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INTROHello from the trail! My goal of hiking 5000 miles in 2026 begins with the Arizona National Scenic Trail. This is a great hike to fit in before the typical hiking season and I am so thankful to be out here!
OVERVIEWSo far, so good. There have been some pains, as with any start of a thru hike, but overall things have been going smoothly.
days3
full hiking days3
zeroes0
neroes0
total trail miles covered52.9
bonus miles4.3
total elevation gained10,680 ft
total elevation loss12,588 ft
highlightsBullet Point
Bullet Point
lowlightBullet Point
Bullet Point
Heading 2: Detailed Version
DAY 0
I flew to Tucson, Arizona and all of my flight logistics and coordination worked out perfectly. I was even able to get into my hotel room in Tucson with early check-in, which was lovely after an early morning leaving Michigan.
After sorting my things out in the hotel, I created my final box to be sent from Tucson because it was a short turnaround window and it wouldn’t make it had it been sent from Michigan. Unfortunately, I realized that it was Presidents’ Day and I was unable to send the box so much like my past 2 to June 19th federal holidays, I was going to have to carry a few extra days of food.
As I was chatting with Bobcat (from the PCT) on the phone on the eve of another thru-hike; which apparently is a tradition now because we did the same thing before the Appalachian Trail, I got a text and a subsequent call from my Shuttle service that was bringing me to the Mexican board of the following day. There were some ugly weather that was blowing in and they recommended that I bump back a day to start because day one on the Arizona Trail goes high in elevation. Therefore there could’ve been a lot of snow in addition to the wind and rain. My first section of the PCT had similar conditions except I chose to go out and nearly got hypothermia. If it wasn’t for a friend who had started the trail with me for the first few days, I would still be in a vault toilet bathroom, shivering.
Despite my energy and desire to get onto the trail, I made the decision to officially bump back a day. So the following day, I was able to send the original box because it was no longer a federal holiday and do some other chores. But mostly, I laid around in a hotel room and relaxed before my impending thru-hike.
DAY 1: MILE 0-13.1
Trail Daily Miles: 13.1
Total Miles: 15.4
Elevation Gain: 5138 ft
Elevation Loss: 4755 ft
Weather: Sun, Cold, Wind
Overall Day Sentiment: Rough Start
I woke up excited for the day and thankfully my hotel served breakfast starting at 6:00 AM as my shuttle service came around 6:30 AM.
It was a shorter ride than I expected to the border and it was made very pleasant by Mama Bear, who runs Finding True North the Shuttle company that I used, and Snake, a seasoned thru-hiker. It was a welcomed start to begin the trail in addition to all of the great information that Mama Bear gave me.
We started at Montezuma Pass, which is about 1.8 miles away from the Mexican border. Snake and I hiked together down to the border to see the terminus. There was a border official there, and technically the Arizona Trail monument is on the other side of barbed wire, therefore inaccessible. There is a gap in the wire where Arizona Trail hikers go through to touch the terminus. The border official gave Snake and I the go ahead to cross under the barrier and take a few pictures with it.
*any pictures that I have taken on the other side of the barbed wire or fence to touch the official terminus was approved by a border official.
We then trudged the 1.8 miles back uphill to Montezuma Pass where I had left my pack tucked behind a building. Why bring extra weight if I didn’t need to?
From here, I began to ascend toward Miller Peak in the Miller Peak Wilderness. Montezuma Pass is located at 6500 feet while Miller Peak Junction along the Arizona Trail tops out at 9100 feet. I had not been an elevation since my DNF of the Colorado Trail Bike Route in August, so coming from 500 feet in Michigan, starting to hike at 6500 feet, then up to 9100 feet was a bit of a rough start.
In addition to the elevation gain in a relatively short time span, it was also wildly windy. I’m not new to desert wind. I expected it based on previous desert experience, but there were some serious gusts. At least it was sunny, but it was cold for the majority of the hiking day made worse by the wind.
I was going slow. I had not been training as much as I perhaps should have been, but Michigan is covered in snow made any outdoor paths inaccessible due to their emulation of ice rinks. In fact, I had been quite sedentary since my marathon that I completed in October. So this is my first day back with a full pack, hiking any sort of actual miles, and being at elevation all rolled into one day.
I originally was planning to only go past bathtub spring, but there was no real well situated campsites with the wind situation so I had to go a few miles further than I was expecting. This meant more elevation gain than I was prepared for, but what really got to me was the steep descent to my camping area. It was a quad killer.
Once there, I grabbed water from the pitiful water source that was nearby. When it is cold and windy, I am not motivated drink water therefore I was dehydrated. I was so cold in fact that I set up my tent, slipped into my bed clothes and into my sleeping bag and just shivered for an hour.
At one point I said out loud “I think I just want a normal life” and I’m thankful that no one was around to hear me. Also I have had a “normal life” in the past and it didn’t work out so well for me.
I passed out just after dinner finally somewhat warm in my bag. I have a 10° bag with me and though it did get down around 35°, I should’ve been just fine. I was just chilled to the bone from the wind and dehydration. I slept roughly 11 hours.
DAY 2: MILE
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