Gila Wilderness Loop-Day 4

Slept in until almost 6 a.m. this morning. Our plan was to do a day hike up the West Fork 5 miles to White Creek Cabin. So we had a leisurely breakfast and pulled out about 7:30. The upper part of the West Fork canyon lacks the numerous sheer walls of the Middle Fork. Here the sides slope up hundreds of feet and are covered with ponderosa pines. The sides are not devoid of high cliffs, but they are much less common. As a result, much of the trail was up off the river, running along the lower slopes and not in the bottom as in the Middle Fork.

We had a pleasant hike up to the cabin at White Creek. It was surprisingly large and well-kept, at least from the outside. It was locked, of course, but there were three chairs outside, so we set them up in the shade of a big conifer out front and had a pleasant lunch and conversation that lasted several hours.

This is as close to the Hummingbird Fire as we got, being probably 15 miles away, and occasionally there was the faint smell of smoke. We possibly saw some smoke on the western horizon, but it was hard to tell with the partly cloudy skies. The temperature was in the comfortable upper 70’s.

We eventually packed up, put the chairs back, and headed 5 miles back to our camp. We got back around 5 p.m. After some camp chores, we convened for dinner where we planned out our next two days of hiking. A few clouds made for a colorful sunset as we disbanded for the night.