Gila River Trip

We are back from the Land of Enchantment and our camping trip in the Gila Wilderness. It was a great time that was too short in everyone's opinion.We took our time packing in horseback and found a great meadow to set up camp. The river and fishing was only a short walk. There were minimal problems on the way in even though Cam was on his own horse and Mike was carrying Mara on his lap or in his arms when she was restless.

Our trip on horseback started at the top of a mountain in the Gila Wilderness. It was 1 ½ miles to the Gila River almost straight down on a Forest Service Trail. Once at the river, we continued for another 1-2 miles to find a good spot to camp. My Dad led the group with a string of 4 pack mules. Since we were only staying one night, they weren't loaded very heavy, making it less stressful. (Good thinking, Dad!). Mike was next in line ridding Kate, followed by me on Chapo leading Cam on Tiny. Mom brought up the rear on Pat.After setting up camp, we went fishing.

I caught a few big catfish, my mom caught a mud sucker, and Dad caught a rainbow trout. It was a great time. There's a whole blog entry on my fishing experience coming up.Dinner was delicious fajitas made by mom followed by roasted marshmallows for desert. Does it get any better than this? We all slept ok, even Mara- not counting the 3 or so times she woke up crying in the middle of the night.

In the morning, we ate breakfast and headed back to the river in hopes of a repeat success. No such luck, though. Cam and I team-caught a sucker and that was it. I think there were a few others on that got away for Dad and Mom. Mike didn't fish much because he was busy watching after Mara and re-rigging Cam and my fishing poles. Cam played in the water a little bit and Mara played in the sand under a shade tree with Mike and Mom.

That afternoon, we broke camp and packed up the mules for the ride out. We made it almost all the way out without incident. Mara actually slept almost the whole time! About ¼ mile from the truck, Cam’s cinch on his saddle broke. We did some switching around and he ended up on Kate with Mike walking the last little bit with Mara on his shoulders. Before you feel bad for Mike you should know that he was jumping at the opportunity to walk. I think he was done with the whole ridding-while-carrying-a-toddler thing. All in all, it was a pretty easy ride. Nobody got hurt, and that’s what matters.

Back at the truck we unpacked the mules, loaded them up and headed home. Mike’s truck hauled the 13,500 or so pound load out without much trouble at all. His brakes heated up on the way in, but were ok going out.

We consider ourselves very blessed to have had the opportunity to go on this adventure. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us and providing the four-legged transportation and all the food and equipment. Hopefully we can do this again next summer!