Rerouting on the Arizona Trail

I must have at least five sheets of paper with scribbled down daily mileage of different AZT plans. Maybe even more. When I sent a picture of yet anther rendition of our itinerary to my hiking partners saying "I think this works better," Mary's response was simply "rerouting...rerouting..." 😜

But as I explained to Janet as we were hiking along on day two or three, I need to "massage" an idea for quite a while before it feels right. Therefore, before this expedition became a reality, it was a fall trip switched to spring; then a NOBO changed to SOBO.

I do believe the AZT is the easiest trail to make (and unmake) plans on. From a couple days to the whole enchilada, the Arizona Trail Association's excellent website has everything you need to come up with a strategy that works for you. Plus you'll be hard pressed to find a trail with better (or more beautiful) signage along the way. 

(Plus a few creative unofficial signs 😄) 

And so our Mormon Lake to Pine outing was a complete success! Adding this trip's miles to last year's gives me a total of 151.5 towards my 500 mile goal. And I've already started several sheets of notes on my hopes and dreams for a Grand Canyon adventure next year. Fingers crossed! Happy "well massaged" trails! Daily log below for those interested. 

Day One: We switched to SOBO for one simple reason...it was easier. Mostly flat miles in Passage 29, which is super helpful when you are carrying 7 days of food. We started at the forest road 240 intersection which is just before the Double Springs Campground. (This forest road is not bad BTW, and easier than going all the way around as Google Maps "prefers.")  Mary's husband was kind enough to pick us up at the airport and drive us straight there.

This meant a late start and therefor a short day of just 5 miles to Navajo Spring. If you watch my YouTube video, you'll see we found a charred downed tree here that the winds had kicked back into flame! After doing our best at extinguishing it, we got enough reception to call the fire department who actually came out to make sure. They explained that "controlled" burning had been done in that area a week prior. Winds are good at making something that seemed "out" suddenly not at all out. (And actually not suddenly--I mean a whole week later!)

Day Two: 11.8 miles to Shuffs Tank. I expected an actual "tank" of some kind, but was thankful to have a pond instead. These are designed and created for animal use...which of course makes them a bit nasty. (Be sure your filter is in good working order before doing anything on the AZT!) 

When finally catching up to Mary, who was already set up, I was SO ready to be done for the day...except when I went to put up my tent, my poles were not in the pocket I always keep them in. PANIC! We discussed a plan for me to take minimal gear and go back to find where I could only guess they fell out at a break 3 miles back. I would camp, then catch up the next day. I was so proud of myself for not crying. But then I picked up my TYVEK sheet that I had thrown on the ground, and lo and behold, my tent poles were hiding underneath. I must have taken them out with ZERO memory of it. WHAT RELIEF! Plus a little worry at my malfunctioning brain. 

Day Three: 11.4 miles to Dave's Tank, which is a half mile off trail, so 11.9.  My idol, the great Twig herself, was heading NOBO and would be meeting us there for the night. She had to slow her gait to a mere 20 for two days in a row so we could have this rendezvous, which made us feel quite special.

I swear I did not plan this trip to stalk her! It was pure coincidence...or maybe fate? I say that because I ended up loaning her my extra puffy vest (yes I was being a baby because of the cold and decided last minute to bring it along) since she didn't have one. She had been hiking in triple digits for most of this trail, so a puffy did not make the cut for her ultra-light pack. But DAMN it was cold, so she was very grateful for the extra warmth. Two other awesome thru hiker ladies joined us and we had a wonderful girl party until the wind/sleet/snow sent us to our tents.

Twig messaged me a few days later to say she was "living" in the vest 😄

Day Four: From Dave's Tank it's 15.3 (15.8 with the half mile back to trail) to the Blue Ridge Campground. The wet from the night before had turned the trail into mud that stuck on your shoes like Velcro, so the first half of the day was quite challenging.

If you haven't guessed already, Mary hikes almost twice our speed, so she was once again all set up and waiting at the end of the day; but this time with a cozy fire all ready. The CG is not officially open this time of year, so you need to have your own water. (A cache can be found a mile away that is stocked by the wonderful trail angels...another benefit of going SOBO was we were able to grab some just before getting to the CG.)

Day Five: 12.5 miles to the General Springs Canyon...or something like that. There are many spots in this beautiful area and I'm unsure exactly where we stopped for the night. Mary claimed it, as she was always our scout.

She also had to be our water manager because both Janet and I were worried our filters had frozen the night before. We passed quite a few "celebrity" thru hikers this day...yet another perk of going SOBO was they were all coming our direction. "Smiles" was my favorite and I'm convinced I need to give out "slowest hiker" stickers from now on! (With Sammie on it of course!)

It's fun getting stickers on trail! Thank you, Smiles!!

Hiking Super Stars...Milkman, Hiking Viking and Jolly

Lieutenant Dan

Anything you need will be in Life Saver's pack!

Ran into Rooster when we got out of the car to start

Sonic with Mary (Dime Bag)

Day Six: In just a mile or so we came to the General Springs Cabin area which would have made a good camping spot the night before if I would have noticed it as an option on the FarOut app. (My other major tool for planning.) Strangely it is not marked with a water waypoint so you have to read comments to know water is there. Also, despite comments saying the cabin is open and would be a great place to camp, that is prohibited; though there are plenty camping spots around. (You can see the cabin in my video...I didn't get a picture of it.)

It would have been nice to shorten this day by that mile, but regardless, the 13-ish miles to Bear Spring were not bad at all. 

Day Seven: Only 12.6 to the trail town of Pine where the local pub was like a magnetic pull making us faster than ever. Mary's husband was waiting at the trailhead to rush us to our beckoning burger and celebratory beer. A big shout out to him and also Janet's hubby who drove us to and from the airport in Portland. I am so very grateful for all the help.  

Done! Until next time AZT :)

 

Also...WILDFLOWERS!!!...

Celebrating Like it's Our 40th in O'ahu

It's been 17 years since we've been to Hawaii. Our 39th anniversary is this month, so we decided to go back to celebrate. 

It seems like a big trip like this should be saved for a 40th anniversary, doesn't it? Well, let me tell you why it shouldn't.

While sitting on the deck of our North Shore accommodations and enjoying my morning coffee, a beautiful rainbow appeared. 

It felt like a smile from my mother, and suddenly their 40th anniversary party came to mind. You never want to start your first day of vacation crying, but I couldn't help it.

My mom wanted so badly to go to Hawaii to commemorate that big milestone, but she was in a fight for her life with stage 4 cancer. So instead, we brought Hawaii to her. 

Sadly, she never got to see a 41st anniversary. Life is too short; so I say go now. Although...life is also hard; and so going where we want to go is not always possible. 

But if you can make it happen, don't wait. Don't hesitate, don't make excuses, and don't feel guilty. That's what I'm trying to tell myself, anyway. 

Beauty and pain...that's the deal while we are here. I say drink in the beauty whenever you can. Happy "glad to still be here" trails. Our week's itinerary is below for anyone planning a trip and looking for ideas. Aloha!! (Also some short video clips are on YouTube)

Day One) Got in late to our hostel on the North Shore. I kinda wanted to keep this place a secret so it doesn't get too popular (as if I have some huge audience) but I doubt many people will be very into it. Sharing a bathroom is not everyone's cup of tea. We were fine with it for the price and great location.

Not exactly luxury 

Day Two) It's a half hour to the farthest point west you can drive, and then you can walk about 3 miles of the trail there to the actual furthest spot at Ka'ena Point. It was a cooler day, which you want to choose because it's surprising how hot you'll get hiking even on flat ground with a nice ocean breeze. We saw whales spouting in the distance, a monk seal taking a bath, and tons of albatross nesting! (Which only happens in March - how lucky were we?) 

The toppled lighthouse has been decorated

Day Three) Snorkel day!! Three Tables Beach is literally across the street, so we went first thing while the tide was favorable and the swells low. (March is not ideal here, unless you're a surfer.) Then it's walking distance to Shark's Cove which is an amazing spot with large tide pools that are easy and safe to snorkel with tons of fish. If you keep making your way east you'll come to the more open cove and this is where we came across the two sea turtles. We swam with them for a solid 10 minutes. One of the most magical moments of my life. Then we drove further east to the Turtle Bay Resort where you can just walk on through their pool area and order at their bar even as a non guest. Great service and beautiful seating looking out on the ocean. We still had time before sunset so we drove to the apropos Sunset Beach - it didn't disappoint. 

Day Four) Check out is at 10 am without exception (and 3 nights is their minimum btw) but that worked out for us because low tide at the Mermaid Cave was at 11 am and it was an hour drive. During my internet searches while planning I came across this "secret place" (ha ha) which was made famous by IG posts and is somewhat notorious because people don't check the tides and have gotten themselves in trouble. (Or killed, as the many memorials there attest to.) Normally it's not something I'd be into, but it was close to where we were camping, and like I said, the timing was too perfect. 

Then it was a trip to Walmart (my favorite thing to do on vacation - ugh) to pick up some camping supplies and because we had time to kill we went to Ko Olina Lagoon 4 which is part of the Disney Resort.

Our one rain shower was thankfully short lived

 

Again, all are welcome, even non guests (Hawaiians are so generous!) but what I didn't realize is that we were supposed to check into our private campground before 4 pm. (oops!) When we got to Camp Palehua not a soul was there! It all worked out, but it was a strange experience. But cool too -- and what a view!!  

Only a chicken to welcome us ;)

Day Five) We packed up and drove to the other side of the island to pick up our kayak at Active Oahu Tours. Micheal was amazing and gave us lots of tips and helped us get the kayak on top of the car. He showed us on a map where we were supposed to launch, but also pointed out that Lanikai Beach would cut our paddle distance in half if we could find a parking spot there.(Not easy, but we did it.) Thank God because holy cow it was windy and that was a bumpy and exhausting one mile ride! Low and behold, March is not ideal here either. Though the plus side was we had Moku Nui Island all to ourselves! Well, except for the THREE monk seals laying on the beach (including a pup)...the magic just kept coming. 

Zoom in to see seals behind us

After returning the kayak, we drove a hour north to the Malaekahana Beach Campground where I had gotten a site online. This is a very economical way to visit Oahu, and they are not difficult to reserve.You do need the kind of gear you can fit into a suitcase, but that's already taken care of if you are a backpacker like me. I will warn you that the wind on this side of the island never stops this time of year, which will wear on you. I don't think we could have taken it for more than one night...oh and there are no hot showers. But there will be roosters to wake you up in time for the sunrise, which I promise you don't want to miss. 

 

They are ON THE JOB ;)

Day 6) I really wanted to do another hike, and the Kahekili Trail was right on our way back to Honolulu. This is another place famous for people dying, but as long as you are not planning on doing the thru hike up on the ridge and back down to Crouching Lion, it's pretty safe. I only had to go up about a mile for these views. 

Then it was to Waikiki Beach to soak in some non-windy sun. We were clueless where to park, but got a tip that the International Market is easy peasy and reasonably priced, which it was. Our room at Aston at the Executive Centre was a huge upgrade from our other nights and a great way to end our trip. (HOT SHOWER BABY!)

Day 7) Nothing much to note, except that the international airport in Honolulu is the most beautiful I've even been to. Take time to visit the gardens if you can.