Gila National Forest

So it stuck with me.

Went to Gad and Elk Hunters in 1981 in the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico.

We went further in than anybody else, about 22 miles in the middle of the wilderness.

Sure.

And that was before your chuck wagon days.

How did that shape the way going forward from there, what you do now?

You know, the Gila Wilderness out here in southwest New Mexico is one of the first Roosevelt put in.

And at the time, it was 850,000 acres.

So the first, um, the first thing that happened that I can say, uh, was in my opinion, certainly, uh, Bigfoot, I mean, I don't know what else it could be, was, uh, January of 2021.

Uh, my brother and I drew a archery mule deer hunt in New Mexico, and we were in a section of, uh, the Gila Wilderness, uh, that we're very, we're both very familiar with.

Uh, we spent a lot of time there.

He's, he's guiding hunts there, like he's a guide, so he's there, like he lives there.

City and you did all that in one push, right?

Well, after I left Pytown, I go into the Gila National Forest and that was another super long two days.

I mean, incredibly long.

I got 119 miles and set up camp and um poured down rain that night poured down rain I slept like a baby um and then I didn't get going as early as I wanted because everything was soaking wet but once I got going then you get to this eight mile single track section that I think the race director just threw in for kicks and giggles and it was another one of those brutal hike-a-bikes and it was so hot that I took my jersey off rolled my my bike shorts down to like hip huggers pulled my shorts up to like hot pants I was dying of heat and um I'm just you know leaning over my bike trying to push it up this sandy hill and this runner comes up behind me and scared me to death and it was a female and she she goes oh I'm sorry and I was like suddenly I felt really naked so I'm like pull my shorts back up and I get put my jersey back on and we talked for a little while because I was pushing my bike up and then I took off I was able to get ahead of her and I was so exhausted at that point that every little punchy climb I didn't even put a second of energy into it until one of those climbs I got off my bike and a diamondback rattlesnake was right there at my front wheel and he was not happy to see me and the difference between the Southern Tennessee, Alabama rattlesnakes and the New Mexico rattlesnakes are the Mexico rattlesnakes are skinny and fast.

Beach, let's go on our way.

A-A-U-R or Gila National Forest.

Gila? Like G-I-L-A?

One L.

I've taken those, and I've split them out into their own separate entry for this video.

As a note, since I contacted the Forest Service post-incident, as one should do if they have a semi-aggressive encounter such as I did, I've simply copied and pasted the write-up that I did for them, For those not savvy with GPS coordinations, as I have included the exact location where the incident occurred in my write-up below, my encounter took place, no joke, approximately 1.16 miles as the person hikes south of Bear Mountain, and approximately 3.26 miles as the person hikes north of a peak called Wahoo Peak, both located in the northeast end of New Mexico's Gila National Forest.

So, on to the story.

On day six of my trip, I was on ascent of my second peak of the day, at approximately 8,356 LIDAR altitude on Kautopo, and riding southward along a pretty level portion of the ridge.

I've had loads of bear encounters, and in all other instances, the bears either continue to mind their own business, usually if far off and probably won't even see me, or they run away as if I'm the devil.

In fact, on the recent trip back to New Mexico, at the end of May of 2026, I was in the San Mateo Mountains, located in the Cabola National Forest.

but only about 15 to 20 miles away from the part of the Gila National Forest where the semi-aggressive bear encounter occurred on my previous trip, less than a month prior.

I had just finished enjoying the summit view from Peak 8748, and decided to make my way to a short distance westward along the summit ridgeline for some additional views.

And and she says, I got a quick question for you.

What is the governor's position on the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf into the Gila National Forest? And I'm telling you, Kim, it was in that moment that I said to myself, what did I get

myself

into? I graduated from the University of New Mexico undergrad.

Talking about Ash

Wednesday and returning to dust, I recently spoke with Philip Connors, who's a fire lookout in the Gila National Forest, and he's got a great line in his latest book about You can't spell spiritual without ritual.

And I just think about how ritual, whether one calls it spiritual or not, is like the bedrock of one's spiritual life.

And I think this is why I'm so drawn to bend my ear to poets and artists, because there's usually rituals that they're attuning themselves to beyond spirituality.