The expedition members. (Pic from Chris' gallery.)To celebrate Liz' 30th birthday a group headed south down to the Gila Wilderness to do some hiking to the hot springs along the creek. This day was one of the last days of the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque so on the way down through Abq the sky was filled with balloons of various shapes.
It took us around six hours to get down to Silver City where we met Liz and Aaron and Jonathan and Gabby. After some lunch we drove out towards one entrance to Gila. On the narrow bumpy dirt road we were stopped by a guy that explained that they were trying to get a huge RV up the road further ahead and there was no other place for us to park while they reversed to get down. The road ahead was not of best quality and it was good that we had Jae's SUV. We reached the end of the road which now was not as far into the forest as it used to be as the river had washed the road away. After parking and getting the back packs ready we took off and started hiking. It was very hot so the river crossings in the cold water were nice.
We did not find a suitable track so a lot of the hiking was done along the creek. A good camping spot was found and we set up camp there. Aaron, who had been there before, wanted to go up along the creek to check out where the springs were so I tagged along. Also Jonathan and Gabby took off after us. Foolishly we did not bring any headlamps since it was still a lot of light when we took off. We walked for some time and were not able to find the springs and it grew dark pretty fast so we had to hike back in the dark. We had an excellent dinner around the fire place with wine and beer and even some scotch to go with the chocolate dessert.
The night was quite cold but I kept pretty warm in my borrowed tent and sleeping bag. After breakfast we walked upstream to the springs and we were probably very close to them the night before. Some springs were too hot so one had to regulate the temperature by bringing in fresh water from the creek. By the springs there was a cool overhanging rock that I played around on for a while. Jae also tried it and my spotting could have been a lot better as he fell right on his back. In the evening another excellent dinner was served and we had to finish the drinks we had brought in.
As we were packing our stuff to go back there was a real character that was heading further into the wilderness - a guy with dreads and accompanied by two donkeys. He said that he was planning to stay in Gila for a few months. On the way back we found the track so the hiking was a lot smoother than on the way in.
Someone had told us about a very good restaurant on the west side of Gila so we drove that way on the way home. Unfortunately, the place was closed so we had to go to Soccorro to have dinner. We were all starving by now so the food tasted very nice.
