We've always said that our Silver City house was definitely not our "dream house", but it checked a lot of boxes. However one box it failed to check was a porch — a feature that was very high on my list of priorities. Looking at it from the front, it was like the house had one eye closed. There was an entrance on the right, but the left side stared blankly at the street.
I may have overcome my fear of Signal Peak! Although the trail is unrelentingly steep, the grade is reasonable, with many switchbacks, and it is nicely forested all the way to the summit!
Year 'round residents of the Southwest desert know that the only way to survive June is to get the Hell out of town. With forecasters predicting an abnormally hot summer of 2024 throughout the Southwest, it was clear that our traditional retreats weren't going to cut it. We needed to get above 8000'.
For our second backpacking trip of the year, we opted to skip the long hot water carries and maximize our time on the scenic Middle Fork Gila River.
We have hiked this canyon so many times, but it's probably our all-time favorite hike. Today was perfect: 80° a light breeze, and just enough water to keep things exciting!
It had been two years since our last backpacking trip, so we decided to break up the roughly 15-mile trek into three relatively equal sections.
Working with Gila Trails and the Backcountry Horsemen to clear part of Wood Haul Wagon Road. It was a lovely day to be outdoors, and it feels good to help care for our wonderful trail system!
We returned with our hiking group, the Gila Hikers to a remarkable area of slot canyons and crenelated cliffs not far from Silver City.
I've been obsessed with Twin Sisters ever since moving to Silver City. I never thought I'd hike to the top. I certainly never thought I'd do it three times! But with a hardy crew from Gila Hikers, the miles passed quickly, and we made it easily to the summit.
Chasing an an eclipse wasn't in the cards for us this year, but we still wanted to mark the occasion in some way. So we set out to hike a streamside trail on the west side of the Mogollon Mountains.
Jamie, our "chosen daughter", paid us a visit with her daughter CC, a bright and beautiful young lady with a personality as big as the great outdoors!
Finally our schedules aligned, a window opened, and we returned to the Lower Gila Box with friends Val, J and Ken, for four days of camping and hiking. Or so we thought!
Four whole days in the Lower Gila Box, with no real itinerary. Total freedom to just go wherever our feet could carry us!
Of all the days to forget our water shoes! This streamside hike gave us thrilling views and lots of opportunities to soak our boots!
In the mid 1980s, Vermont friends injected a little levity into a local cross-country ski race that had become a bit too competitive.
On what felt like the first day of spring, we returned to Skates Canyon with the Gila Hikers.
At the last minute, a major storm swung south, releasing over two feet of snow in the Sacramento Mountains.
After 23 years of trying, I finally succeeded in chasing a major snowstorm north into the higher mountains for a couple of days of phenomenal cross-country skiing!
It was 10 years ago that we wandered into the Gila Lower Box while exploring some back roads along the AZ-NM border. I've been hankering to return to the area ever since.
We've returned to this area many times since stumbling upon it during an exploration of the Gila Lower Box WSA in 2019.
How to relive some of the excitement of my initial visits to the Cat Walk, which is now hopelessly tamed by a series of overbuilt industrial-grade steel skyways? One way is to approach it from above, via the Gold Dust Trail.