Gila Wilderness Group Trip- Memorial Day (3-4 days)

Eugene- if there is any way I can make it, I will. I had a blast last trip. The way things are going here, it's going to be August before we can get into the mountains :(

Mike

I will look into attending over the actual Memorial Day weekend – flying back from the Pacific/West Coast on evening of May 27th and starting work again June 2. I was thinking about soloing at my usual Pecos trip near Santa Fe that weekend, but Gila can work too.

ADD:

Email sent

I'll definitely be watching this thread. I've already got a Gila trip planned for the end of the month, but I'm game for another. I'd also love to do the Skyline Trail in the Pecos.

Gila Plans – http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?q=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1458/maps/NM/MogollonTurkey/Mogollon2.gpx&ll=33.142558,-108.502082&t=t1&z=12&label=no&coord=latlng

Skyline Trail – http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?q=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1458/maps/NM/SkylineTrail.gpx

Bump.

Route Suggestion #1- Whitewater Creek-Mogollon Range (47-50 miles), 15,000ft. elevation gain/loss

Here’s a link to the proposed route at TOPO! Explorer:

Whitewater-Mogollon Range loop- Gila Wilderness

For those going, emails have been sent, let me know what you guys think, your feedback, criticisms, suggestions, ideas, brainstorms, etc. will be most appreciated.

Eugene- looks like a great route! :(

Mike

I'm mostly contacting those who've expressed interest in going via email…. here's a bump for this thread if anyone is still interested in going on the trip.

So far confirmed or "mostly" sure they're going:

Larry Dyer (BPL)
Landon Schrock (BPL)
Eric Wheeler (BPL)
Justin McMinn. (BPL) …"95% sure I'll be able to make it" *email replied
Myself (BPL)
Marty Miera
Mike Moore (in spirit)

*Update- currently the Gila is under a Stage 1 Fire Restriction, here's the latest, so far no park closures, but they're wisely restricting fire use due to carelessness of individuals:

Yellow Fire Update – Wednesday, April 20, 2011 @ 1:00 p.m.

For more information about current fire activity on the Gila National Forest, contact the public information officer at 575-533-6231 (Reserve) or (575) 536-2250 (Mimbres) or visit the website at http://fs.usda.gov/gila.

Here’s another plot of the route that is easier to navigate. Switch the upper right hand menu from “Terrain” to “MyTopo” for a better map. I marked a few points of interest that where on my Garmin topo maps. I’ll try to add a few more mile markers when I get more time.

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?q=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1458/maps/NM/Whitewater-Mog/Track.gpx

Excellent Justin! Thanks for that, indeed, much easier to navigate than the TOPO Explorer route I slapped together.

I'd love to, but I'm not sure I'm in good enough shape to hang with you young guys.

Gila under stage 2 fire restriction, fyi.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/gila

I would love to do somthing in the southwest with you but It would have to be in june. I do believe nm is pretty much on shutdown because of fire but let me know if your intrested in making somthing else happen.~Kostas Lazanas

Eugene- were you guys able to pull this trip off?

Mike

Mike,

We were pushed out of the Gila, strict Stage 2 fire restrictions at the time of the trip meant 5 days of cold food.

A small group of us went north to the Pecos for some great spring conditions up high, which turned out to be an amazing alternative.

Here’s one photograph I took from this past week, more to come in an article at some point.

Trailriders Wall, Pecos Wilderness, NM, 5/31/11

Great! :) looking forward to reading about it, too bad about the Gila- hopefully the rain will come (we could have sent you a bunch!)