Gila National Forest 7-18 July

[Nuclear Redneck]

I've posted this itinerary before in this thread, but i wanted to move it to its own thread.

This is a tentative schedule:
5 July Thursday
Pick up Trailer from Adventure Trailer
6 July Friday
Pack
7 July Saturday
Head out.
Camp somewhere (Rose Canyon Lake, maybe)on the way to Mt. Lemmon (Thanks to Tucson T4R for the suggestion)
8 July Sunday
Camp at the Railroad Canyon Campground
9 July Monday
Hike trail 128
10 July Tuesday
Hike trail 129
11 July Wednesday
Camp at Scorpion Campground
12 July Thursday
See the Gila Cliff Dwellings
13 July Friday
Camp at Valle Tio Vinces
14 July Saturday
Very Large Array
Camp at Beartrap in Cibola National Forest
15 July Sunday
Rest, day hike
16 July Monday
Camp at Sundial Springs (reservations not yet made)
17 July Tuesday
Catwalk
18 July Wednesday
Home
19 July Thursday
Turn Trailer in

I've gotten together most of what I need for this trip, I think.

So far, I have or will have before Friday:

AT Horizon Trailer (rental) including
- Tent
- Stove
- Fridge
- Water tank
- Gas cans
- Two Batteries and inverter
- Hot water heater
- Shower enclosure

Truck equipment

from Sierra Expeditions
- Hi lift jack 60"
- Pett Potty system
- Black Rat Recovery kit w/ bags
- Warn receiver shackle

Air compressor, Walmart Special
Jumper cables
Craftsman 150 piece tool kit
Fluke multimeter

Lots and lots of canned food as well as stuff to make good home cooked meals.

Extra 6 1/2 gallon water can
First Aid kit
Compass
Maps

Sleeping bags, pillows

Plenty of clothes, which should cover us from ~40 degrees on up.
Good hiking boots
Daypacks with Camelbak bladders.
Extra glasses for me

Folding chairs, table, cookware

I've looked at the camping gear lists, but I was hoping I could get a second opinion from the board. If I'm missing anything obvious, please let me know.

Thanks

 

[off-kilter]

I got a cool headlamp thingy. Three white light modes, two red light modes, can attach to your hat and swivels 360 degrees! Gadgets are teh bomb.

 

[Tucson T4R]

Looks like a good list to me. The only thing I would add is night lighting (maybe Off-Kilter alrerady covered this) with either flashlights or good LED head lamps or both. Also in Monsoon season (now), you can expect afternoon/evening thunderstorms in AZ & NM. Maybe some rain gear in case you need to be out in it. I would bring some bug repellent too in case they try to attach you when your trying to settle into you camp.

And one large Bottle of Makers Mark Burboun! Oh sorry, that's a personal camp list item. :sombrero:

 

[Nuclear Redneck]

Got the rain gear covered. And yep I think we have the lighting covered as well. Got LED headlamps, a Coleman lantern, and one of those BOGO lights. We have two different types of bug repellant. My bug avoidance strategy is to bring off-kilter, bugs find her might tasty.

We might bring some Jack Daniel's, for medicinal purposes of course. My Granddaddy was the preacher at Lynchburg Baptist Church before he retired, so Jack Daniel's has a special place in my heart.

Thanks

 

[Tucson T4R]

Sounds like your all set and ready for a great trip. Enjoy and post up the pics when you return. :camping:

Let out a yell if you need anything when passing thru Tucson.

 

[Nuclear Redneck]

We're back!

The wife and I had an awesome time. We didn't hike as much as planned, but we saw quite a bit of Southwestern New Mexico. More details to follow.

Later,

 

[Tucson T4R]

Welcome back. Glad you had a great time. Now post up them pics and tell us how it went. :shakin:

 

[Tucson T4R]

Bump for pics and discription of your trip. :sombrero:

 

[Nuclear Redneck]

Writeup Part I

Well, Katherine went crazy with the pictures and took over 1500 of them. I'll give you samples and a brief writeup now.

Saturday, 7 July, we left out at about noon. Got to Tucson around 7:30 or so and camped at Gordon Hirabayashi campground on Mt. Lemmon. we camped there because it was the first open campground we came too and we still didn't beat the dark. Got up the next morning and looked at the ruins of the Japanese prison from WWII. Made me think and wonder would we (today's Americans) do that again? What if we went to war with China, would they lock up my half Chinese wife? Or would her status as a Naval Officer protect her?

On 8 July we went to Silver City and camped for the night at Railroad Campground in the Gila National Forest. Very nice drive and Katherine was very pleasantly surprised that there were actually trees in the Gila forest. I said "forest" and she kept hearing "desert" because it is new Mexico. Her only previous experience of New Mexico was driving I-40 during June and stopping at one rest stop around 2:00 PM.

Ready to go hiking!

Next day, 9 July, we went hiking along trail 128. We hiked about 6 miles that day and kept crossing the Railroad creek. Lots of flowers and butterflies. We heard many birds but didn't get to see very many. On the hike we found out that our boxer was not quite up to doing all the hiking so we scrapped our plan to hike again the next day.

One of many!

We looked at the map we had and decided to head up Royal John Mine Road and see if we could actually find the mine. We had a great time wandering around the back roads and found out that the mine was still being actively worked. Didn't talk to anyone, but we did see a late '90s Chevy 4x4 and the copy of the claim filed with the county was posted on a tree. Saw a few longtailed deer.

Saw two real deer on the side of the road headed up towards Emory pass vista. Throughout the trip we were continually amazed by the views. Spent the night at The Forks Absolutely stunning.

On the 10th, we went to the Gila Cliff Dewllings It was quite humbling to realize what about 40 adults did over a few years without any power tools or beasts of burden. Very neat little 1 mile hike along a stream and up through the ruins. Nice place with friendly volunteers. They even have kennels in the shade for your dogs, free of charge.

 

[Tucson T4R]

Sounds like a good time. There's ton of beatutiful country around there. How did you like the AT?

 

[Nuclear Redneck]

Writeup Part II

We spent the night of the 11th at a trailhead northeast of Mogollon. On the way we saw a sign to gladden anyone's heart.

We were going to spend the night at Ben Lilly campground but when we got there we saw this:

Not that it stopped this yahoo:

On the 12th, we walked the Catwalk. It was fun to imagine how they were able to install the 18 inch diameter pipe up the canyon for water. Here you can see the foundations for the pipe:

The brochure for the Catwalk says that you can bring your dog, but several parts of the trip are not suited to dog paws and resulted in Tux getting a free ride:

We decided to visit the White Sands National Monument and spent the night at the City of Rocks State Park. Quite possibly the best $10 I have ever spent. We saw desert cottontails, jackrabbits, an owl, tarantulas, heard coyotes and saw some of the neatest rock formations.

Friday July 13th, we visited the White Sands. Quite an interesting and informative tour. The sands are of course very white, but it is neat to see how they are formed.

There is a 1 mile loop with signs that teach about how plants survive and how animals have adapted to their environment. Katherine and I were expecting the sands to reflect the sunlight back and we made sure that we were wearing plenty of sunscreen. We checked the temperature in the parking lot, 82 degrees, should be no problem walking the dog. Yeah, reflected sunlight, also means reflected heat. In this case 110 degrees. Darn near caused my dog to have heat stroke. In retrospect that was dumb of me. But, on the brighter side I got more of a workout in as I carried Tux for a ways.

We spent the night at Bear Trap campground in the Cibola National Forest. This is where we had our greatest temperature swing of trip. 62 degrees in one day! It was 48 when I got up. It was around 55 before Katherine and Tux got out of bed. This was by far the most remote campsite of the trip. On the way there we crossed on of the arms of the Very Large Array.

On July 14th we went to the Very Large Array and got the guided tour from some students interning at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, NM. One of them was working on her Doctorate in some very advanced filed of astronomy. Don't ask me what it was. Again, the visitor center was very informative. BTW, they are not looking for little green men, but looking at the radio emissions from stellar bodies to give scientists more data about the universe.

Saturday night and Sunday night were spent at Sundial Springs. Very nice place, the hot springs were well worth the price to soak in them. We did get a bit of rain:

But, the tent worked very well for the most part. A few drops of moisture from the where the straps attached to the poles supported the ceiling.

 

[Nuclear Redneck]

Writeup Part III- The End

The trailer worked very well. There was bit of a learning curve to it and if I owned one I think that I'd get better about packing and setting up camp.

It was very nice to have the stove and refrigerator along. I was very impressed by the roof top tent. It was made by a South African company, My Way Tents.

I would most definitely use a brake controller for the electric brakes on the trailer. It wasn't dangerous, but handling would have better with the controller.

I did not need four wheel drive for this trip. It could have been done by my wife's two wheel drive CR-V other than pulling the trailer. What I did find useful was the low range when going down the mountains on some of the trails. New Mexico seems to have used a road puller to straighten out most of the interstate and highways and then used all of the excess to put roads in the forest areas. I've never seen so many switchbacks on a road before.
the truck performed with no problems until the trip back home. about 40 mile from San Diego the TPMS light came on. We stopped at the next exit and I started checking tire pressures and heard the air hissing out of the front passenger tire. I got to change the tire and we made it home with no problem.

The tire was toast. it had a one inch cut trough the tread and carcass. So, I replaced the Rugged Trails with BFGoodrich All-Terains 265/75/R16. Gained about half an inch and got a better riding tire to boot.

Cheers,

 

[DaktariEd]

Sounds like you two had a great trip...I love the backroads of NM...:safari-rig:
I'm envious!

:sombrero:

 

[Ursidae69]

Great trip report. :arabia: