically, Snow Lake must be a beautiful, clear-blue lake with fresh, cold water.

Snow Lake didn't live up to its name!

But what I saw was a large, muddy-looking reservoir that looked barely better than a large cow tank. It was a little bit of a shock to me. How could it be so muddy, while the water that flowed from it was so clear and pure?!

The lake was a man-made lake, a fact that I hadn't realized before I arrived there, and it appeared that the water coming from it was actually leaking through the ground to the river. The reservoir was low enough that water wasn't flowing through the lake's main outlet pipe at all--just seeping slowly through the rock and dirt that made up the dam. Which, I assume, filtered out the mud and other contaminates from the water.

Fortunately, I didn't have to drink this water. Along the shore was a primitive campground. I stopped there for an hour or two, and it provided water faucets for drinking as well as pit toilets and trash cans. I cooked a dinner here with the unlimited good drinking water--I knew I wouldn't be camped near any water and there was no reason to carry water if I could just cook a dinner here for lunch. 

Evenstar had left camp before me, but I had passed her earlier in the morning, and then she caught up with me again at the campground.

After cleaning up my dinner mess, I packed up my gear and headed off again. I still had miles to do!

At this point, the trail followed gravel roads for most of the rest of the day. There was a short, confusing section that left the gravel roads and followed a small trail, but the trail looked very unofficial and it felt more like a cross-country hike than following real trail. I hoped Evenstar wouldn't get lost in that section. Now that she wasn't on the Gila River anymore, getting lost was a lot easier. Especially without a GPS that coordinated her position on actual maps.

After a few hours, I reached a small solar-powered cow tank. It was an ugly, disgusting water source, but it was also the last reliable water for 13 miles so I stopped to fill up. I knew I wouldn't reach the next water source until tomorrow--I had to carry enough water to get me through the night.

Solar-powered cow tank, where I used the shade from the solar panels to get out of the sun.

When I arrived, Pez was at the top of a short, steep climb up to a ridge. He yelled and waved in my general direction, and I returned the greeting.

I waited by the water, trying to stay in the shade of the solar panels to keep cool, and I waited here for an hour or so for Evenstar to catch up--I knew she wasn't far behind me--at least I had thought I knew. But she never showed up and eventually I got tired of waiting and pushed onward. I hoped she was just taking it slow and hadn't gotten lost, although I was confident she'd figure her way out if she did.

From the cow tank, the trail climbed up a short, steep section before reaching the top of a plateau where it reconnected with gravel roads and became flat as a pancake. The views were awesome! I felt like I could see a million miles out in every direction! 

Pez, I knew, was about an hour ahead of me since that was when I last saw him, up on the ridge just as I arrived. Another thru-hiker passed by while I was stopped, named Tank, but except for a short chat, I didn't really know him.

Anyhow, once I reached the top of the ridge, I felt like I was on top of the world. The scenery was kind of plain, but I just felt so happy to be out here! The terrain was barren of trees--just golden hills. I flew down the trail, playing music on my phone and swinging my trekking pole around like a baton. And I absolutely loved how flat the trail on the plateau was. Loved it! I couldn't see Pez or Tank ahead of me, and I couldn't see Evenstar behind me, despite the impressive views I had in all directions. It felt like I was the only person around for miles and miles.

It's kind of plain, but I absolutely loved these wide-open views and flat ground!

After a couple of hours, I stopped under the shade of a solitary tree. I couldn't let the shade go to waste and after a couple of hours of non-stop hiking, I deserved a short rest. It was hot out, after all.

I waited around for another hour or so to see if Evenstar would catch up, but once again, I never saw her and after an hour, I was getting itchy to move. Anyhow, the shade from the tree had moved and I was about to end up in the sun again. Time to keep moving!

So I picked up my pack and kept moving. =)

And I continued flying down the trail, happy as a clam. 

The road I followed eventually connected with another gravel road, and just by the looks of it I didn't like the new road as much. It was much larger, wider and obviously used by vehicles a lot more. I hadn't seen a single vehicle on the road I had been walking, but it only took about 5 minutes before one tore down this new road raising a cloud of dust.

Oh, well.... This road was also in the trees, so the brutal sun didn't beat down on me so much. On the other hand, the views weren't as great either. All-in-all, I preferred the road leading up to this one. But I was still in a good mood and enjoying the walk, even if I realized it wasn't as awesome as the previous few hours.

This section of trail I still enjoyed, albeit not as much since the trees blocked the views and the road was much busier with traffic. (Busier, meaning one vehicle every half hour or so.)

A short while later, I was startled when Pez called out to me from the side of the trail. I hadn't seen him in the shadows of the trees, but he had set up camp right there on the side of the road. I sat down and chatted with him for an hour or so. I kind of wanted to stop and camp with him, but I had this weird urge to just keep walking! I was enjoying the walk so much, I just didn't want it to end. At least not yet.

I had hoped Evenstar might catch up during this break, but I wasn't optimistic anymore, and sure enough, she still hadn't shown up. Hopefully she was fine, though, and just hiking slow due to her blisters.

Pez said that he never saw Tank, which surprised me since I knew Pez was ahead of Tank, and Tank was ahead of me, but now that I had connected up with Pez, what happened to Tank? They had to have crossed paths at some point, but apparently they never saw each other. It seemed all but impossible to have gotten lost on the road walk, though. The trail was pretty clear through this area. It would be a mystery that we'd never solve....

Pez had enjoyed watching his Netflix shows in the evening but commented that he didn't really have enough power left to keep watching it before reaching Pie Town--the next resupply point. But I pulled out a spare battery pack that I had picked up from the hiker box at Doc Campbell's.

"Here you go!" I told him. "Take it! Use it! Just give it back to me later." =)

I was happy to let him carry some of my gear for me. =D

And it was a spare battery pack. I was carrying two of them at this point. The one I brought was massive in size--really larger than I needed--so I wanted to move to a smaller one and the one in the hiker box was half the size of my normal battery pack. There wasn't a post office at Doc Campbell's, though, so for the time being, I was carrying both of them. I had far more power than I knew what to do with!

So Pez was happy to get the power boost, and I was happy to no longer carry the extra battery pack. 

But anyhow, I still felt happier than a clam and just did not want to stop walking so early, so finally I picked up my pack and pushed onward. It wasn't often when I wanted to keep hiking late in the day, and I knew the feeling wouldn't last forever. I may as well enjoy it while it lasted, though!

I wouldn't get much further, anyhow, knowing that sunset was only about an hour away. I couldn't hike in the dark, as much as I would have liked to, since I needed photos for Walking 4 Fun. 

So when I reached a nice campsite on the side of the road about an hour later, I finally stopped for the day. All-in-all, a pretty nice day. Despite starting the day with frozen shoes. =)

Evenstar at one of our last fords of the Gila River

Day 21: Fording Bubbles! I mean... Fords and Bubbles!

May 11: I woke up and hit the trail a little before 7:00am. It didn't take long before I caught up with both Evenstar and Pez, who I ended up hiking with most of the day. Good times!

Evenstar said she had gotten up very early in the morning to soak in the hot springs. Pez just had to listen to us rave about how wonderful the hot springs were--assuring him that he really missed out. =)

The main obstacle for the day, once again, was the Gila River that required countless numbers of fording. Counting the photos of the river crossings--which seemed like the only reliable way of counting the river crossings--the number added up to 121! One-hundred-and-twenty-one fords! Today! Just today. The number of times the Gila needed to be forded, I was certain, would easily exceed 200 by the time we finished. The number was staggering. At least they weren't difficult fords, though. Just a nuisance. 

Pez really didn't like getting his feet wet and did all sorts of contortions trying to rock hop and avoid the water whenever possible. One crossing where he knew he couldn't keep his feet dry, he hopped across on one foot so at least only one foot was wet instead of both of them. It was rather comical.

Both Evenstar and I had long since given up trying to keep our feet dry. It seemed pointless. I did wear my not-so-waterproof socks to at least keep my feet a bit warmer during each river crossing, but that was the only thing I did about the situation.

Pez, looking for a route across the river that would keep his feet dry. Or at least not re-wet them.

At one point, late the day, I had mentioned having bubbles to Pez and he was shocked--shocked!--that I'd carry something as useless as bubbles. 

"Of course I would!" I explained. "A guy needs to have some fun on the trail occasionally. And anyhow," I continued, "They aren't that big or heavy." While telling him this, I pulled out the small vial of bubbles to show just how small and light they were.

I hadn't mentioned yet that Evenstar also carried a vial of bubbles, but while we were talking, she quietly pulled out her own bubbles and started blowing them. When Pez noticed, his eyes popped out. "You have bubbles too?!"

And Evenstar assured him that, yes, of course she had them.

"All real thru-hikers carry bubbles," I told Pez. 

"It's practically one of the 10 essentials," Evenstar continued.

Pez shook his head. "No! No it's not! You're making this up!"

I turned to Evenstar. "I guess he doesn't believe us, but he'll figure it out eventually."

Pez said that he couldn't believe that he was hiking with two crazy people.

"You're the crazy one," we told him. "You're the one without any bubbles. You know, even Addie has bubbles. I'm surprised you didn't know this yet." 

The views through the canyon we walked were stunning!

We weren't able to convince him that all "real" thru-hikers carried bubbles, but it was a lot of fun trying. And it was totally worth carrying those bubbles if only for this one incident. Evenstar and I got a good laugh, and really, that's what we wanted. =)

The rest of the day was uneventful. It was a long day of hiking covering 19.5 miles according to my GPS. It wasn't my longest day on the trail in distance, but it did set a new step count record for the trail after I logged 48,313 steps for the day.

Passing the 200-mile mark!

Evenstar has trouble figuring out which way to go....

Evenstar is checking out a snake that's sunning itself on the trail. See the snake? See it?! Which is the reason we stepped off the trail...to get around the snake. I don't know what kind of it was. It wasn't a rattlesnake, but we didn't want to disturb it either.

Day 18: Hello, Gila River!

May 8: Evenstar and I woke up and hit the trail. It was an easy trail to lose, despite my fancy GPS gear and we quickly lost it a couple of times. It ascended steeply, and even in the cool morning air, I was sweating bullets going up. It was a lot more rugged and difficult than I had expected, and in hindsight, I was glad I hadn't done it yesterday afternoon. It would have been even more hot and it might have ended up causing me to hike into the darkness since my original goal from yesterday took a lot longer than expected.

 

Evenstar stuck close to me, relying heavily on my GPS. How did people hike this trail before a GPS?! It was the question of the day.

Near the top of the ridge, I got a decent cell phone signal and checked my messages. Addie wrote that she needed to take another day off due to a rash on her legs, so she'd now be two days behind us. I still hoped she'd catch up again at some point, but it might be awhile. Two days would be hard to catch up, and I couldn't slow down since I had planned out my food carefully all the way through Grants about two weeks away.

Then the trail descended steeply toward the infamous Gila River--infamous because it was legendary for the number of times the river would have to be forded. The good news was that long water carries would be a thing of the past for the next few days. The bad news was that our feet would be wet all day long for the next several days.

I joked with Evenstar every time she forded the river to watch out for the Gila monster. Of course the Gila monster would haunt the Gila River, right?

I took a two-hour break here. Lovely spot for a rest!

 

We took a long break at a side creek just before it merged with the Gila. I wound up taking a two-hour break--largely during the hottest part of the day. It was such a long break, I had to move my rest spot because the shade moved so far. Once we reached the Gila, Evenstar felt confident navigating on her own again without the help of my GPS and left before me. You'd have to have a pretty bad sense of direction to get lost along the Gila! Basically, the rule was you just follow the river upstream for the next several days.

While stopped for a break, a man with three pack mules loaded with trail gear passed by. He was clearly setting up a campsite for trail workers somewhere nearby.

I finally ended the two-hour break when I lost my shade for a second time and rather than moving, I just packed up my groundsheet and continued onward.

Once again hiking alone, I reached the Gila River several minutes later and admired it's shimmering waters for the first time. It looked about knee deep and moved at a steady rate, but it certainly didn't look dangerous. I had heard that at certain times of the year, it could be positively scary. I hadn't heard anything about it being a problem this year, but who could know for certain before seeing it with my own two eyes?

Mostly, I was amazed at how clear the water looked! I had seen the Gila River before when I thru-hiked the Arizona Trail and it was a muddy mess of a river. I didn't dare try to filter that water--it would have clogged my filter in a heartbeat. It was also considerably deeper where it crossed the Arizona Trail than it was here. It looked like an entirely different river! I knew it was the same river, though--just much further upstream and very close to the river's headwaters.

My first steps into the river caused me to gasp. That water was cold! But I quickly got used to it after several seconds. Once my feet were already wet, subsequent crossings didn't feel quite so shocking.

According to a Guthook comment, we'd have to ford this river a whopping 57 times. We didn't realize it at the time, but this comment was completely and utterly wrong. In the end, we'd end up fording closer to 200 times, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself. It turned out that it was just 57 crossings before Doc Campbell's Post. Neither Evenstar nor I realized this just yet, however.

I caught up with Evenstar limping down the trail a couple of miles later, and we hiked together for another couple of miles before setting up camp alongside the Gila.

Evenstar's husband had mailed her a Mountain House dessert--raspberry crumples--but it was meant as a serving for four people, so she shared half of it with me for which I was very grateful and still am. =)

And this ended our 18th day on the trail....

The rocks here had a little bit of a reddish-tinge, and I imagined this is what Mars would have looked like if it had trees.

From this viewpoint, I got a cell phone signal and found out that Addie would be taking yet another zero in Silver City. It seemed increasingly likely that we wouldn't see her again. =(

Horses loaded with trail maintenance equipment passed us up.

Day 21: The Gila River Adventures

Not only did the trail parallel the Gila River, but it
also paralleled these railroad tracks. I never did see (or hear)
a train on it for the entire day, though!

May 3: I really wanted to slackpack the trail while Amanda was around, but it wasn't meant to be. From where Amanda picked me up off the trail, the next convenient place for her to drive a rental car was 36 miles up the trail--and I wasn't going to do 36 miles in a single day. No way, no how. Not when temperatures were soaring into the high 90s every day. I could cover the distance with two moderate days of hiking, though, and that's what we decided on.

I still needed a new camera to replace the one that stopped working. I had my backup camera but if that camera stopped working, I'd have a big problem! Once Amanda dropped me off, though, she'd have a day and half to bum around, shop and acquire a camera on my behalf, so I left her in charge of "camera acquisitions." Dealing with the warranty on the broken camera, I figured, I could handle after this hike was over. I didn't have time for that nonsense right now!

With that decided, I needed to get back to the trail and the earlier, the better. Not only would I be able to get more miles in by starting sooner, but it would be cooler. I'm not a big fan of waking up early when I'm in civilization, but I'd make an exception in this case!

Which is how I wound up at Kelvin Bridge at 7:00 in the morning following the Gila River downstream for the next 16 miles.

The first half mile, the trail followed a dirt road parallel to the river and near the end of it, I met a fellow on a motorcycle, apparently watching a movie on a portable DVD player. He introduced himself as Rudolph and liked to run trails. He was waiting for a friend to pick him up to drive him out to Picketpost trailhead--36 miles up the trail where Amanda was going to meet me the next day--then run back to his motorcycle. But his friend was late and hadn't shown yet.

It's a bummer Amanda had already left--she'd be driving right past that trailhead on her way back to Phoenix and could have given him a lift! She could have done a little trail magic--even if it wasn't for another thru-hiker.

We talked for a few minutes before I waved goodbye and continued onwards. "See you on later on the trail!" I said. If he did run from Picketpost trailhead to here, our paths would cross later in the afternoon. But I thought he was more than a little crazy. Running 36 miles in such high temperatures? Insanity!

Coolest mailbox on the trail!

Like I said before, the Arizona Trail paralleled the Gila River for the next 16 miles, but ironically, I almost never saw the Gila River during that time. A thick forest of trees surrounded its banks blocking the view of it and while the trail did parallel the river, it usually did so from high on the mountains on the north side of it. I could look down and see a large expanse of greenery where the river flowed, but the river itself wasn't visible nor was the cool water from it accessible. The only water I had was that which I carried!

The hike along the river was non-eventful except for one rattlesnake that scared the crap out of me when it started rattling just a couple of feet away from where I was. I practically jumped out of my shoes then turned around to find the snake coiled and ready to strike. I took photos and moved along.

After 16 miles, temperatures had soared to their highs for the day and I was miserable from the heat, but it was time for a break. The trail would now turn away from the Gila River which I'd been following due west and head more-or-less due north, but there was an old dirt road that led less than a quarter mile to the river. It was a good place to stop for two reasons: lots of trees would provide a lot of shade to rest in, and I needed to fill up with water before I headed deep into the mountains where I'd likely find nothing.

But ten other people had beat me to the banks of the Gila River: ATVers. Several of the machines were parked along the road. I didn't really want to join a crowd of ten strangers on ATVs, but I really needed water. I had to get to the river! So I walked up and introduced myself and they immediately offered me an ice cold Coke and water. (They also offered me beer and Monster drinks, but I passed on those. Coke and water was sufficient!) When I finished those, I had another Coke and water. They seemed to have plenty of drinks and kept wanting to foist them onto me! A very friendly group of people! =)

Oh, heck, why clear this dead saguaro off the trail when we can
just route the trail directly through it! =)

I sat down and talked with them, told them about the Arizona Trail and having walked there from the Mexican border which seemed to impress a few of them. Then they started building a BBQ and after cooking a bunch of food, offered some of that to me as well. Oh, how well I ate! =)

Rudolph showed up before too long--his friend hadn't shown up at the trailhead to pick him up and he decided to run to this point on the Gila River then turn around and run back. He took some water from the group but passed on the food explaining that it would require water for his body to digest or something and couldn't afford it. "Can't eat protein!" he'd say, or something like that. We were a little amazed at how little water the guy actually carried for such a miserably hot day, but he had all sorts of tricks to reduce his moisture loss. "Breathe through your nose," he told us, "not your mouth. You lose a lot more moisture breathing through your mouth than your nose."

I, however, had no compunction about wasting lots of water. I had the entire Gila River right here at my disposal! =) I'd drink until I felt positively full. I'd breathe with my mouth wide open if I hiked uphill and felt like panting. I'd eat whatever food I wanted. That running stuff just seemed like too much work!

Rudolph left, running back to where I first saw him that morning. The guys told me to fill up with as much water as I needed--I did need to pick up more than a few liters to get me through the rest of the day, through the night and at least through the first part of tomorrow morning. I felt a little guilty taking as much water as I did but at their insistence, I took more than I otherwise would have.

Eventually, they cleaned up and left leaving me with the river to myself. Or at least this side of it. A dirt road was also on the other side of the river and several people and their kids were frolicking on that side. But my side was all mine now. I laid out in the shade and napped for another hour and a half to kill time during the hottest part of the day. In the shade next to the river, the temperatures were comfortable and mild. I wondered if it even broke 80 degrees there.

As tempting as it was, I didn't camp here for the night. I had to get more miles on if I was going to meet Amanda at Picketpost trailhead on time the next day. I filled up with a couple of more liters from water from the Gila River. Although the ATVers had given me lots of water, I still didn't think it was enough to reach the next water source on the trail. After all, I wasn't breathing through my nose the whole time. =) And I needed enough to cook dinner and eat breakfast the next morning. Two more liters, I though, should do it.

I didn't bother to treat the water, though. The water was a bit muddy and unpleasant to look at--I carried the water for "just in case" I needed it. I'd carry it and if I needed it later, I could treat it then. I'd drink the water the ATVers provided first and if that ran out, move on to the river water.

Upon leaving the river, the trail climbed steeply upwards. In fact, where the trail leaves the Gila River would be the lowest point of the entire Arizona Trail hitting bottom at 1,649 feet above sea level. From here, it was all uphill! And a steep hill too--climbing nearly 2,000 vertical feet in the next several miles.

I set up camp partway up where the trail crossed a dry riverbed. The bugs at dusk were bad. I wasn't sure what they were--like tiny, miniature flies. Annoying little buggers, though, that finally had me pulling out the DEET I carried for the first time in the hike. The flies laughed at my ineffective efforts, however. At least the bugs weren't biting! Just annoying little things. After the sunset and temperatures started to cool, they eventually retired for the night as well.

The Arizona Trail followed that dirt road you see in the distance then
headed into the mountains on a trail near where it intersects with the railroad.
Rudolph is near that intersection on his motorcycle somewhere....

This is the Golden Spike--marking the completion of the Arizona Trail on
December 16, 2011. I gotta say, though, this is the ugliest
golden spike memorial I've ever seen. Really? This was the best they could do?!
I almost missed it thinking it was just a regular geographical survey marker thingy!

A railroad bridge over the Gila River. Note that you can't
actually see the Gila River directly anywhere in this photo
due to all of the trees around it. It's there, though!

This is one of those non-venomous snakes I found on the trail.
Get off the trail!!!!

Then I saw this much more venomous rattlesnake! I didn't realize it
when I took this photo, but later when I took a close look at the snake,
I realized you can actually see its forked tongue sticking out at me!

See the Gila River? Yeah, I don't either, but it's near the band of dark
green trees at the bottom of the canyon. It's there! Just not very accessible!

These gates are meant to keep out ATVs from the trail and are all
but impervious to vandalism. (The ATVers I met on the Gila River
weren't actually on the trail--I had to hike a quarter mile off trail to get there.)

Saguaro in heat!

This looks like a saguaro massacre, but I used the opportunity to try to lift
one of the smaller pieces to see how heavy it was. It's heavy, all right!

When I saw this, I knew I'd have company at the Gila River...

But what great company! =)

A rough day on the trail.... This would also mark the lowest point
of the entire Arizona Trail at about 1,600 feet above sea level.

Saguaro down! Saguaro down!
I imagine this is what a saguaro doing a face-plant
would look like. =)

It really was quite scenic--if you can ignore the extreme heat.

Saguaro blooms

The hoards of mini-flies weren't especially attracted to
my water, but it was the only place where the contrast was
high enough between the flies and the background that you
can see the little buggers in my photos.