Anything but the foot — Adventures With Samson-The-Bear

5/3 I did 19.7 miles onto a ridge-line. 5/4 I did 18.7 miles and slept along the Gila River. 5/5 I did 7 miles to Doc Cambells Outpost. On 5/6 I took a zero at a Hot Springs campground. On 5/7 I did 18.3 to some meadows along the Gila.

Listen to "Breakdown" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I think he is talking about my foot.

I spent a long nero in Silver City. It had everything a hiker could want from gear stores, good resupplies, cheap food and a brewery. The town was super friendly and people would go out of their way to check in on you and see if there is anything you needed. We were in town for a large bike race called the Tour de Gila. There must have been 400 spandex warriors riding through town. I'm told some of the riders were actually professionals and Olympians; while there were 400 riders they blew by me in less than 15 seconds, I think I may have to change my mode of transportation.

After leaving Silver City we quickly hit the Gila national forest. It was more high desert forest but had a lot of geological features and steep canyons running through it. The pictures I took do not do it justice. About 7 miles into the national forest I met a hermit named Dan. He told me he was a catholic hermit and that it was one of the lesser known vocations (I have no idea if this is true, it certainly wasn’t listed as an option when I was in school). He was a nice guy and in low water years CDT hikers would rely on him for water. Since this was a wet year he wasn't a necessary stop and I think that made him a bit lonely.

We descended into the Gila river valley where we followed the river upstream. It's a meandering river with steep sides so we had to constantly cross the river to get to land as it snaked through the canyon. In the first 15 miles we had to do 51 river crossings. The trail was pretty much non existent so we basically bushwhacked our way upstream. This area is super historical and was the home to to the Apache's and before that the Mogollon people. A little ways up river I hit an outpost named Doc Campbells where I sent a resupply box. I wish there was actually a doctor there because I could have used some morphine.

On my road walk into Silver City I started to have pain in my lower left shin. I didn't think anything of it because you feel 100s of aches and pains during a thru hike and I figured worst case scenario it was minor shin splints, but I was wrong. The pain got worst as the day progressed and I was basically limping along using my trekking poles as crutches (this made the 51 river crossings delightful). I luckily have been hiking with Claire for the last 6 days who turns out to be a doctor from Canada. She diagnosed my foot using a bunch of words I didn't understand but basically the tendon that allows you to hinge your foot up and down was inflamed and my ankle was the size of a large orange. I laced up my shoe all the way up and tied it as tight as I could, which is a redneck way to contain the swelling as I struggled to get Doc Campbells. At Doc Campbells I had to say goodbye to Claire and Heat Wave as I knew I needed a break before I did any serious damage. I was lucky because I found a hot springs campground a mile down the trail. At the campground I alternated between hot soaks and an ice pack for a day and a half (I was able to keep a 10lbs of ice from melting in the desert by wrapping my down jacket around the ice bag). The pain really hasn't gone away but I could bare weight on it, so I packed out some extra food and decided to do low miles as I headed back onto trail.

Before heading back onto the trail I took a 2 mile detour to check out the Gila Cliff Dwelling national monument. They are cliff dwellings that were built around 1280AD by the Mogollon people. They share a lot of the same designs as the pueblo dwellings at Mesa Verde. Oddly the dwellings were only used for about 30 years and then abandoned and no one knows why.

After visiting the cliff dwellings I descended back down to the Gila river through a slot canyon. The northern part of the Gila had even more unique rock formations and towering canyon walls. I followed the river upstream for another 2 days until I reached snow lake. While the constant crossing back and forth of the river slowed me down, it was probably good to keep my ankle cool as it constantly reminded me that it wasn't happy.