Hello Arizona Trail!

 

It feels weird writing a trip report about anything outside of the Pacific Northwest, even though I have done it before a few times. (The Dolomites, Utah, Grand Canyon, California and of course my book about the Appalachian Trail) But I had better get used to it now, because hiking in Arizona is about to become my new normal.

Last year I completed my goal of 500 miles on the Pacific Northwest Trail, so now it's time to start working on achieving that magical arbitrary number on my fourth long distance trail. The Arizona Trail is 800 miles in it's entirety, so my percentage will be the highest yet. Though 62.5% of a trail does still not a thru hiker make. I'm hoping to gain my elusive thru hiker crown when I move on to my 5th trail in Colorado. It's 500 miles total to hike from Denver to Durango (give or take) and feels like it will make a nice buttoned up package of goal making...if I ever get there. For now let's start with my first section on the Arizona Trail.

My first backpacking section, that is. I tried to do an ambitious 10 mile day hike in Flagstaff in February 2024 that was kind of a disaster. Lots of short cuts to avoid snow; but I'll still be counting the 5 miles I did manage to do towards my 500 mile goal.

Last year's trip - Flagstaff is quite snowy in February...who knew, haha

 

This early April trip was much less of a disaster...I may even call it perfect. Of course "perfect" in the hiking world means: sharing a tent in a lumpy cow poopy field in a windstorm/ swearing into the sky on mile 13 of your 15 mile day as you ascend a near thousand foot gain you were unaware of (or in denial about) / wondering if you are going to freeze as you camp at your highest elevation during a surprise snow storm...all of which you know I wouldn't have had any other way! The complete deets are below for those interested, so I'll end here with my trail blessing of:  Happy "suffering perfectly on completely new and unfamiliar but still breathtaking" trails.

Trail Log:

First day was a travel day to Tuscan, so it doesn't count. My friend, Janet, flew into Seattle where we boarded the same plane at 8:30 pm. It's always a stressful mind game waiting for your pack to appear on the conveyor belt. We were so glad they finally showed up and we did not have to come up with a different vacation plan that excluded backpacking! 

Day 1: Thankfully we thought to call our starting point of Colossal Cave a week ahead to ask if they sold stove gas, which you cannot fly with or ship ahead. They do not, BUT they said they had a hiker box full of left behind partials; and so Janet packed her flip-fuel and we made do. Therefore we were able to get an Uber straight from our hotel next to the airport and get to our 10am tour appointment without risking a trip to Walmart. (I highly recommend the cave tour, but do make sure to get advance tickets.) We stuffed our faces full of their boneless chicken wings while we transferred our fuel and then hit the trail straight out the back at noon. Only 7 mostly flat miles to our spot just outside the National Park boundary, but my feet were screaming! With four liters of water and 6 days of food, my pack was the heaviest it's ever been! So five hours of hiking at slowest hiker speed for the day. 

Day 2: Good thing we packed so much water, because it was another hot one. We thought we could top off at a water source at 3 miles in, but it was dry. Thankfully the next one had a little you could filter, because we were totally out with 2 miles to go and lots of elevation gain left. A permitted spot at Grass Shack campground was waiting for us with a beautiful little stream, bear box and privy. (Just $8 at recreation.gov and you must camp at one of the two camps available within the Saguaro National Park boundary.) This was nearly 9 hours of hiking, even though we only did about 8 miles - but that 2.5k of elevation with the heat was making me slower than slow! 

The sloth club mantra is "we will get there when we get there"

Day 3: Started hiking at 6:19am and ended sometime after 6pm, so this is what you call a long ass day. We had about 11 miles with 3.5k of elevation - all gained in the first 5 miles. We stopped at where we hoped would be our camp at a nice water source outside the national park at 5pm, but the sandy ground made putting up our tents impossible in the wind. So we made dinner and then continued on until we found a hard, flat spot, which was not too much further. In spite of being cramped in one tent with wind, and grass lumps under us, we slept well because we were so exhausted! 

Beautiful and horrible decent off of 8668 foot Mica Mountain

Sung as bugs ;)

Day 4: I normally try to avoid planning a 15.4 mile day, but it had to be done. "It's mostly flat" was my rally cry, even though I knew we had 2k of gain. "It's all spread out" was the lie I convinced myself and Janet of, but we both agreed it was a necessary deception...we would have been obsessed with that last bitch of a hill if we had known about it. We met "Stumbles" (now that's a perfect trail name, btw) at our 13ish mile break and he tried to warn us about what was ahead, except I still didn't believe it. But his "one mile straight up and then straight down" information was spot on. The trail angel's public water cache at both Reddington Road and Molina Campground was our saving grace for this day. If I could hug and kiss them all I would. A little over 10 hours of hiking in total, which would have taken much longer except I was really trying to keep up with Janet.

Keeping Janet in my sight on the flat parts

Day 5: Molina Basin Campground is HUGE, but we took the first empty spot we came to. It turned out to be a great choice, as it was right where the trail passed through. (Lucky #13) This is when you realize a table is a luxury, and we took full advantage as we sat eating our breakfast and watching the "thru hiker parade" all morning. "Disaster" actually stopped to chat for awhile and it was such fun to hear a little trail gossip.

Disaster does look like trouble though, doesn't he ;)

 

Today was an easier day of only 1.5k of elevation in 9.6 miles, so we were not in a rush. Though a local day hiker we ran into midday made it sound like we were a couple idiots who were in over our heads and would "never make it." Then after running into our third mansplainer of the day, Janet simply said to me "why are older men the worst?" Well, probably because they are a little stuck in their ideas of what women should and shouldn't be doing. And yes, it is frustrating. But then we came across a twenty something guy who was such a breath of fresh air. Seeing women doing ALL the things is normal for that generation - thank God. Anyway, this section did have a stretch of sketchy downhill, so it was slower going than we expected. But we found ourselves at "Hutch's Pool" after about 7 hours of hiking, and it was everything we had read it would be. 

Dream Spot!

Sammy thought so too

Day 6: We knew today was our biggest elevation push with 3.7k in our first 6 miles to get up Romero Pass. There was for sure water at the 8 mile mark, and that meant we wouldn't have to carry it all. But it didn't sound like there were camping options at the water. We read of a "big, beautiful but dry" spot at about the 7 and a half mile mark, so we opted to stop early. We only carried 3 liters and hoped it was enough, cause damn water is heavy. It turned out to be more than enough, considering we were not drinking much as it was freezing cold. Literally.

This was not in the forecast the week that we were packing, so both of us had opted for our lighter summer bags. Ugh - one of my coldest nights, but we survived. Thank you Nalgene and boiling water!! Just over 7 hours of hiking for this day, so a steady mile and hour pace. (Janet could have done it quicker, for sure.)

Day 7: Man, we really hoped to cruise these 6 miles into town quickly - we only had about 1k of gain after all! But this was the "Wilderness of Rock," and so cruising was not in the cards - it took us almost 5 hours!

Simply amazing rock formations in this area

SO beautiful though; neither of us expected so much diversity and gorgeousness from a hike in the desert! Arizona does have its surprises, and I can't wait to go back. If you would like to see my videos of this trip all put into one "movie" you can find it here.

Ended at Sawmill Run Restaurant - right on trail! 64.7 miles with 14454 ft elevation total

Sammy says, "I'll be back AZT!"