Anyone paddled the Gila river in NM?

[Alan Gage]

Within a week I should be closing on a property on the south edge of the Gila national forest east of Silver City, NM.

Looks like there is some decent paddling along the Gila river although the window to run it sounds pretty narrow and flow dependent. I've read a few trip reports from whitewater kayakers and I'm wondering how amenable it is to canoes? How technical are the rapids? Would you run it in something along the lines of a Wildfire?

Any other good paddling destinations I should know of in the area? Paddling around Gila Box near Safford, AZ has always intrigued me.

Alan

 

[dogbrain]

Alan, I have only hiked along the section from Sapillo Creek to the bridge at Gila Hot Springs while on the CDT in 2007. This is roughly 18 trail miles, maybe 20+ river miles. Here are a few pictures so you can see what it looked like. I would definitely have paddled this section. We must have crossed the stream 30 times, but my memory is that the fords weren't too shallow. I looked up the dates and discharge was 110 to 120 cfs in the first week of May at the Gila, NM gaging station, which is upstream from some or most of the diversions. I don't remember much in terms of rapids, but I wasn't paddling the river either. The Gila tends to get flooded with some frequency, so woody debris could be an issue. Hope this helps. Mark


Bridge downstream of Gila Hot Springs



Somewhere midway between the last picture and Sapillo Creek



Down near Sapillo Creek