Roosevelt Lake Marina to Pine, 116 Miles.

Roosevelt Lake Marina to Oak Flat Trail Junction, 21 Miles.

What a day, and what a climb! Today started out difficult, as I slept poorly the cowboy camped outside the visitor’s center. Stuck in my head for the first part of the day, I began the difficult ascent from the Marina, 6,500 ft of elevation gain overall over the course of 12 miles on trail. 

I am always struck by the beauty of returning to the high country, even as this one experienced burns recently.

Temperatures cool, water is generally more plentiful, and the ecology of the landscape changes considerably.

The difficulty hiking here was that for most of the day, the trail followed exposed, narrow ridgelines. This meant few places to take a break and fewer to reasonably camp beside. 

Today I hiked out of Roosevelt with 3 22 year olds who by “The Afternooners” or Peanut Butter, Purple Haze, and Beans. They are typically far faster hikers than me, but I have kept pace with them as they take breaks that are in excess of 4 hours long at lunch. 

I once found The Afternooners on a day where The Accountant and I had not seen another hiker the entire day. They were taking a break along the trail, having smoked 5 joints(purple haze indeed) and playing gin rummy for the last 7 hours! This illustrates, if nothing else, that people can have very different styles of backpacking.

Oak Flat Junction to Boulder Creek, 18 Miles. 

I wake up, pack up, and make my way a mile down trail to see that if this indeed the Taj Mahal, I’m afraid that it is in severe disrepair. Just a pine flat without a view!

Anyway, It’s Easter, and what’s better to cap off your Easter than roadwalking?

It was 11 miles of walking on hard packed dirt roads. With few exceptions, the Arizona Trail is a bike, equestrian and walking path, but today I shared the ‘trail’ with familes in overland vehicles celebrating Easter by ripping some 4×4 track at mach 2. 

Other than the excitement of keeping my ears open for vehicles, the relatively easy miles of a graded dirt road were rather boring, but with very nice views. 

Making my way on, I reached mile 11 today around 11:30 and stopped for the luxury of cooking a lunch. Beans and rice again, and it was marvelous. After lunch, it was starkly slow miles after exiting the road back onto the trail, and through another recent burn area. At this point, I am suspicious whether there is any part of Central Arizona that has not burned recently. 

Overgrown and with many downed trees, I eventually reached my home for the meanwhile, I dry wash near Boulder Creek. 

Tomorrow is a big landmark: Mile 400, the official halfway point of the trail. I will also begin entering another notable wilderness called the Mazatzals. I’m told that it is pronounced as if you were saying “mad as hell.”

Boulder Creek to Cornucopia Trailhead, 18 Miles.

Today was one of those days which is the reason why I love thru hiking. Beautiful wilderness, plenty of views, silence, and solitude. A day of reflection and peace, and not completely punishing trail. In fact, for a 5 mile stretch, the trail was so well groomed I felt like I was hiking the Cadillac of trails compared to what the last few days have brought to bear. 

This trail is very difficult overall. In some areas, trail maintenance and signage and sparse, and at its worst, it can be difficult to determine which way the trail follows. I can say that it is most often not the path of least resistance.

But today was good, balanced. I entered a kind of flow state as the miles passed by, water was plentiful, and the landscape was beautiful. 

Camping was interesting tonight, only a couple of steps from the trail, and right next to a running creek. Not the best, and plentiful insects, but that’s what bug netting is for.

Cornucopia Trailhead to Horse Seep Camp, 20 Miles. 

The trail giveth, the trail taketh. After all, what is more poetic than having one’s most difficult day following their best?

Today’s trail was so unforgiving that at a certain point I just had to laugh at how funny it was. 

First an exposed climb to 7,200 ft with accompanying altitude sickness, snow traversal along narrow trails, no water sources for 15 miles, and even at this altitude, temperatures to make a snake blush. 

Again, the trail is in a remote enough section, that I had not seen any other hikers throughout the day, until…

Fed up with the trail, I shouted more than a few profanities, expecting no one to hear, but of course I look back and see the first hiker of the day stop dead in his tracks in response.

“Oh god, he thinks I’m a crazy person.”

“Uh, sorry about that, just having a rough day, you can keep coming down.” 

A few minutes later, the trail finally gives some mercy with a clear flowing water source. I meet the fellow thru hiker Hookup and another I met earlier, a woman from Ireland going by Eyeroll. We speak about our trail experiences, and they laugh at the mutual understanding of how it feels on a rough day of trail.

We generally keep pace with one another in late afternoon, and after a good death march in the heat, I reach an excellent campground with them with water and stop for the night.

Horse Seep Camp to Polk Spring, 19 Miles.

3 days from Pine, and possibly having to cut my this hike short of the terminus. Unfortunately, there is a lot of rumor regarding deep snow and mud after the town of Pine, as the trail after that does not drop below 6,000 ft, excepting the descent into the Grand Canyon. 

Beginning the day, Hookup, an older Midwestern gentleman who is pale as a ghost under the Arizona Sun, Eyeroll, a 30 something woman from Ireland and I, a 27 year old flatland Floridian crazy and foolish enough to carry a guitar on trail set out together today. 

I must say, it is completely unexpected to be hiking with groups. Typically I prefer to be a soloist and seek solitude in these spaces, but the other thru hikers that I have met out here generally are excellent people. We are all looking for or getting away from something out here, after all, who in their right mind walks 800 miles through through burns, sun, loose rock and thorns just for fun?

These two are a joy to hike with, and are hilarious to boot.

This is good, as after 10 days without a shower or laundry, I am worn out. Even washing my shirt at every opportunity possibly in the creeks, it now consists more of oil than thread.

At the end of today’s hike we experienced a notable ford of the East Verde River. The water was up to my thighs and though it was not running fast, it was by far the widest ford that I have yet done. 

Polk Spring to Oak Spring, 17 Miles.

One more day before town, and a hot meal. I need to arrive in Pine on Friday the 14th for my lodging reservation, and we agree to do a lower mileage day, take breaks and get to our campsite in the evening. I got an update on the snow conditions today, and though they are passable, there is a great deal of thigh deep snow traversal over the next 300 miles. In addition, due to an unexpected rock slide, the northern trail out of The Grand Canyon is closed until June. 

With this is in mind, I am likely to return in the Autumn to finish the remainder the Arizona Trail, either going northbound from Pine or southbound to Pine from the northern terminus. The comedy to this is that I have done the most difficult sections of the trail by far. As my companions informed me, over the last 460 miles we have experienced 76,000 ft of elevation. The remaining 340 has less than 20k, including the Grand Canyon. Ah well. What an incredible trail thus far nonetheless.

Oak Spring to Pine, 4 Miles.

Town means renewal. Showers, food, laundry and a bed. 

Here it means an end to the hike as well, but we’ll be back. And I have other hikes lined up for this year!

Total Miles: 460.