Pie, Pie, and more Pie: Doc Campbell’s to Pie Town
May 25th - June 1st
First off I wanna thank everyone who has donated to the Gary Sinise Foundation and I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!
I finally took a shower, changed my clothes, and did laundry. It’s been a week since the last time I did that. It’s always the little things in life you take for granted.
I’ve made it to Pie Town and yes they have pies! In fact I’m so bloated from all the food I ate I had to lay down! I am now more than halfway up the state of New Mexico and I’ve been blessed with great weather!
Just as I was leaving out of Doc Campbell’s last week I met a couple, Ed and Cecilia, who are hiking the CDT. We were talking about visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings and decided to take a short detour to check them out. I left about an hour before them and headed to the lower scorpion camp site in the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.
While we were there we became friends with the campers across from us. They ended up giving us a skillet and some fajita meat mixed with vegetables. We cooked that over the fire and threw it on the tortillas we had in our packs. I could’ve sworn we were eating like kings!
The following morning we woke up early and visited the cliff dwellings then we cut through Little Bear Canyon back to the Gila River. The cliffs around the Gila River are absolutely stunning. We must of crossed back and forth over the Gila well over 200 times. I stopped counting after 60, but Ed and Cecilia kept a count that ended at 225! The cliffs come all the way to the water forcing you to cross.
We followed the river up to Jordan Hot Springs and then spent about 2 hours relaxing in some crystal clear warm water surrounded by the cliffs before continuing on. (I’ve never been in a hot spring before and didn’t know you aren’t supposed to put your head under water, so hopefully I don’t catch a brain eating virus.) I spent about a day and a half hiking with Ed and Cecilia then they hiked on. They only had 5 days of food to get the 130 miles to Pie Town, so they were moving pretty quick. I think they are doing 25-30 mile days.
The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me. When I made camp later that night at the Snow Lake campground an older couple came out of their camper to greet me as I was filling up my water. We got to talking and then they invited me to their camper for dinner. I left bloated after eating all I was able to.
I washed my shoes out from all the sand from the Gila River and when I woke up in the morning my shoes and socks were frozen solid. I had to wait an hour for them to thaw out, but I was thankful that my feet were finally dry since I was done following the river. From that point on it was gorgeous mountain terrain going all the way up to 9700 feet! I would lay in my sleeping bag at night staring up at the stars and listen to the coyotes howling over the hill!
On top of Mangas Mountain I camped at the Mangas Mountain fire lookout. It’s still an active fire watch tower and I met, Patrick, the lookout there. He showed me up in the tower that was built in 1934 and how they spot wildfires. It was one of the most spectacular views I’ve seen so far. You can see the whole mountain range in all directions!
The next day I got up and went to Davila Ranch. It’s a donation based self help stop. It’s pretty much a tin shed in the middle of the desert. It’s hooked up with electricity and plumbing, so you can do laundry, grab stuff out of the fridge, and shower! I was extremely happy to get a shower and wash my clothes after a week of sweating in them.
From Davila Ranch it was just a 14 mile walk to Pie Town, which I finished up today. I think I already met everyone in town as there is only 3 shops here. They all serve pie! Since the post office didn’t deliver my package to where it was supposed to be and they won’t open till Monday it seems I’ll have a few days rest here!