It was a dew filled morning. Chilly and damp. That made it a tough morning to get out of the tent. We all got moving later than expected. It was kind of nice to sleep in a bit, especially since it is not too hot these days. Packing a wet tent is also no fun. It adds weight from the moisture and its gets your hands and pack wet. Not real problems in the scheme of things, but still.
The day was a continuation of river crossings and trail finding. Man it was hard to find that trail sometimes. We eventually noticed a pattern that the trail was further inland, away from the river, so that helped us to find it more consistently. You just move so much more quickly when you're on a clear trail.
Wide-Angle and Ratna had met in Wisconsin, I discovered, doing a foreign exchange student program in high school. I just thought that was awesome. I really enjoyed hiking with them as they have a great pace and a good dynamic. both of them are positive and compassionate people. They had actually saved a man at the very beginning who had not prepared properly. His name is Bill and he was found with nothing but an empty water bottle before the first water cache way before Lordsburg. Wide-angle and Ratna gave him water, called the border patrol, and escorted him to the water cache where border patrol picked him up. He would have died overnight or the next day. He had already gone something like a day and a half without water and now he had none of that or his pack and gear. He ended up trying a second time and doing the same thing. Eventually he was sent home and encouraged not to try again. Rumour has it that he wants to try again. I hope he doesn't. Poor guy. It seems like he was in a bad place.
We did good miles and got to Doc Campbell's around 1:00PM. I went straight for the microwave burritos they had. It is like a small outpost with shelf stable food and a small fridge with some sandwiches and burritos. The other freezer had homemade ice cream! So I got some of that too. My food was just about through, so I was starving when I got there. We were all very pleased to have arrived.
HoJo, a chill friend of Wide-angle's from the PCT was there with Fozzie, a British hiker who is also an avid blogger and writer. We dried out our tents and socks and retrieved our resupply boxes from the outpost.
Once organized, I headed with HoJo and Fozzie to the hotsprings! The Gila Hotsprings are amazing! 106F and beautiful. We soaked and chatted and I felt my legs and feet healing. The Germans had A LOT of food to organize so it took them a bit more time before they joined us. We all eventually set up tents in the camp sites that were set aside for CDT hikers, which was super nice of the camp ground hosts.
No rush tomorrow! We were heading to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, which open at 9:00AM.
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