Arizona Trail Hike: Mile 52 - 117

Hello from the trail! The desert continues to deliver exactly what you would expect - great views, interesting flora, fun animals while being arid and warm. I’ve been enjoying the change of scenery from my last hikes and it’s bringing me back to my time in the Pacific Crest Trail desert, which I think of very fondly.

Arizona Trail Hike Summary

Statistics:

Days: 3
Full hiking days: 3
Zeroes: 0
Neros: 0
Total Trail Miles Covered: 65
Bonus Miles: 3
Total Elevation Gain: 7727 ft
Total Elevation Loss: 8639 ft

Highlights:

More beautiful desert views.
Water caches provided by kind trail angels.
My body holding up for long hiking days within the first week of my hike.

Lowlights:

It’s heating up! Heat wave coming through at the end of February.
Water sources are few and far between - don’t know what I would do without the caches.
My feet and blisters continue to get worse.
Lack of other thru-hikers that I can consistently connect with.

Arizona Trail Hike: Detailed Version

Day 4: Mile 52.9 - 67.7

Trail Daily Miles: 14.8
Total Miles: 15.3
Elevation Gain: 2254 ft
Elevation Loss: 1585 ft
Weather: Sun, Hot
Overall Day Sentiment: Graded climbs :)

I woke up at the the TerraSol hostel in Patagonia with a layer of frost both on the inside and outside of my tent. It had gotten chilly the night prior and any and all condensation from my breath overnight froze.

Because of this I was not particularly motivated to get moving so I took my time and let my tent dry out in the sun. I drank tea and had a proper breakfast using the outdoor kitchen and enjoyed the company of some other outdoor recreation folks. I finally got back to the trailhead around 10:15am and had a good amount of climbing to do for the day.

Luckily, the majority of this climbing was graded and it gave me flashbacks to the Pacific Crest Trail in the desert. It was completely manageable and at least for the first 10 miles, very enjoyable.

I was quickly learning that water sources along the trail was something that desperately needs to be considered when looking at the day ahead. And I know this might be obvious because, hello it’s the desert on the Arizona Trail, but I never had to do obscene water carries in the PCT. Planning how many miles a day and camping spots based on water added complications. Also, because I’m hiking in February, there is not as much daylight as I am used to. In an ideal world, I would like to get him to camp by 5:00pm to make sure that I am set up and have dinner while there’s still daylight.

I ended up only going over 15 miles for the day but got a decent amount of elevation gain completed. All was well as I was tucked into my tent when the coyotes just started going off. This went on and off for 30 minutes or so with each calling pattern getting closer and closer to my tent. This is not something I want to hear when I’m solo camping. I’m aware that they typically leave hikers and tents alone, but that doesn’t stop my evolutionary response of increased heart rate and nerves.

After the coyotes calmed down, I drifted off to sleep for an hour and a half when I was woken up by headlamp flashing in my tent. Odd. I yelled “hello hello!” and it turns out it was just a trail runner that was getting in miles in the cool night time. He alerted me of such and that he didn’t mean to disturb me. But again, I still get nervous when I’m in the backcountry and unexpected things pop up like this. I did end up sleeping okay for the rest of the night after some time.

Day 5: Mile 67.7 - 90.3

Trail Daily Miles: 22.7
Total Miles: 25.2
Elevation Gain: 3062 ft
Elevation Loss: 3339 ft
Weather: Sun
Overall Day Sentiment: Look at your maps!

Rolling hills at sunrise, other hiker groups, Kentucky camp, gravel road walking, new trail added extra miles, pastures, caches, audiobook, camped with Iron Woman, gunshots

I knew I had a lot of miles to cover for the day so it was a relatively early start time. Also, getting in some mileage in the cool mornings is advantageous for me as I am sensitive to the heat. Immediately there was a climb to get out of the canyon that I was in, but it was gradual grades and sweeping views while the sun was rising. There were a few other hiking groups once I got out of the canyon that had camped on wide flat areas that were available. It looked like some groups associated with an organization as it was all boys and one leader.

I ran into some trail crew/maintenance folks at a trailhead while I was getting water and thanked them profusely. Despite them being out working and me just hiking they offered snacks, etc.. they were too kind! I stumbled upon Kentucky camp, which is an old mining area with an actual building and there are cabins on premises that people rent out. There was a vault toilet, potable water, and trash receptacles, so it was a highlight of the morning.

From there, the trail followed a gravel dirt road for several miles. Because this was a Sunday there were actually a lot of people out and about. I got stopped by several older couples asking about the Arizona Trail which I was happy to answer. There was a bit of an incline as it was my major climb of the day. When I was nearly at the top of the climb, I missed a turn. There was a 270° turn while I ended up going straight. There was a new trail, freshly carved out that looked much more obvious to me. It also had Arizona Trail signs down the trail a bit which led to a lot of confusion. I ended up exiting this trail at a road went down very steeply, and then ended up back to the exact spot I had been 1.5 hours before. This is why I have bonus miles for the day.

Armed with the correct directions I finally made it back to the original junction that caused me problems and then was able to get myself back on the proper trail. I also had service because it was a high ridge point so I called a friend and we chatted for 30 minutes while I was hiking.

The remainder of the day was through pastures with cows and horse corrals and was moderate in both ascents and descents. I had planned to go another 1.4 miles further this day but because of my bonus miles, I had run out of sunlight.

There was a road crossing that had a water cache and comments on my mapping application said “people shoot a lot of guns here“ and immediately I heard gunfire. But there was another thru-hiker, Iron Woman, that was already setting up her tent in this location. So because I haven’t run into any other thru-hikers and I was out of sunlight for the day, I decided just to stay. We chatted well into the evening. It was nice to hear about another person’s adventures. Unfortunately, this meant that I had a very very large day the next day.

Day 6: Mile 90.3 - 117.8

Trail Daily Miles: 27.5
Total Miles: 27.5
Elevation Gain: 2411 ft
Elevation Loss: 3715 ft
Weather: Sun, Hot
Overall Day Sentiment: Already a 27 miler?

My goal was to get in the Colossal Cave Park area by the end of the day which was over 27 miles ahead. An early wake up was in order beginning to hike at 6:00am in the dark. Most of my climbing was in the first portion of the day, which is what I prefer as my legs are the freshest.

Again the trail wove through foothills that doubled as cow pastures so there were several times in which I needed to stop and wait for a cow to move off the trail. There were also many small, very cute fluffy baby cows though so that was a treat.

By late morning, I had hit the 100 mile mark. With many miles under my belt you may think this does not feel significant to me, but hitting 100 miles of a new trail always feel special. And this was the fastest I had ever hit 100 miles which is another reason to be proud of myself!

I reached a road crossing with a water cache for lunch and another hiker was there, Angie. We chatted for around 45 minutes, which was longer than I had planned to have my lunch break, but it was again nice to connect with another hiker because the AZT thus far had been pretty solitary.

The next several miles were flat, which is great in theory, but this is this was the peak of the sun for the day and so I took out my sun umbrella for the first time to block the direct rays, which was the correct choice. I know that some folks do not believe in sun umbrellas, but as I have had skin cancer, some of those direct sunlight days just make me nervous.

I reached another trailhead with another water cache and was realizing that I was once again going to run out of sunlight, if I went for my original destination. I hiked hard and fast and began to get a taste of the saguaro cactus quantities that I would be that I would get the following day.

I ended up stopping at the south end of the Colossal Cave Park complex. They have a campground that is free, has potable water, and a vault toilet. As I arrived relatively late, I hurried to set up my tent in the light and then went to the water spigot and was able to give myself a nice rinse from all of the sweat, sunscreen, and dirt that had been caked on my legs. Going to bed relatively clean as a feels fantastic.

As I was getting settled in to sleep for the night, I started hearing animals outside of my tent. I thought initially that they were dear. Then there was some snorting, and I opened up the tent and saw that I was surrounded by at least a dozen javelinas. These are pig like desert animals that I have seen before, but it was very funny to see them snuffling about this campground, looking for any treats that might’ve been dropped. Add it to the list of other desert creatures that I’ve encountered.