[Cdt-l] Gila Wilderness Opened or Closed?

[Shian Sung]

I was hiking with Tom Holz (AKA Bigfoot) and we took the high-water route
from Snow Lake to Doc's exactly as Jerry describes. This was on the advice
of locals in Pie Town who had been down to check it out as well as the
ranger's office for the Gila Wilderness. When we crossed over at the
Meadows it did not look terrible, just slow going. If I had to do it again
I might have just gone for it, especially after I read an account from
another SOBO who went through maybe 1-2 weeks after we did:

http://marks-talesfromthetrails.blogspot.com/2013/12/middle-fork-of-gila-river-cdt-2013.html

He averaged around 10 miles a day (down from probably what was a high-20's
to low-30's daily pace) through that section, so it was slow going but
sounded very rewarding.

We completely bypassed the southern section of Middle Fork south of Doc
Campbell's after doing a lot of research (rangers who were being honest
with us, other hikers, forest service trail crews) that said that while the
stretch from Snow Lake to Doc's was doable, the section south of there had
portions that were not only nearly impassable but also dangerous, with logs
stacked on top of each other (a lot of the trees that get swept down the
Gila end up getting jammed up in that section).

There will be some northbounders next season who slog through that soon and
we'll know what exactly it looks like - I don't know any other sobos from
2013 who did the southern Gila section - maybe Huck or one of the people in
the front of the pack.

-Shian (Barrel Roll)
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