Couple feasts on Gila Wilderness views for Thanksgiving

Enjoying a seven-course Thanksgiving dinner while hiking through the Gila backcountry may sound like a contradiction.

But for married duo Renee Miller and Tim Beissinger, aka the Thruhikers, it was mission possible thanks to some planning and homemade freeze-dried delights mailed along the route. 

Miller and Beissinger have explored more than 10,000 miles together, posting about their adventures on YouTube, with the duo hiking in southwest New Mexico this fall.

The Thanksgiving feast was part of an 8-day, 140-mile trek through the Gila Wilderness. The duo details food preparation — dehydrating and freeze-drying meals — and gear packing for the route that included navigating river crossings along the East Fork of the Gila River, on YouTube and their blog, thruhikers.co.

Delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, they picked up a Thanksgiving care package, packed up and sent weeks in advance to a Gila Hot Springs store.

“In the evening we made it to ‘town’ (a general store and RV park in the middle of nowhere with zero cell service), picked up our resupply package from Doc Campbell’s Post, and set up our tent at the RV park. Can’t wait to head back into the wilderness tomorrow for more Gila River!” Miller wrote on the blog.

Beissinger said they’ve completed the trip across the Gila and are posting video shorts through December, with a longer video after that. Without cell service or Wi-Fi in the remote Gila, it was best to post after the journey, he said in an interview via Instagram messenger.

Day three of their adventure brought them “20.6 miles, 1,500 feet of elevation gain, 62 river crossings,” according to their blog.

“We finally made it to the Gila River this morning,” Miller wrote. “We started walking at 7:30 a.m., and everything was frozen. When we got to the river about an hour later, it was still freezing, and we were nervous about having to cross it 50+ times today.

We took off our trail running shoes. We put waterproof socks on over our wool hiking socks and put on some hiking sandals. The first crossing wasn’t cold at all with the waterproof socks for insulation. We walked in our hiking sandals for the rest of the day. We followed the river upstream and counted 62 times that we crossed it. The river was gorgeous, and the waterproof socks and hiking sandals kept our feet happy.”

It was a sunny day, and the temperature eventually got into the 50s. In the afternoon, we spotted 5+ white-nosed coatis.”

Miller said the Gila has a lot more water, more wildlife and a wider temperature range, compared to other recent thruhikes the duo has undertaken.

“The Gila is amazing,” Beissinger said after day three of the hike. “It keeps exceeding expectations — Coatis, Hot Springs and the USPS!”

As for the duo’s plans for 2026: “As many medium-length (i.e. 100-plus mile) trips as possible in 2026, by both foot and canoe,” Miller said.