Thursday May 30, 18.5mi/29.8km
Mineral Creek TH (15.5/5440ft) to Hummingbird Saddle (34.0/10,380ft) (NM)
I started off the morning hiking up Mineral Creek for a few hours. It had a decent trail most of the way, though it did involve crossing the stream a few dozen times.
The rock there was very interesting, it was some volcanic tuff that eroded into canyons and slickrock areas.
It was highly enjoyable walking alongside that stream for a while.
I even passed by an old mining site, with lots of interesting old-timey things.
Given the flooding and devastation that happened here about 10 years ago, I was surprised to see such a well-traveled trail.
Someone had taken some boards from the mining site, and made some benches which looked like a perfect spot to take a break.
Sometimes the trail would squeeze between a boulder and a cliff…
… And other times it would just go straight up the creek.
After a few hours of that it was time to leave the canyon and hike steeply uphill.
It was a very nice trail, but it still climbed over a thousand feet in a mile. Pretty soon I had arrived at a trailhead along Bursum road, and I hiked the road the rest of the morning, and a few hours into the afternoon as well. It was a hot afternoon, so it took me awhile to climb the 2500ft up to Silver Creek Divide.
Up here at over 9,000 ft the forest was more burned, though I had pretty good views through the remaining trees.
The mountains around here are surprisingly big!
The road had a little scenic viewpoint called Sandy Point, where I stopped and had a nice break looking at all the landscapes I had hiked across the last few days. When I turned off onto a trail the first thing I noticed was a warning sign.
Fortunately, the trail must have undergone some maintenance because it was not difficult to find at all. And I was entering the Gila Wilderness!
Most of the pine trees had burned away in the fire, but this many years later, a bunch of Aspens had grown to take their place.
Once I got up to 10,000 feet elevation, I noticed the ground was still damp in some places and I even found a tiny patch of remaining snow!
I’m not sure what this plant is, but it seems to thrive in these conditions. I’ve seen it in other places, but it grows quite huge up here.
A lot of the burned dead trees had fallen over throughout the years, and the trail crews had done an amazing job at keeping the trail clear.
Eventually the trail stopped climbing, and I hiked along a ridge at like 10,500ft. Great views in all directions!
I noticed a significant part of this forest had been burned, which usually is quite limiting for camping opportunities. So, I decided to stop at one of the few unburned pockets of forest that I found. Hummingbird Saddle was flat and forested, and hopefully it doesn’t become windy later tonight. I did all my usual camp chores, and when I checked my inReach device, I noticed I had received quite a few new messages. Thanks to everyone who sent me a message sharing the good news!