March 23

Today we will start part two of our Arizona Hike. When we first looked at doing this as a thru hike from the beginning to the end, we realized quite quickly that the weather of this year was not going to make for an easy hike. An early start date for the beginning of March, end of Feb. was only feasible if you wanted to encounter winter conditions. We did not so decided to flip up to the dessert passages of the AZT and flop back to the border where we hoped that some of the snow would have melted. We even waited a couple days to let a storm pass thru on the 22nd. Now though here we are and ready to head out.

Just some interesting notes of how we prepared our vehicle for pack rat prevention. Numerous people had told us that leaving a vehicle unattended for several weeks was inviting pack rats to set up residence. Since we didn’t want this is to happen we hoped that the preventative methods we used would be enough.

First leave the hood up

Second we bought a light that flashes different colors and makes a random noise (this was attached to the battery which was had a solar panel attached to the battery to eliminate the battery from being drained
Third we bought mouse deterrent pouches to put in the engine compartment
Last we bought several solar powered lights to put near the truck creating light at night
Then we asked the pack rats to find another home.. fingers crossed that this all works!

Thanks to the NOLS SW branch for providing a place for us to park our vehicle

Clark and Ellen our NOLS friends pick us up at 7;30 and we begin our hour and half drive to the border. We learn that another current NOLS instructor is also planning to start that day. Perhaps our paths will meet. We arrive to the Coronado National Memorial and check out the road conditions to the Pass where the trail begins. It is paved for one mile then there are 2 miles of very rough road and is not recommended for their car. They offer to take us to the dirt section which we will then hike the last 2 miles to the pass. Just as we are unloading our packs Laine, the current NOLS instructor shows up in a shuttle and the driver offers to take us to the pass. We quickly say yes, say good-by to our friends and hop in the van. Thanking the magic of the trail for this offer! Upon reaching the pass, Laine heads to the border. Since we did this stretch several weeks ago we are ready to head north and up to Miller Peak.

The peaks in southern Arizona are known as Sky Islands and have distinct environmental characteristics . One starts in a dessert surrounding and hikes up to a mountain surrounding.

We have been told that the snow is rapidly disappearing and we should be able to hike thru it without too many challenges.

The trail leads steadily up and we can see why the first day is so challenging.

We pass several hikers who are taking breaks, since we have already gotten some miles in the last few weeks, we are able to maintain a steady pass.

As we near the top we see the results of the storm that passed thru yesterday. The tree are coated in an inch of ice. We talk to a hiker that said, he started the hike yesterday, but quickly turned around due to the wind and rain. Today though the sun is out and we are glad with the decision to start today.

The trees with ice covering their branches was beautiful! Thankful not to be here yesterday.

We continue our hike till we meet a trail going to Miller Peak, it is an easy decision to keep on the AZT. we feel that we have gone up enough today.

There is some scrambling on this part of the trail.

We eventually run into the snow which is probably only about a mile of trail.

Don puts on his micro spikes and easily walks across the snow. I opt to walk carefully and do fine. There are quite a few tracks of previous hikers.

We meet more hikers today than we have seen on the trail previously. Most of them mention that they delayed starting their hike due to weather. We feel fortunate that we have already hiked close to 200 miles and were able to enjoy the dessert sections before it got too hot.

Our first water source today is called bathtub spring.

Easy to see how it got its name, We fill up and filter this source and plan to go just a little further to find camp. By this time Laine who had gone to the border arrives at the spring and asks to camp near us as she has heard of our names from other NOLS instructors and would like to talk. Sounds good to us.

We find a place that will barely fit two tents and settle in for a cold night. The wind is blowing and the temperature dropping.

As we look at the scenery below, we can easily see why this is called a sky island.

Dinner is quickly made and we head to bed, but first Don gets a great shot of the setting sun

It is a night that we will be sleeping in most of our clothes and our Sawyer squeeze will be nice and cozy in our sleeping bags as well. We can’t let it freeze or its ability to filter water will be voided. We are thankful to be back on trail and are looking forward to dropping down in elevation tomorrow.

Miles hike 10

March 24

It was oh so cold last night. sleeping with all our clothes helped. By morning there was ice in our water bottles and we wanted to get up and get moving. Laine slept thru our departure so I guess we were pretty quiet. Laine had been told that we should put everything in our tent, due to packrats and also immigrants that use this area for heading north. I started hiking with all of my clothes on then as we started down to a canyon, I began slowly removing them. We passed by a lot of hikers who were sleeping in the canyon bottom. It is going to be awhile before the sun reaches them.

The trail is very mellow today as we climb up and down the canelo hills. Laine catches up with us and we are a bit envious of her ultralight backpack. We still like some of our extras and most of the time don’t mind carrying them,

We are impressed with her snack bag which is filled with lots of high energy junk food. It keeps the sugar rush ongoing!

There are piles of brush and we assume that there will be a prescribed burn in the near future. That is confirmed when we see a line of firefighters with tools heading toward the piles. We ask one of the firefighters when that might happen and the plan is in a couple of days if the weather conditions are favorable. Great we should be well north of it by then

More up and downs with some rocky trails thrown in. My body seems to be doing okay, but Don has very sore feet. We bought some insoles at REI which hopefully will help.

We pass a unique small cactus.

Finally we come to the water source for the night. It is a seep with several deep pools.

We scoop it out, filter it and are ready to find camp and have dinner.

A lot of the hikers that we saw camped have made it to this location and look for places to put up their tents. Glad we got here and were able to set up our tent. We wonder if campsites are going to be a problem with the number of hikers increasing. We hiked about 18 miles today and Don is wondering if we should aim for 15 to see if his feet improve.

Miles hiked 18.5

March 25

It wasn’t as cold last night, but we still had plenty of frost on our tent. We are going over a pass today with not much water so decided to carry some extra liters with us. At 6;00 there was no need for a headlamp. As usual, we were heading down the trail before the other hikers had emerged from their tent.

This sign gave us pause as we realize that not all who hike thru this area are doing it for recreation.

It was about 4 miles to the pass so with a steady pace we soon were there. Well actually about 2 hours, as our average pace is 2 miles an hour. When we got to the pass we were pleased to find the resupply box full of public water

As we were making our breakfast, here comes Laine and joins us. She is heading to Patagonia for a resupply today. Depending how our hiking goes we may make it tonight or early in the morning. Perhaps we will see her or perhaps not. Hikers pass in and out of our lives on a daily basis. As we are enjoying our breakfast, a man approaches with a box of goodies. It turns out that his 77 year old mom is hiking some of this trail and he is supporting her. While he is waiting at trail heads, he shares a box of chips and treats with the hikers. His plan today is to check on his Mom and then do about a 40 mile day hike. Impressive!

We take some extra water as the comments about water on this stretch of trail is not real positive.

Another gate as we look back towards Miller Peak.

The first water source was a tank (pond) that had quite a few cow signs around it.

The next source is a flowing stream with lots of algae and more cow signs. We didn’t mind passing it up.

There may be a time that we will have to filter and drink this, but not today.

The trail lends itself to a steady pace and we begin to wonder if maybe we can make it to the road and hitch into Patagonia.

Don keeps up the pace, a good meal, shower and with a place to soak the feet is a good motivating factor.

If we continue at this pace we could be at the road about 5:30 and try to get a hitch for the 6 miles into town.

We pass by Tilly the 77 year old Mom who is sprawled by the side of the trail. A friend has hiked into meet her and to encourage her on. She doesn’t look quite ready to move, We talk a little and then her friend says that we should be on our way if we want to eat at the Velvet Elvis tonight.

We see the road and the cars moving in the distance. It seems par for the course that seeing and hearing cars does not mean that the trail is going to go in the most direct way to it. Indeed we hiked several more miles until we finally came out on the road. Our plan was to start hitching and call a shuttle if we did not get a ride. After seeing that we did not have service our only option was hitching as As our feet were not going to hike further. A truck passed and then came back. Thank you!. She works at Velvet Elvis and recommended it as a good place to eat. We asked her to drop us off at the Stage Coach Inn. Fingers crossed as Don heads to the lobby to see if they have a room. At this point cost is irrelevant and when the manager said we do. Don hands him the credit card.

We quickly unpack, and get ready to take showers. Just as I am ready to hop into the shower we get a text from Laine(RobinHood trail name). She says that hey I am at Velvet Elvis and would you like to join me? I think she was surprised when we said of course, we are just finishing up showering. It was a very nice evening with good food, good conversation and a delicious salad. Don and I are not eating as many bars so we offer them to Robinhood and she walks with us to the hotel to grab them. She is leaving early in the morning and we are going to meet our friend Tracy who wants to hike some of the trail tomorrow. It is very doubtful that we will see Robinhood on the AZT. She is working in Alaska this summer so our paths will cross there. It doesn’t take us long to fall asleep and enjoy the comforts of clean sheets!

Miles hiked 21