Day 14: Summerhaven to the Kannaly Wash Windmill, 19 Miles.
Leaving Summerhaven at the late hour of 6:30, The Accountant and I begin a short roadwalk along the General Hitchcock Highway, named after a former postmaster general.
Leaving the highway, we find the trail out of Summerhaven has a few more tricks to pull before we leave the high country once again. The trail is overgrown, burned and loose. Large rocks dot the trail, and each would love to hear your ankles scream.
At one point we see a sign stating:
TRAIL NOT RECOMMENDED FOR EQUESTRIANS
Right next to a trail that simply scrambles up a loose two track road that a 4wd vehicle would find rigorous.
Slowly and steadily however, we descend 4,000 ft to the heat of the desert. This marks the first time that I have felt the full force of the Arizona sun for extended periods.
As we roll into April, I expect the body will demand reprieve from the hottest parts of the day in an afternoon siesta. We shall see.
The ecosystem changes again to one defined by the manzanita and thornscrub. Yuccas also dot the landscape with their blue green hue, storing energy for one magnificent florescence and a dying away.
Deserts are lands of extremes, and a mysterious, powerful force of beauty that nourishes the soul.
Day 15: Kannaly Wash Windwill to Camp Grant Wash 23 Miles.
23 miles! That’s close to the highest I have ever done in a day, and I am feeling it. The last two miles were a steep descent that was hell on my stiff legs! Tonight we will be camping in the Camp Grant Wash. The site of a dark chapter in our history.
The country is so open here that at times the breadth of the cloudless sky surpasses that of the land. Looking up, one can imagine falling into that sea of blue.
At camp, I encounter a first time thru hiker named Clint native to Phoenix. He is having a very rough time, reminiscent of my first thru hike on the PCT two years ago. We talk for a while about measuring our experiences and how our expectations have measured up. Nearing the end of our conversation, he notices that I am carrying a guitar strapped to my backpack.
I play him a tune that I finally finished arranging on the trail, an old texas waltz called Midnight On The Water. He thanks me, and says that the music fits the landscape well.
Day 16: Camp Grant Wash to Stock Tank near Mile 247. 18 Miles.
I sleep well, but do not feel rested today after the exertion yesterday. Feeling sluggish, The Accountant and I continue on. In yesterday’s heat, we often found ourselves climbing in and out of washes throughout the day, sand in our shoes.
Today the country has flattened out, and the trail yields to two track dirt roads well suited to mountain bikes as well as our feet.
A series of rhyolite formations lay before us on the trail, remnants of volcanic eruptions that happened long before our species walked the earth.
We take few breaks and get to camp around 3.
This is the difficulty and joy of hiking with a partner, as we make compromises on our pace throughout the day. The Accountant does not want to hike until sunset as I usually do, and I arrive to camp more exhausted with fewer breaks, but get to rest and enjoy camp before setting out at sunrise again tomorrow.
Day 17: Stock Tank to Florence Kelvin Trailhead, 19 Miles.
It’s been a long section of trail. I knew from the beginning of this trip that I would take a zero(rest) day in Kearny, AZ, and now I am so close. I look forward to a warm bed and pizza at the only restaurant in this small mining town.
Despite my exhaustion, I am elated by two features notable to today’s miles: wildflowers and seafloor bedding.
The wildflowers have just begun to bloom here and are an ecstasy of color. Reds, purples, yellows and white line the ruddy soil. Further, I can the upturned horizontal bedding of sandstone that is the sure sign that long ago in deep time, this entire landscape was underwater. Could this section have been part of the Western Interior Seaway? I do not yet know.
But it explains the fossils that I have seen throughout.
Florence Kelvin Trailhead to Kearny, 4 Miles.
We made it around 8 am, and I look forward to a good rest and what lies ahead.
Total Miles: 268.
Day 9: La Posta Quemada to Rincon Creek, 9 Miles.
A shorter day today, and I am thankful for the rest. I am camping tonight at the border of Saguaro National Park. Saguaro is has 2 official campsites over its 17 mile range of the Arizona Trail. Issue is, these have to be reserved in advance, and were booked out for weeks before I started this endeavor.
So, I will instead cross the park in one day. Just one additional wrinkle to this plan is the requires me to climb Mt. Mica, where I will begin tomorrow at 3,000 ft and over 15 miles climb to 8,500.
Going to enjoy camping by a running creek(a rare gift in the desert) and start early tomorrow for a challenging day.
Day 10: Rincon Creek to Italian Spring, 20 Miles
One of the hardest days hiking, snow, varied ecosystems, descent, last view of miller peak
Today was hard! One of the single hardest days of backpacking in my life thus far. But I did it. 6,500 of elevation gain, 4,000 ft of elevation loss. As I ascended Mt. Mica, looking back, I could see snow covered Miller Peak one last time in the distance. It felt poetic to see where I began this hike as I ascended the next big challenge along its route.
Crossing over such vast changes in elevation I began in low riparian area reached a saguaro and wildflower covered topography and graduated to subalpine pine forest, and then back down again.
17 miles in, after crossing the summit I had to cross about 2 miles of snowpack on the north facing slopes of Mt. Mica. Snow will melt the latest on north facing slopes due to the earth’s curvature along its axis directing the sun’s rays less intensely to the north. This is the same reason why a south facing window of your house is best for growing plants on.
With great luck, even though I hit the snowpack late in the day, it had not semi melted into slush, the kind of snow you sink into and have to dig yourself out of with every step.
This was ice, hard and relatively easy to traverse, but I have to be very careful with my footing as it can be unpredictably slippery. Many hikers have come before me so there is a relatively well outlined idea of where the trail is supposed to go.
Overall, it is slow going, but uneventful. Joyfully, I even got found a hill to glissade down to save me the time. About an hour later, I reach the northern terminus of Saguaro National Park. I can say this is the first time I have gone through the boundaries of a National Park in a single day.
Day 11: Italian Spring to Milano Basin, 16 Miles.
Today, I am going through a landscape that reminds me of an old western. Columns of bare volcanic dot the landscape and during a challenging climb today, my mind was locked in that mode replaying music from movies scored by Ennio Morricone.
Though it is only a short climb today, it is challenging in the heat and full sun exposure. It is even more challenging knowing that on the other side of this climb is a ride waiting for me that will take me to an airbnb in Tucson for the night.
A couple of hours later, I am up and over, and manage to hitch a ride to Tucson. A shower and laundered clothes does good for the soul after a week in the sun.
Day 12: Milano Basin to Cathedral Rock Junction, 13 Miles
A late start coming out of my Tucson Airbnb. The same kind mother and her two children who took me as a hitchhiker into town yesterday gave me her number and drove me back up.
Today begins the second of the big climbs for this section of trail: 8,000 ft Mt. Lemmon. One of my fellow hikers said that while Mt. Mica made us work longer, Mt. Lemmon will make us work harder.
I can begin to see what they mean already, as the trail in this section is…maintained to a lesser degree than everything thus far. Blazes and posts marking the Arizona Trail have given way to cairns and rock scrambles, combed trail to overgrown with thornscrub and foxtails.
Camping tonight at 5,200 ft, and I have my sights set on three things tomorrow: getting over this mountain, getting into town early enough to pick up my next resupply package, and ordering a pizza sized cookie from the Mt. Lemmon Cookie Cabin in town. Nothing can stop me.
Day 13: Cathedral Rock to Summerhaven, 11 miles.
What a day! Crack of dawn, and a step, scramble and climb 3,000 ft. Once at the top, I see a hiker I met a few days ago climbing Mt. Mica: he goes by the trail name The Accountant.
I say, “I wonder how you got that name?”
He says: “Need your taxes done?”
Born in NYC, we quickly get along despite our disparities in age. This is good, as the trail has some fun in store for us today.
You see, a fire happened here a few years ago and burned away much of the recognizable trail. Where there were once signs and blazes, there are now cairns. Cairns that can be hard to spot alongside constant mountain stream crossings.
The elevation climbs and dips in this scarred landscape, and makes for a very slow 10 miles into town. Not my hardest day of hiking, but certainly up there. These were hard earned miles, and I’m glad that I did not do them alone.
Splitting a room in Summerhaven, The Accountant and I set out for the next 5 days to Kearny AZ.
Total Miles: 190.
Day 5: Patagonia AZ to Anaconda Spring, 19 Miles.
Got a late start today at 7:45. Waking up in a hotel already feels strange, frantic as I quickly pack back up and check that nothing is left behind. I set out, the Arizona sun already beginning to blaze over the next 5 miles of roadwalking that lay ahead of me. Thankfully, in March it’s heat is still dulled.
Walking along the flat, hard packed terrain and beer cans of the highway departing rural Patagonia leaves one to dwell on similar roads outside 10,000 other rural towns of America.
5 miles down the trail snakes away from the road along sharp ridges suited well to this trail’s alternative usage for mountain biking.
I begin to see what I expect will be a theme for this stretch, cows. Cows and their pasture as far as the eye can see.
Day 6: Anaconda Spring to Kentucky House, 21 Miles.
Woke up to a very chilly morning, frost surrounding my tent. This was my favorite campsites thus far, set under an old cottonwood by a running creek. It is always bittersweet to leave such beautiful spaces behind you, but you never know what lies ahead, mostly.
I knew some what was coming today: Mt. Wrightson, a 4,000 ft climb and rapid descent notable on this section of trail. My watch wakes me up just before sunrise and 5:30 and I set out around 6, fully packed.
I follow the two track dirt road that serves as the Arizona Trail and have to backtrack at one point due to following a side path that more resembles an actual trail!
After backtracking, and just before big climb I stumble across a fellow thru hiker i seen since my start, a woman about my age that goes by the trail name Muscles.
Pleased to have the company, we hold great conversation about whatever comes to one’s mind as they make the major life decision to hike 800 miles.
This was a very nice change of pace for me, in both a literal, I had to go faster than usual to keep up way, and figurative, nice to have the company kind of way.
Eventually we make it to the Kentucky House, a property built in the 19th century during the gold rush, now preserved and providing lodging through the National Service, 19 miles behind us by that evening I am determined to break 20 miles and set out for 2 more miles before camping alongside the trail once more.
Day 7: Kentucky House to The Lake, 20 Miles.
5:30 again, and we’re off at 5:45.
Under the Arizona Sunrise.
I see my first true Arizona desert sunrise made beautiful by the dust kicked up in the atmosphere reflecting the sun’s rays.
The trail seems flat today, but my gps watch tells me that I managed to gain 4,000 ft and lose 4,400. No wonder my feet ache by day’s end under each loose rock.
Some rocks can help you in your stride, others to block you and some strive for nothing less than to make your ankles bend in ways they are not designed to. I applaud the ambition, but can’t favor the execution.
I feel very good again today, but yesterday’s ache after such large mileage lingers on me. I take breaks throughout the day and especially take time to let my feet rest. After all, today they have carried me 100 miles in a week.
I am camping tonight in a cowfield, and sleep soundly, despite some unearthly sounds made by the resident bovines.
Day 8: The Lake to La Posta Quemada Ranch, 19 Miles.
The last few days of high mileage have caught up with me in two contrasting ways. One the one hand, my calves are now taking going downhill in stride, on the other, my feet are now making the face of that Edvard Munch painting.
Taking frequent foot breaks, I am grateful for the flat terrain today, despite its rather dystopian appearance with twisted metal found in distribution with animal skeletons bleached by the sun alongside dense clusters of thornscrub and cactus.
I try to make it to my next stop the gift shop in Colossal Cave Mountain Park to pick up my next food resupply package, but know rather soon that there is little chance to make it 21 miles by 4 PM on those feet. Fortunately, I make it to a trailhead and manage to immediately contact a very friendly uber driver who gets me there and back in less than an hour!
Deeply appreciative and renewed as well as loaded up with 5 more days of food, I set out into the classic Arizona desert below 4,000 ft. The land of Saguaros, Cactus Wrens, and Cholla, of rattlesnakes and my first National Park on this trail.
Thus far, this trail has been very kind to me, and I have only met very friendly people. 120 Miles in, 680 to go, I feel affirmed for what lies ahead.
Next update when I reach Summerhaven in few days.
Total Miles: 119.