Cartour Spring 2017 number 16

Thursday March 30th

Cushy cabin in Alpine AZ - elk everywhere

Route from Alpine to Gila Lower Box Wilderness Study Area somewhere between Virden and Redrock New Mexico. Highly recommended for those who want to take their Subaru Outback SUV with extended rear bike rack to the edge of appropriateness

      Left Alpine after breakfast in cabin and brisk frisbee in parking lot of Esdudilla Mountain Cabins we rolled down to hwy 191 and headed south over forested but badly and randomly burned over mountains, high savannah, canyons and finally an immense copper and gold mine in Morenci - the hwy is called the Coronado Trail Francisco C. passed this way with what must have been unimaginable difficulty in the 1500’s. We did a brief resupply in Duncan where supplies where sparse all around and took a left a miles out of down on to some thing called the Fuller Road in attempt to get to a BLM site called Gila Box National Recreation Area in the cottonwoods on the banks of the Gila. We made it down into the cottonwoods eventually and only by pushing the subaru pretty far into the fringe of its comfort zone. So here we are all alone and comfortable enough in mind and body. I do have some concerns with getting out.

S surveys mine