My Trails

3/10/14 – 219 miles.
I really miscalculated Sunday when I came down from Oracle Ridge. I thought Oracle State Park and Rt. 77 were close together, but in reality they are 8 miles apart. Richard and Dianna ended up waiting two hours for me to arrive. Richard even hiked a way south to meet me.

I really needed a zero day to rest my legs after 200 miles and it was good to see my support crew and spend a couple days with them. They had some shopping to do so it worked out well for my resupply too. We had enough time on Monday to drive through Saguaro NP and learn more about the Sonoran Desert.

Probably the funniest and most bazaar thing happened last night. We all felt like ice cream so after dinner Richard and I drove down to a nearby, new Walmart we passed coming home that afternoon. We thought it was strange that few cars were in the parking lot and even fewer in the store shopping. The shelves were all neatly stocked and everything was clean and bright. We found some ice cream and went to the checkout to pay and noticed a young lady at a table by the front door. We started questioning her about the lack of people in the store and she informed us that the store wasn’t open yet. What an odd situation that was. You would think they would have put a sign on the door, or had someone to stop customers, or even locked the door. Oh well, we found a better variety at the Fry’s down the road.

Dianna feeds me so well that I think I gained back whatever I lost since the
last time they rescued me from the trail. I have one more place I may need resupply but it might be difficult for them to meet me there. They have done so much I can’t ask for better Trail Angels!

I hit the trail about 10 am today and hiked about 10 miles. The terrain is mostly rolling hills with a deep wash to dip into every mile or so. The high desert is not as spectacular as the mountains I just came through but my body likes it better, especially since I’m carrying full food and water for this stretch.

I’m camped near a wash and a broken windmill. I think there is water a few miles up the trail so I will get up early and head there tomorrow. The temperature was perfect today and I’m hoping tonight will be as well.

3/8/14 – 193 miles.
When you’re hiking you have a lot of time to think. Usually I just daydream, which gets me into trouble when I come to an obscure trail junction, but sometimes I get a song in my head that I just can’t get out. For a while it was a song from the old movie Ghost, that I watched with Richard and Dianna last week, called I’m Henry the 8th. Its one of those songs you can’t quit because it ends with, “second verse, same as the first”. Then, embarrassing as it may be, those wild, college frat kids were singing some baudy, pirate song that starts out, “I put my hand upon her knee, yo ho! yo ho!”, and it gets more bawdy with each verse. I can’t get the stupid thing out of my head!

It was cold when I woke this morning. One of the things I wish I had remembered to pack is a pair of light gloves. Every morning these last days in the mountains I have taken down my tent with socks on my hands. Its not easy to do but better than numb fingers. The hike up to Summerhaven was through an awesome canyon. Giant boulders made for a mase of passages, tall trees shaded a gentle stream, and the best thing, it was nearly level walking. The trail finally entered a parking lot and from there it was an uphill walk for about a mile to reach town.

I entered the first restaurant and changed clothes in the restroom. I would have eaten there but they had things like cookies and pizza and I was really hungry for a hamburger. So I slipped out the back door and walked to the Sawmill
restaurant up town. It cost $20 for a bacon cheeseburger and Coke but I guess it was worth it. It tasted good.

I stopped at the country store and bought a couple supplies, and then went over to the Community Center and used their Wifi to upload to my blog and read my emails. Then I went in their restroom, changed back into my stinky hiker clothes, filled my water bottles, and hiked out of town.

It was an awful trail down the Oracle Ridge. This is the place where Kristen “Pockets” in her trail journal tells of spraining her ankle, and I can surly tell why. The path was covered solid with fist-sized rocks that left no place solid to put your foot. Imagine walking accross a truck full of potatoes. The views were spectacular but every seconds attention had to be on your feet.

It was so rocky and steep that it took me a long time to find someplace to put up my tent. I finally found a fairly level spot, moved some stones and cow pies, and bedded down for the night. Tomorrow I will meet R&D and take a zero in Oracle.

3/7/24 – 180 miles.
Today reminded me of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The trail dropped me way down into Sabino Canyon on many switchbacks and then turned up the West Branch Canyon on a 4000′ climb. For a while the trail followed the river but then the last few miles were almost straight up. In some places you had to use your hands to climb up through the rocks. For the life of me I don’t know how they could get pack animals through there.

I’m camped a few miles from Summerhaven. I’m looking forward to a hamburger tomorrow. It will be another cold night as I am high up in the Catalinas.

3/6/14 – 166 miles.
Another day without data signal. There was a brief spot coming over one ridge where I found enough cell to let Richard know I am still okay. I hope he passes the news on to everyone so they don’t worry.

I met a couple of day hikers towards the end of my hike today. They were the first people I have seen in two days. It was a long stretch accross the Redington Pass hills, and for as much water as I saw up in the Rincons, it was the complete opposite today. Everything was dry as a bone between the mountain ranges.

I crossed the Catalina Highway about 3:30 and walked into Molino Basin campground looking for water. There was none but some nice people gave me two bottles of water. Trail Magic!

I moved on to a campground a few miles further and pitched my tent for the night. This campground used to be a prison that held Japanese US citizens in the early part of the war. They were put here just because they were Japanese.

Along about 9:00pm, long after my bedtime, a bunch of roudy kids came into the campground and stared a beer party. I was sort of hidden so they couldn’t see me but their whooping and hilarity kept me up. After about an hour they all piled into vehicles and left. It was the only time I have felt apprehension in my tent. Give me the woods to sleep in any day.

3/5/14 – 152 miles.
Todays hiking was the reverse of yesterday with a little excitement thrown in. I got cold in the night and broke out my emergency blanket, which had deteriorated from years of carrying it around, and ended up being a clear piece of plastic. I got it spreed over me inside my sleeping bag, finally, and it warmed me up until morning. I crawled out a little later than usual with it being so cold and snowy and had a hot breakfast to warm up. By the time I got on the trail it was almost 8am.

The trail was very confusing when I left Manning Camp but I managed to find the AZT amidst several side trails. The guide book labels trails differently than the park does so it wasn’t long before I took the wrong turn. To make matters worse, the trail climbs another 600′ past the camp and right onto more snow. It started out with just a couple inches, but as I climbed higher and worked my way towards the north side of the mountains, it became 4″ and then 6″ deep. When I discovered my error, I had gone a half mile out of my way. I returned to the marker where I turned wrong and noticed someone had scratched AZT with an arrow in the right direction. I guess I’m not the only one to make the wrong turn. I’m pretty sure they want you to use a GPS.

When I finally started down the north face of the Rincons, I ran into more problems. The snow had thawed and frozen back into a sheet of glass. Sometimes I would break through with a bone crushing jar and sometimes it was so hard and slippery that my boots wouldn’t even make a mark. On several, long switchbacks, the snow was drifted across the trail in a smooth, glacier like accumulation with the path filled in with frozen snow. The only way to get across those areas was to kick foot steps into the snow and go slow. It wasn’t just the fear of falling because a couple places had dropoffs of a hundred feet. Who knew I would need an ice axe on the AZT!

I didn’t go too far today. I am camped only a few miles from the Redington highway. I just made a detour of one mile to get water. When I got back to the trail there was a nice camping spot so I am settled in for the night. This will be 4000′ lower than last night so it should be a lot warmer.