Throughout the night Judy inched her way between Shadow and I under our sleeping bags. She was determined not to get cold again. Shadow relit the fire from the night before to keep warm while we ate breakfast. The sun slowly rose over the deep canyon walls where we camp was by the river. We weren't sure how far we hiked yesterday, because it's hard to read a topographic map while hiking the winding river. As we continued to The Meadows (our next checkpoint) we had more river crossing. Yesterday the cold water felt good to our feet, but this morning was another story. Every time we would cross, we would lose feeling in our feet. As the feeling came back they would start to tingle like they had fallen asleep. By that time there would be another river crossing. Shadow carried Judy through the water as it was too cold for her. We reached The Meadows, changed back into our hiking shoes, and filled up with water. Our goal for the day was to make it to Hells Hole Canyon. We didn't have much choice being that it was the next place for water. It was a 1,000foot ascend to the mesa plateau that we needed the cross. Upon reached the top, the environment changed drastically. The landscape was a mixture of scrub brush and tall hard woods with sand and lava stones for a path. The sky was clear and we were back to an altitude of 7,000feet. The day warmed up, but it was hard to tell with the cool wind. Our sweat would dry before it could cool our bodies. Judy was a champ today. She found her stride hiking between us the whole way. If a fallen tree was in our path, she would run around it and meet back up with us. Our day ended with a steep descent down Hells Hole where we met up with the West Fork of the Gila River. A short 1/4 mile walk down the canyon was where we found a perfect place to sleep. It was a rock overhang that had been used many times for sleeping. The roof was black from campfire soot, and the floor was flat soft dirt. Judy laid by the fire while patrolling for intruders. She is ready taking to the traveler lifestyle. There's a few nice things about hiking out West versus out East. One, is that it's easy to start a fire with all the dry timber and Two, your clothes dry out over night. It's so nice have dry socks in the morning. 12.5 miles left on our journey back to TJ's Corral. We plan to take it easy and enjoy what's left. Maybe even eek out another night here before heading back to Silver City.
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| Judy ready for bed |
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| Looking down into the meadows |
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| Break on the mesa. |
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| Hells Hole |
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| Camping in a cave |
Country Mouse and Shadow
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