Gila Wilderness Loop-Day 5

It was 5:30 a.m. and I was loading up my pack when Cappuccino walked over from her hammock in stocking feet.

“I have a small issue,” she said evenly.

“What is the small issue?” I queried.

“My shoes are gone. I put them under my hammock last night and they are not there this morning,“ she said with a hint of distress in her voice.

I thought –you have a big problem-, but tried to calmly reassure her and followed her back to the scene of the crime to look for them. We alerted Slinky on the way.

We assumed that some animal(s) had taken them. I had a doe try to take mine on the PCT, so I knew such a thing can happen. I believe they take them for the salt from sweat that is in the shoe. Whatever the reason, the shoes were gone.

We started to look for them near her hammock. There was a slope up to a ridge on her side of camp, and she found one shoe about 25 feet southeast from her hammock, jammed up against a log. We wandered around in that area for a while, but found nothing else. We decided to sweep the area in an organized fashion. We formed a line standing about 15 feet apart and started walking a grid looking for the lost shoe. As I reached the end of the first sweep high on the slope by a rocky outcrop, I found the second missing shoe. This was over a hundred feet northeast of her hammock. In the opposite direction from the first shoe. It is unclear what was trying to steal the shoes, but they/it moved them pretty far.

Everyone sighed in relief as the scenario of a hike out nearly 14 miles without or with only one shoe was a daunting thought. With both shoes secured, we returned to our usual morning routine.

After packing up and having breakfast, we headed out. Walking along and through the West Fork’s wide valley was beautiful. The slopes were graced with stands of ponderosa pines. The first 6 to 7 miles were the nicest. After that, the heat of the day made it a little less enjoyable.

We eventually got within about 3.5 miles of the car and stopped to examine a single cliff dwelling in a shallow cave along the river. Much of the stonework is still intact, and we were able to climb up and look at it.

Once back down to the river, we decided to stay nearby in the woods. It was there we had dinner and enjoyed telling stories around the empty fire ring (no fires). As the light faded in the west, we removed to our shelters for the night.