Catwalk, Whitewater Canyon - Gila National Forest

 On Wednesday evening I  arrived Los Olmos Lodge in Glenwood. I got some nachos and an Orange Crush, at the newly re-opened gas station across the street before checking in. I had stayed at the cabins there about a year ago  the night before my friend Doug Scott and I did our epic trip up Rain Creek.  Now, my plan was to spend the night to facilitate an early morning departure on Thursday for a fishing trip on Mineral Creek, just up the road a few miles in Alma.
 After my "dinner", there was still some daylight to kill.  A sign at the turn-off for the Whitewater Creek Road said the Catwalk was open dawn till dusk. I decided dusk hadn't arrived yet and headed out on NM 174. It's a nice little drive up the creek valley.  I parked at the completely vacant lot, dutifully paid my fee plus a couple dollars more, because I had no ones only fives, and then off I went toward the giant sycamore trees.

 The last time I was here was on a backpacking trip nearly 20 years ago.  We utilized the old Catwalk at that time. It was an old, narrow, rickety thing suspended by suspect cables. We were new to backpacking, so our packs were huge and frequently rubbed against rocks that protruded into the pathway. People were coming and going as we trudged up and up on that busy summer morning.
 There wasn't another human being  as I made my way up the paved path on this warm June evening, past the picnic tables and historical photos in display cases. I knew the old Catwalk had been washed away, rebuilt and washed away again and maybe rebuilt again. I really didn't know what to expect, or if anything at all was there at this point except the creek and the canyon walls.
 Shortly after crossing on a stout bridge over Whitewater Creek, the new Catwalk began.
 This is wholly different affair from days gone by. There are no more cables. Instead, massive steel I beams have been hammered into the rock and a wider, seemingly unshakeable, ridiculously more sturdy work of heavy iron  rests upon them as a vastly less daunting adventure that is now the Catwalk.


 I walked on through the narrowest stretches, and then eventually coming off of the Catwalk onto the dirt trail there was a wheelbarrow and a sign about continued trail construction at a place where the elevations of the old trail and new seemed to be off by about 6 or 7 feet. I scrambled down to the creek here to get a look at the water and maybe catch a glimpse of one of  the Gila Trout that have been repatriated to this canyon in recent months. I didn't. I also was interested in finding the waterfall where my family and I had drenched ourselves in icy water on our very first trip here.  I thought I was at the right place but I couldn't be sure. It may be farther upstream.
 I turned around, and this time crossed an upper bridge to take an alternate path( which I think was where the original trail was many years ago) on the opposite side of the creek, where I could view the current Catwalk, and where I noticed some bits and pieces of the old Catwalk in the stream bed 50 feet below.



 A peaceful evening walk, in solitude with only the sounds of the running stream, canyon wrens, fat squirrels scurrying  through the dust, and a weak breeze blowing in the walnut leaves.