as opposed to the river route.
does anyone have experience with that route, or know of a journal from someone who took the mountain route that i could read?
thanks
ruprat
Gila mountain route
system
#1
system
#2
Do you mean the area between the Middle and West Forks, north of Gila Hot Springs? I hiked that to bypass the Middle Fork hike. Be sure to get a good current trail map of the area. There are more trails than are shown on the USGS topo maps and the signage is a little confusing. I put on several extra miles zigzagging around on the many trails up there. They are nice trails and good hiking.
Garlic
system
#3
i just looked, i was talking about the “black mtn range route”.
thanks though,any info is appreciated
ruprat
system
#4
Can’t tell you all the specifics, but it’s in the Aldo Leopold wilderness district and is the official route. From my understanding it’s extremely remote and rugged country, and water is scarce but what isn’t on the cdt. As of last season 09 there was a fire closure up there and past seasons as well. I would imagine alot of charred down trees. Trail wok is happening up there. From my calculation resupply is about 162 miles. SOBO, Reserve to hwy 35/ Mimbres 11miles off trail or Lake Robert’s general store in between.You could leave the high route and cut across west into the gila wilderness and come out around doc cambells store were all the river forks come together. Not sure if this makes resupply shorter though. Officially this is what the GET (grand enchantment trail) does. Check it out for details. I plan on hiking the black range northbound. I’ve seen the cliff dwellings, the major attraction for the river route and the gila rivers before.
vulture death
system
#5
A Doc Campbell’s resupply doesn’t really make “sense” if you’re planning to hike the official route in the Black Range, as you’re already fairly well committed to the “river route” at that point, unless you don’t mind the extra miles required to link the two from that area (via the GET or go-your-own).
I have no personal experience with the Black Range route south of Reeds Peak to the CDTA/CDTS merge point, nor to the north of Wahoo Peak. What lies between is described in detail on the GET pages: www.grandenchantmenttrail.org Also see the water chart to dispense with some of the bogeymen regarding availability of water along the Black Range. This season, especially, the usual sources - inconvenient though not outrageously dispersed at times - should be running.
blisterfree
system
#6
If you do go that way, if you can let the local FS office/ ranger station know, that’d be cool… they put a lot of work into the trail in this area, and I think might be a bit frustrated that it doesn’t “see as much love” as the Gila river route. From what I’ve heard, it’s very nice… just hard to compete with the Gila River (which is like nothing else on the CDT). As for water? just plan ahead, and you should be ok. NB this year, it shouldn’t be bad at all.
Jonathan
system
#7
The CDTA mapping crew mapped most of that route last June but the maps won’t be available anytime soon. We found going difficult at times due to little use and not many markings but managed to do it all. Really nice, remote country in there. We missed the 25 miles across the Aldo Leopold because there was a major fire burning at the time. We did get almost everything else from Silver City to FS94 north of Cox Canyon, which is almost to the start of the road walk to the Malpais. I am making some gps track files available as a interim way of helping people get through there. They will be on the CDTA web site in a few days. Waypoint files for the entire state of Colorado were put up there today. www.cdtrail.org
bearcreek
system
#8
The contact person at the Black Range Ranger District is Les Dufour: ldufour at fs.fed.us 575-894-6677 Les is the ranger who oversaw trail crews in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness north to Wahoo Peak last summer.
Bearcreek: If not the maps, how about the GPS data? If the CDTA really wanted to help hikers - and the trail by getting more boots on the ground - they could create a kml Google Earth-type file and unleash it upon the masses at once.
blisterfree
system
#9
Just to clarify about fires, I don’t know of any that directly impacted the CDT in the Black Range last year. Although there were several active burns - including the large Diamond Fire - none of them crossed the Divide or affected the trail. And most of them were of the resource-benefit type that primarily burned the understory. Older, crown-fire burns along the Divide are a different matter, but ongoing trail work is gradually addressing the deadfall issues.
bf
system
#11
Bearcreek - Never you mind me. I posted that late last night and wasn’t reading with a full deck.
Cool… and thanks! Looking forward to seeing the layout from Wahoo Peak to Collins Park.
blisterfree
system
#12
The track files are posted to the website below. There are 5 of them - some gps receivers will hold up to 20. The only thing missing is the stuff within the Leopold Wilderness itself which was burning when we were there last June. We plan to gps that this spring before jumping up north again. Hope to see some of you out there this summer!
bearcreek