finally...got the pictures up...i still have to tweak a few (forgot the resize the images) but they're pretty much good to go...i only took two rolls of film (there will likely be more shots in the future - people are going to send me their doubles to put up on the site)...enjoy! i would do anything to go back right now...4 days of the 'real world' has already been 3 days too many.

oh, for those of you who may not know, the gila wilderness is in southwestern new mexico. it is part of the gila national forest...

The Gila National Forest includes more acres of wilderness than any other National Forest in the Southwest. Three wilderness areas are located within the Gila. The Gila Wilderness, the world's first designated wilderness, was created on June 3, 1924 at the urging of the great conservation pioneer Aldo Leopold. The Aldo Leopold Wilderness lies to the east, while towards the west, the smaller Blue Range Wilderness adjoins Arizona's rugged Blue Range Primitive Area.

our trip took us through almost all of the gila wilderness, covering about 130 miles travelling from east to west. we also stopped one day at the gila cliff dwellings, which were fascinating. (and during which my camera was buried in my pack, so no pics. sorry!)

there are many more stories to tell...i will get them up soon...we had an instructor evacuated ('evaced' in NOLS terms), i got lost for over 2 hours (this is a good story), we cooked 'gourmet'-ish (well, for the backcountry) meals, my pack was much heavier than i ever expected (i was *stoked* i had bought my arcteryx one), we 'dry camped' hauling water in big dromedary bags (which weighed about 20lbs when full, in addition to a 60+lb pack! whew!), our water bottles froze solid some nights, we didn't get rained on at all (yay!) and the was a fabulous group of people. there are the cliff notes. :) more to come!

photos - GWHB - 4.10.02 - gila wilderness