Sat May 5, 2018 @ 08:14

It took us a while to get the hang of the many (manymany) river crossings this morning during our first foray along the Gila River alternate (pronounced Hee-la for those playing along at home). It was a stunning transition from high dry desert full of pinion pines and dry grass down to the canyons full of towering Oaks and Elms. None of my photos do it justice, and I honestly didn't take many. The constant track finding and river crossings definitely wore me down today. You'd be on an actual trail, cross the river from cairn to cairn then poof! The trail has disappeared. We also followed some very (very) recent bear prints and scats. So recent we could still see the creases in the pads of his paws imprinted in the dust. He was stepping on the hikers footprints of the hiker immediately in front of us (she was only maybe 15-20mins ahead). Kind of amazing really!