[Cdt-l] Gila concerns

[Brett]

Amen to what Jonathan wrote...

Jonathan Ley wrote:
> I don't think the fords on the lower Gila will be the main problem 
> (unless there is some spring flooding), it's the fact that the trail 
> between the fords hasn't been maintained in a while, and might be hard 
> to find/follow (though, the canyon is really easy to follow... just 
> follow the river!). That said, the trail was never in very good shape, 
> so I'm not sure it'll be much worse than it ever was.
>
> As for the upper Gila (i.e. middle fork / west fork) - that's a whole 
> different thing. The trail "was" a lot nicer, used quite a lot, and 
> maintained. It's hard to say what damage might have occurred in the 
> past winter however. Just keep in mind that advice you'll get - even 
> from local park rangers - won't always be accurate. What they might 
> consider "unpassable", could be "no problem" to a seasoned hiker. They 
> tend to be overly conservative on these things. This is always a 
> problem - because if the trail is truly "unpassable", it's hard to 
> know based on what you get from rangers.
>
> Also, whatever report you get from this year's hikers won't be a 
> comparison vs. what the trail used to be like... You might get a 
> report like - there were "tons of ford, had a problem following the 
> trail, what a mess"... but that could just be that the hiker in 
> question wasn't mentally prepared or didn't navigate very well. Or, it 
> could be totally accurate. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you 
> should take all advice on trail conditions with a grain of salt, and 
> consider the source - do you know them? what experience do they have? 
> what agenda might they have? might they be exaggerating difficult 
> conditions like many storytellers do? what other information have they 
> provided & how accurate was that?...
>
> -Jonathan
>
> joseph beals wrote:
>> I plan to try the fords.  if they are absolutely awful
>> I will backtrack to find the road the east and use
>> that to get to Doc's. Near the star on the southern J.
>> Ley map NM 35 if you follow Sapillo Creek east it
>> takes you the road, you can see the road near the top
>> of this same map.  Hopefully someone will correct me
>> if this is a bad idea.  I will be out there soon after
>> you,   -Joe
>> --- "lwgear at juno.com" <lwgear at juno.com> wrote:
>>
>>   
>>> Thanks for all the good advice regarding the
>>> mythical Gila Hot Springs PO vs. the tangible
>>> benefits of Doc's. Now another question regarding
>>> that region--I've heard rumors that the Gila River
>>> area is a mess due to major flooding this past
>>> winter. Is that true? If so, are hikers totally
>>> bypassing it or is it only the lower 1/2 that's a
>>> nightmare? Or is it really not any worse than any
>>> other year?
>>> Leaving for NM in 2 days!
>>> later-lynne
>>>
>>>     
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