Backpacking The Gila Wilderness, NM - Thru Hiking on the Middle Fork Trail
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- MAY 20 - 26, 2012. --- The Gila Wilderness (pronounced: HEE-La) was designated the world's first wilderness area on June 3, 1924. Along with Aldo Leopold Wilderness and Blue Range Wilderness, the 558,014 acres (2,258.2 km2) wilderness is part of New Mexico's Gila National Forest. The wilderness is approximately 27 miles (43 km) from north to south and 39 miles (63 km) east to west. The Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is found within the wilderness.
The Gila Wilderness is located in southwest New Mexico, north of Silver City and wrapping around Reserve. It contains the West Fork, Middle Fork and much of the East Fork of the Gila River; riverside elevations of around 5,000 ft (1,500 m) are the lowest in the wilderness. The Mogollon Mountains traverse an arc across the southwest of the wilderness. The tallest peak within this range, Whitewater Baldy at 10,895 ft (3,321 m), anchors the western point of the wilderness. At the northeast corner is Black Mountain at 9,287 ft (2,831 m).
This is Part 1 of 4 of our thru hike into the Gila Wilderness via the Middle Fork Trail #157 which covers Days 1 and 2. Total milage of the entire trip: 38 Miles. Sadly, the wildfires that were burning just to the west of us, have consumed over 300,000 acres of forest land and becoming New Mexico's biggest wildfire in our states history! :(
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Music By: Dan-O @ danosongs.com
Direct URL: www.danosongs.com/
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12 years ago wow! Still love this series. I watch it every time I’m missing the Gila
I know it will be great. Thanks for your encouragement and instiration.
A sense of relief and comfort for sure. I hope when monsoon seasons comes that it will rain down and ease some of this bad drought conditions.
Looks like a great time! Thanks for Letting us come along!
More great stuff man. Not to mention I had forgotten how much I enjoy your music selections. Thanks a ton. K.
Mmm popcorn, I have never gone backpacking but really want to one day. Thanks for sharing this video I really enjoyed it, I will watch the rest 👍
Great video and very scenic! Popcorn look good to eat in the back woods. Light weight good snacking food, great idea for a awesome treat!
Thanks for sharing my friend.
Beautiful scenery as always! Love the popcorn! Thanks for sharing Crazy!
Outstanding ! Looks like you guys are having a blast.Look foreward to parts 2-4. Thanks for sharing,Peace,Craig
Thanks for the Video and you had good timing because there is no access right now. I was in Silver City and then Glenwood during the fires yet not only until I camped on top of Luna Mountain could I see the full effect of the devastating fires that were burning out of control. I could only watch for a few minutes before feeling completely heart sick!
Such beautiful country. I miss SW NM.
I was really glad to have done this trip just in the nick of time. The Forest Service has the Gila Natl Forest closed up right now due to that mega fire still burning. It's up to 225,000 acres now. Biggest fire in our states history. :(
Having water the entire trip was considered a blessing to all of us. Thanks for your friendship and support my friend! I am glad you like the Tee shirt! :)
That campfire you set up at 17:34 must have had a wonderful fragrance with the cedarwood, I can't imagine it, but something tells me it was a pleasant scent .. guess you didn't see any deer but good thing no bears showed up picking up the scent of food.
Yes, cedar, juniper and pinyon wood are my top 3 favorite for campfires as they all have a wonderful fragrance when burned. I call it "Ceremonial" wood! :-)
We didn't see very much wildlife along our hike. No deer. No Bears. We did put all of our food and scented items into a bag and strung it up in a tree each night just in case but that has become our standard routine for keeping Raccoon's from stealing the food more so than the bears! LOL I'd be lucky to even get a 5 second glance at a bear as most of the bears that I've ever encountered run away so fast that I can't even snap a quick picture.
Thanks for watching!
I love the Gila . I took the scouts there 3 years in a row. We would start at willow creek and go down the middle fork and come up the west fork. We crossed around woodland park, depending on the year.
Another awesome video, man! Looks really pretty, especially the sharp canyon walls-amazing! As people have said, popcorn is a great idea to have a treat and a little fun with your food. I look forward to the next vids
Wow! Six years later and that buttered popcorn still looks delicious! 😊 It's the simple pleasures in life that are the best. Thanks for sharing this awesome series of videos! It's much appreciated.
Really nice monologue and background music... thanks!
Just got to the popcorn part and I'm loving it! I haven't been quite as successful trying to make popcorn in my gsi soloist!
Thanks for watching my friend! I appreciate it!
my dad and I did this trek sometime in in the mid to late 70's (I do not remember exactly when). the middle fork trail had been washed out by flash floods that year. once we got the Gila cliff dwelling visitor center, we hitchhiked (got picked up by Socorro friends)to Lake Roberts where we camped until mom picked us up the next day. the night in the campground was the worst of the trip.
Nice Matt, Kimmy and I are loving the New Mexico wilderness. Glad you got this one in before the big fire. We are looking forward to meeting and hiking with you! Kimmy and I just picked up some of that Justin's peanut butter! Thought it would make great trail food!
im moving to hurley new mexico, from new zealand. i will try some of those trails.NICE VIDEO....
Thank you
2012....the year a tragic wild fire burned thru the Mogollon Mts. changing forever areas of beauty in those mountains. Dangerous place to be in 2012...I notice you mentions fires there back then..
@@stephenvinson6474 No doubt, it was a scary experience being down in the canyon while that fire was burning above us. Incre it's incredibly tragic to see how much forest was wiped out from those fires.
Thanks for watchin! We had a great time! Pt 2-4 will be epic! :)
Thanks John! We brought quite the spread of food for sure. It's always fun making some popcorn. Yeah, the Gila is gorgeous and picturesque. I have a shot out to ya in pt. 2 or 3. ;-)
Great stuff Matt glad to see you got some quality you time. May suck getting feet wet but having water compared to some of your other trips has to be a plus. Glad I am wearing my SWBP Tee shirt watching this :-)
Wow, I'm having a hankering for popcorn now. Thanx for the recipe I will try that!
Wow! Very nice. I think I'm gonna steal the pop corn idea next week when We hike up to San Gregorio. I've got that same setup. I'm suprised you could still have a fire. I know thr Cuba district is Condition 1 now. Bummer. Anyway, thanks for sharing another exiting adventure .
We used a Katadyn Hiker Pro as our main water filtration. I was testing out a Seripen Classic for a couple days and liked it as well although it did not get rid of some particles with its pre filter system, it did work the way it is suppose to and I cant complain about a few particles in my water. Thats why they call it "roughin it" :)
Thanks for watchnig!
I am using a Kelty Coyote 4750 which is an EXCELLENT backpack but it is not that light.. I think it's about 5 pounds. My 2 other friends that came along on this trip are sporting a Swiss Gear backpack (discontinued model) and a Gregeory Z65 i believe.
Happy 10 year anniversary of this hike!
Thanks for watching my friend! Yes. I think so too!
Right On! Thank you!
Just add about a teaspoon of veggie oil and heat it up for a couple minutes, then add the popcorn and cook at a low to med-low flame. It varies from stove to pot but this seems to work for us, although, it took us a wile to figure it out too. :-)
Epic trip man! You guys sure know how to roll in style... gorgeous country, a little Justin's, and some trail popcorn... right on! Can't get over how beautiful that area is man! Lookin' forward to following the rest of this trip. Thumbs up buddy!
Popcorn looked great!!
Thanks Brother! I'm glad you have been enjoying the videos. I appreciate you watching them. Peace!
Yes indeed! It will get a bit weird n creepy but there are some fanfastic footage further down the trail. I don't like wet feet so I brought my Teva's along with mr as 2nd foot wear. Learned to do that from my 1st hike in here a couple years ago. We dried out our boots n shoes in the hot sun and around the campfire but they would just get wet again the next day. LOL!
Popcorn! Were helping to make it popular again! LOL!
Thanks for watching Bill and stay tuned for more of the adventure!!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks Brix!
We had a great time! Ate some really good food and the popcorn was a hit! It smells good so it enlightens the spirit, weights next to nothing but when you pop it, you get a good amount, and it's very fun to just sit back and laugh while its popping! Who knew popcorn in the backcountry could be soooo much fun! :-)
Thanks for watching! That sounds like a nice hike. I have the West Fork in mind for next year if it survived the fire.
The timing was perfect... almost too close! We had to retrieve our truck from Snow Lake where we started and that was a tough process. We had to drive to Reserve and have a firefighter escort take us back into the inferno to retrieve our truck in time. Absolutely crazy! I'll show this in Pt. 4.
I feel your pain. I was sick to my stomach when we were driving by it all. Very sad. That fire is now about 250,000 acres I think. :-(
I'm continuing on to part 2...but first I want to go make a big bowl of popcorn.
Thanks guys! I'm glad I got the chance to do this hike and share it with you. It's going to be diffucult to get out and hike this year until we get some good monsoon rains. FS is closing up sections of forest left and right. :(
I think Mesa Verde in Aug. will be on the warm side but by then the monsoon season will have arived and will make the afternoons very pleasant. Look forward to meeting you guys! I'll send ya a PM here later on this evening. :)
Matt I never got a notification for this video glad I found it . Great stuff as always my friend
Fantastic !! Cheers ;-))
We did a similar trip on horses and mules.. we started at Willow Creek and went to Doc Cambles and then we continued on from there through the East Fork to the Aldo Leopold .. we got hung up on Diamond Peak and couldn't make it any further because of all the dead fall timber .. of course going down the middle fork wasn't a piece of cake due to the floods... here is a little video I made of our trip
ruclips.net/video/Mk0NNeWFJoM/видео.html
Thank you! I appreciate your views and comments! Please steal the popcorn idea! I hope it catches on with other hikers/backpackers.
I was very suprised that there were no fire restrictionis during our week long trip. Even the day we came out, there were no restrictions. Right now, every district has gone into at least stage 1. :-( It's sad, but I understand why they do it.
San Gregorio will be awesome! I hope you have a blast and enjoy poping some popcorn in your mess kit my friend!
Thanks for watching and your comment! You are 100% correct my friend and I couldn't agree with you more. I had to Thumbs Up your comment! When its cold outside and perhaps raining or snowing, get under your tarp, break out your mess kit, and your popping corn and I bet it will put a smile on your face and/or anyone else that is present.
Great weather does make for a very memorable trip. We really could not have asked for anything more or better. Thanks for your awesome comment my friend!
nice video dude. hey what backpack are you guys using?
Thanks. You need a camera with a stabilizer.
Beautiful scenery but I couldn't watch because the camera was shaking so badly. I think they make devices to correct that. I'd love to watch this video without all the bouncing around.
what did you use for a water filter on this backpacking trip
now i want popcorn
I love you videos. I am thinking of duplicating your trip. What kind of footwear did you have that would stand up to the water and the miles? Please reply. Many thanks.
Thanks for watching! The total mileage from Snow Lake to the Gila Cliff Dwelling Visitor Center is about 42 miles. All of it is flat so it makes for a great hike. I was wearing my Simms hiking boots which have a Gore-Tex waterproof membrane lined within the boot. My secondary pair of footwear for around camp are the Keen Newports. They are my all time favorite footwear for comfort but also make for decent footwear when having to walk or hike in water.
What model of Simms hiking boots? Are they still available?
I have one beef. Did you say that you took some wood off a tree? Not from fallen branches? You should know better than that! Not cool!
Thanks for watching and leaving feedback. I agree with you. It's not cool to cut down standing dead trees as it provides homes for wildlife. I'm looking back on this video and I do mention that I cut the cedar/juniper down by two trees. This is something I don't usually do and its been too long for me to remember if we cut it down or if it was already fallen. I certainly don't condone or promote cutting down dead trees and I appreciate you taking the time to call me out on this.