Continental Divide Trail – Day 9

May 10, 2023
Miles Today/ Total: 21.9/ 180.7

I slept in until about 6:30 this morning and then headed downstairs for the complimentary breakfast. The selection was pretty good and I got plenty to eat.

I took my time getting ready and sent out yesterday’s post before packing up and checking out. I was leaving the Hotel about 8:30 and walked the 1.2 miles back to the trail.

The trail out of Silver City was a road walk. It was paved for about 4 miles before turning into a gravel road as it entered the Gila National Forest. Once off the road the trail was fantastic. It climbed up on top of a mountain with a mostly open view from the top.

I elected to take the Gila alternate which drops down to the Gila River and follows it for several days. Although this alternate is shorter than the “official route” about 90% of the hikers take this route due to the beauty and abundant water sources.

The alternate started with about 4 miles of gravel road walk before cutting off onto single track, but was nice it cut off it was fantastic Trail. It followed a stream up through a canyon and then around the mountain sides on a nice cut in trail. It crossed several small streams and then climbed up to a very scenic rocky outcropping. The trail meandered through the rocky area called Devil’s Garden that included some very nice viewpoints as well as some hoodoos and other rock structures.

At this point I needed to find somewhere to camp and since everything was rock here I kept moving on. Eventually the trail crossed another stream where I gathered water for the night and climbed up to a forested bench where I was able to find several good campsites.

I cooked dinner, set up my tent, and cleaned up for the night. I updated my blogs before dropping off to sleep.