Crossing the Gila

NMBruce

Adventurer
A couple of weeks ago, a friend from Houston told me he needed to get off pavement, so we headed to the Gila.
Abel from the ROF group provided me with a route, a big thank you to Abel and I added the GPS points into my GX stereo. the trip started out great, just taking our time and enjoying everything around us. At 30-40 miles in, a spring on my trailer broke. We repaired it by find a log and cutting the size we needed, along with a couple of 2x4 and tie down straps, we made the axle on that side solid mounted. about 40 mins later found a nice place to camp for the night. The first 2 days out we only saw 2 other trucks.
At Beaverhead Ranger Station, we decided to change the route and head north, get and stay a little closer pavement just encase the trailer had to be parked. We decide to still stay off road as much as possible. We headed up towards Quemado Lake and camped in that area. The next day, staying on dirt as much as possible we back tracked and then headed up to Pie Town for a snack where we meet Old59 and Machone, and then on to the VLA and back off pavement to an area SE of the VLA. We had planned to camp somewhere else for the night, but a rancher decide that he would close off the forest road.
On our last day after hitting pavement, the left spring broke in about the same place as the right spring and the ranger station at Magdalena help with some wood for us to make the repairs again.
Over all it was a great trip, we did about 280 miles of off pavement out of about 340 total miles, which about 50% was dirt roads and about 50% was trails, can't wait to go back.
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Theoretician

Adventurer
Can you specify the route a little better? Who/What is ROF? I've been eager to explore the GNF from ABQ now that I have a truck.
 

Outdooraholic

Adventurer
That looks like a fun tip! I need to get out to the Gila again soon too. Thats crazy that both springs broke in the same place. Looks like its time to upgrade to more heavy duty springs!
 

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