Five days later, I'm still digging dirt out from under my nails. Lovely, I know. Our "trek" through the Middle Fork wasteland all the way to Elk Mecca was quite arduous, at best. In fact, arduous is my new favorite word. We were Frodo on the endless trail to Mount Doom (Middle Fork? Middle Earth? Definite similarity...). Anyway... Dad, Jesse, and I headed to NM, meeting up with one of his hunting buddies and canine, infamous for their mountainous elk-tracking skills. Yes, their. Who knew a Jack Russell could be such a legend as well as a lover of beef jerky? This team is the real deal. I digress...

We spent the first night at the trucks as our road in was quite rocky and, shall we say, never-ending (merely the beginning). Finally struck out the next morning after searching for the "right" trail a good portion of the morning. Here's the crew, minus yours truly, on task:

Day 2 quickly turned into "not sure where we are" and "can't pick up a satellite" in the depths of this deep, dark canyon, followed by the horse-who-refused-to-go-up-the-mountain-I'm-not-sure-how-many-times... lost count of that as well as the number of time we crossed the knee-deep creek river. But then, I love me some good unexpected adventure, and as I mentioned in the previous post, hygiene went out the window the moment we started down the trail. Save the soot-infested creek (by-product of the fire), the scenery was absolutely beautiful, consolation that at least we felt like we were the only ones to have stepped foot in the area in the last 10 years. Good thing, or bad?! We finally ended up in a meadow that seemed to have no outlet, completely out of water and unable to drink from the creek. Perfect. After a bit of delirium (yes, seriously), we set up camp for the night, drank corn and green bean juice, and sent up thanks to whoever thought to pack the peach fruit cups. Life saver. No lie.

Anyway, the next morning was a successful attempt at water filtration. Here's what we were working with after a night of it sitting out to settle. (Only YOU Can Prevent Wildfires! Ironically, this one soot-creek was the result of lightning. Figures.)

Recharged, sorta, we found the right trail the next morning and made it fairly quickly to our originally intended camp spot. The afternoon/evening was spent eating (we finally had water to cook with), enjoying a rain storm, and scouting the area. Lots of elk and burn signs in this neck of the woods.

We packed out the next day, this time on the right trail and endured an eternal climb up out of the canyon bottom. It looked like this at the top.

And then we made it back, realizing that our first mistaken trail was within a half-mile of the truck; we just couldn't see it cause the grass was grown up so tall. Awesome. Sure can't complain about that view though! Another Gila adventure in the books.

"Camping, even if only for one night, is worth it. There’s something so amazing about being outside for extended time. The unmistakable smell of the fire. The gratitude for an unexpected cool breeze. Waking up from sleep in the middle of the night and seeing the moon watching over you. It’s just a beautiful thing. Even the dirty feet, washing dishes in a tub of cold water, and long walks to the facilities. It’s so grounding.

I think camping, especially extended camping, might be the perfect reset button. The opening we all sometimes need to reassess. To notice what we can do without. And what is essential. It’s a chance to be still and feel a little wild all at once. I want to take that home and hold it there."

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Love this little write up from Penelope Dullaghan, a brilliant creative and illustrator. There is just something about being outside, throwing all caution to good hygiene, and taking off on wild adventure that is the perfect reset for me. And so, Dad and I took off on a grand little 4-day excursion to scout the Whitewater-Baldy Fire aftermath in the "bowels of the Gila" as we later coined it.

We didn't get into as much burn area as I expected, but we did find a lot of unexpected trails, an eagle, a cave, several elk herds, deer, and a scarce amount of water. We learned to appreciate corn and green bean juice. More on that later. For now, here's the view driving in: