Bye bye Gila River

Day 16

Date: 08.05.2022

CCT Mile: ?

Miles hiked: 18.6 Miles / 30 km

The nights are very cold down the Canyon, specially between 4am and 6am. Mostly below 0 degrees. Hiking out early and knowing you got to cross the river within the next 5 minutes and get your feet wet, slows down our motivation to get ready. Also being woken up in the middle of the night by weird noises, doesn't really help for a relaxing night. But it is simply beautiful down here and I don't mind the river crossings much. Luckily the water ain't that cold. The morning miles normally fly by pretty fast. We hiked 6 miles in no time. Normally I stop around every 5 miles to quickly take off the bag, put on sunscreen and rest a little. But this break today was much longer. Maybe also because there is 8 of us, hiking at different speeds. Tiempo and me arrived first and when finally Drugstore as the last one arrived, we were breaking for already over an hour. We planed to hike 14 miles before lunch, but that's not gonna happen anymore. Tiempo and I decided to break for lunch 4 miles later, where the river was deep and wide enough for a swim. We also 'washed' our clothes at the same time🤣

We hike on just shortly before the sun set. We planed to hike a little further but all of us are tired and when we finally found a big flat site, we decide to call it a day. The Gila River is beautiful but all the river crossings and its beauty slow you down. There are only about 5 miles left before we leave the canyon tomorrow morning. Kind of sad, because it is truly beautiful to hike with no water carries, kind of glad as I'm done with that many river crossings and my legs are badly scratched.