I had a little visitor last night. Pew the Skunk walked right in front of my tent. I typically keep my vestibule closed but I was warm last night and decided, why not? It was early in the morning and at first I caught a whiff. Then I saw its little black and white body waddle in front of my tent. I didn’t breath, didn’t turn on my headlamp and just remained as still as possible. Thank goodness, she kept on moving and no harm was done to either of us!

Today was such a variety of terrain and ecosystems. We started out with fog and it pretty much followed us all day. Well, with the exception of rain. As we left, we had Juniper Trees the size of heritage oaks. In fact we slept under one last night. It was massive. Before long, we were climbing back into the pine forest with cactus. It’s just not what you expect. The route we are following is the Gila River High Route. I actually wanted to do the low route but it’s too dangerous with flooding, intense water rushing down the canyon and chest high river crossings. So the High Route it is.

Once we climbed the hill of sorts, we dropped back down to Lodge Pole Pines with wet grasses and tons of delicate spider webs. The trail led us to Aeroplane Mesa Campground. We stopped for our morning coffee break and second breakfast. There was a picnic table and Privy’s so it was quite a civilized place to hang.

Then we climbed again. This time it was a fairly steep horse trail with loose rocks. Once on top, we could see rolling hills with Oak Trees, Pines and Junipers. There were orange grasses that covered the hills, and oversized flower stalks. Then we meandered around the bend, the terrain quickly turned to granite and started a steep descent into the canyon and Middle Fork of Gila.

Middle Fork does not have a bridge. It is a “take your shoes off and hitch up your skirt” type of crossing. The river was maybe 30-40’ across and the deepest section today was knee high. Not bad. And my hiking poles did not vibrate as I crossed. It was one of the nicest river crossings I’ve done. Even Fearless was pleasantly surprised.

Once across we headed back up the canyon to a flat plateau. All was well until Jen jumped off the trail with a loud cry! What the heck? We saw not one, but two tarantulas today. It was appropriate I suppose as it is the Day of Hallowed Saints- Halloween. There are three things that freak Jen out. Metal Cattle Crossings, Fast Rivers and Spiders. She experienced two out of three today. Sorry Fearless!

The day was full of variety of terrain, plenty to peek our interests and just an all around splendid day. Even the rain couldn’t dampen our spirits. And tomorrow we will be at Doc Campbell Hot Springs. Rain or shine, I’m soaking in that hot spring. This has been our longest stretch out on trail since the Bob Marshall Wilderness in July. Eight days and I’m out of food and smelly! It’s time to get to out of these stinky hiking clothes and post my blogs.

“For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬