EE Canyon Loop

Once again we froze last night. But we tried something different--we turned on our furnace. It was set for 55 degrees, and about 2:00 A.M it kicked on.

Since the temperatures in the morning have been below freezing, the furnace makes it possible for us to remain here. The camper is a 4 season one, and the furnace keeps the water supply from freezing. And us.

But there is nothing the furnace can do to make middle-of-the night trips to the bushes any warmer. Brrrrrrrr.

Today's hike was through EE Canyon. And I was ready with (finally) the appropriate footwear. The hike description given to us at the visitors center said there would be one river crossing. So I carried a pair of water shoes for me and for Vicky. And I wore tennis shoes. My plan was to change into the water shoes at the river crossing and Vicky would change also if the water was above her hiking boots.

I'm ready!

The hike wasn't tough in terms of elevation (1100 feet), but was still a respectable hike ending up being 8.4 miles. The first 3-4 miles was along a ridge of recently-burned forest. We have seen a lot of burned areas in New Mexico.

But it was beautiful in most places.














Once again we ran into hunters on horseback. They had gotten their elk.




Then we descended into EE Canyon and walked for about two miles on the canyon bottom. Not as impressive as Little Bear Canyon, but still fun. The trail was occasionally difficult to pick up, even with the very large cairns that were present.











Then we arrived at the as-promised ONE river crossing. It was shallow enough that Vicky could cross in her hiking boots:







I changed to my water shoes and marched right across:









REI isn't the only place where one can purchase hiking equipment:




So I put my tennis shoes back on, ready to complete the rest of the hike with dry feet:




And guess what?

One half mile later I was staring at the same river crossing that I was at two days ago when I was attacked by the dogs. And I hadn't even had time to work through my PTSD issues.

There were TWO more river crossings than were indicated on the hiking maps provided at the visitor center. Does anyone ever do these hikes to insure their accuracy? It is kind of important, guys.

We finished the hike tired and hungry, as usual, and me with wet feet (not usual). But it was a great day.

We have been at the Gila National Monument three days now and haven't seen the reason it is here--the cliff dwellings.

That is on the agenda tomorrow. We will take an easy day and be tourists and let our bodies recover. In the past week, we have hiked 41+ miles and ascended 7500+ feet. We need a little rest.

But only a little one. We already have the next hike planned.

Oh, and by the way, a milestone for us. We have now done over 300 miles of hiking for 2012.