Arizona Trail Hike: Mile 117 - 161

Hello from the trail! This section was short but made extra sweet by a surprise double zero with a fellow thru-hiker, Soft Serve. Trail Angel kindness never ceases to amaze me and I’m thankful for the connections that the trail provides.

Arizona Trail Hike Summary

Statistics:

Days: 4
Full hiking days: 2
Zeroes: 2
Neros: 0
Total Trail Miles Covered: 43.8
Bonus Miles: 2.1
Total Elevation Gain: 9393 ft
Total Elevation Loss: 8596 ft

Highlights:

Reaching a Trail Angel, Soft Serve, and enjoying company of other thru-hikers.
Another big day of hiking showed me what my body was capable of.
A double zero!
Going to a new National Park, Saguaro!

Lowlights:

The heat and the heatwave was fully coming through.
My feet. My feet. My feet.
Delay in obtaining resupply box which mean delaying my day.

Arizona Trail Hike: Detailed Version

Day 7: Mile 117.8 - 135.6

Trail Daily Miles: 17.8
Total Miles: 18.9
Elevation Gain: 3440 ft
Elevation Loss: 1629 ft
Weather: Hot
Overall Day Sentiment: Frustrated by business hours?

I had a later wake up time than normal this day as I needed to go to Colossal Cave Park to get a resupply box. As I was already on the premises, I only had about a 2 mile road walk to get to the office where the boxes are held. They opened at 8:00am, but when I arrived, the gate was still locked. Eventually around 8:15am the gate was unlocked by a worker and I went up to a lodge. The actual store that holds a resupply boxes did not open until after 9:00am. It was not just me, but other disgruntled guests that wanted to participate in activities, but opening and business hours were loose.

This was a day that was going to get very hot. So being set back over an hour of cool morning time hurt my mileage trajectory.

I finally hit the trail around 9:30am with my too full resupply box (as I was getting into Tucson the following day). I ran into a gravel biker and we chatted for a while as I drank over a liter of water as this was my last water source for several miles. Again, as I had not been seeing other hikers, it was nice to connect with another outdoor person and get a cyclist perspective on the area.

This day had a lot of lowland area before the final climb of the day. Again as it was full Arizona sun and warm I finally pulled out my sun umbrella and was thankful I brought it. Without the direct sunlight, the temperature decreased between 10-15 degrees.

I entered Saguaro National Park this day! This was a new national park for me and as a national park nerd, it was exciting to be introduced to a new space.

The first few miles into the National Park were stunning. I walked through my first saguaro forest and as someone who had never really seen saguaro cactus before it felt magical. I was in complete awe of the absolute height and size of these trees.

There was a substantial climb to get up Mount Mica in the park and I did a decent amount of the climb - unfortunately - in the complete sun. I had to stop at a water source for at least 45 minutes to cool down (guzzle water, dunk my feet in snow melt) because the late afternoon sun on an exposed ridge was overwhelming.

This ended up delaying my arrival to camp and I arrived in the dark. As I saw no other hikers in the national park thus far it was a bit creepy to get into my campsite so late. I set up in the dark and ended up sleeping fine.

There are only two places that you can camp within the park boundaries, Grasshack and Manning Camp. I had hoped to get to Manning Camp, which was the much further up site up the mountain, but with the heat and the delay for my resupply box - I just couldn’t make it. I had a long day the following day to arrive at the trailhead that I needed to for my Trail Angel.

Day 8: Mile 135.6 - 161.6

Trail Daily Miles: 26
Total Miles: 27
Elevation Gain: 5953 ft
Elevation Loss: 6967 ft
Weather: Hot
Overall Day Sentiment: Thankful for patient trail angels

I had arrived to Grasshack Campground in Saguaro National Park in the dark and departed in the dark. I had over 5 miles to get to the top of the mountain and it was nearly straight up. It reminded me a bit of the Appalachian Trail, but at least this had stairs and it did not involve scrambling. I made okay time up the mountain and was thankfully greeted with cooler weather, as I got higher and higher in elevation.

The descent from Mica was something… special. Whereas the incline was mostly stairs, this was mostly inclined trail. I spent the majority of the descent getting cramps in my feet from my toes being pointed out so much or downhill skiing on gravel.At this point I had texted my Trail Angel that I was going to be much later than I thought because of how slow my progress was going. Soft Serve was nothing but encouraging as she is an accomplished thru-hiker herself.

I was greeted with sweeping views of the valley from a high perspective on the mountain and that was a treat.

The middle section of the day went by fairly quickly as there was not a lot of elevation gain through the pastures and lower areas. There was limited water in this section, so I was thankful for a water cache on a road crossing about 10 miles out from where I was going to finish for the day.

Again, I realized that it was going to be even later than I had originally anticipated so I tried to update my Trail Angel as much as possible. With just over 3 miles left in the hike, I lost daylight and ended up having a night hike.

When I looked at the day’s elevation gain, I see some tiny bumps, indicating inclines and descents, but they all looked small compared to the mountain that I climbed at the beginning of the day. So when there was a 1000 foot climb that felt steep and nearly scrambling in the dark just before the trailhead that I was meeting my trail angel… that it was a bit of a surprise.

It was still very warm out despite the sun being set and I was push pushing it cardiovascularly going up this climb and still only doing 25 minute miles. I did see a lot of deer and a few owls with my headlamp at night, but who knows what other animal saw me hiking in the dark.

Once I crested the top of this climb and I could see the parking lot but I was still another 20 minutes or so away because of the switch back descent to get down there. I finally made it and was embraced from my Trail Angel, Soft Serve, and she was so understanding as she had been waiting there for me for quite some time.

She drove my smelly, sweaty, absolutely tired self to get out Mexican food and then to her house. As she is a thru1hiker, she knows exactly what hikers deed so she had loaner clothes waiting for me in preparation for a shower. Afterwards, I felt like a new woman.

As you can see from the statistics for the day, it was a very long and arduous day so I was so thankful to be in a bed with a plan to zero the following day.

Day 9 + 10: Mile 161

A glorious zero day. It was full of chores (laundry, resupply) and relaxation. The blisters and general state of my feet were not good so being primarily horizontal was a gift. Soft Serve and I had Thai takeout, puzzled, and baked cookies all while talking trail. It was a perfect evening.

I had planned to only have 10 miles to do therefore take a Nero out to the trail in the afternoon. But with the delay in my previously arranged ride and the heat wave that was going through the Tucson area… I decided to have a thru-hiker slumber party again. Two other thru-hikers joined Soft Serve and I and we had a great and relaxing evening. Wyatt and Will made a delicious dinner of tacos and an obscene amount of guacamole.