Hiking the Arizona Trail

Random Memories of a 68-Year-Old Rambler

By Chet Anderson (aka Gray Ghost)

Arizona Trail - March 27th to May 18th

Journals, photos, and more available at: http://www.grayghost.info

2010 Arizona Trail Journal

1

My passion for hiking continues. I have wanted to do the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) but I was

concerned about my hiking ability in the desert and in the mountains. After completing the

Tahoe Rim Trail in 2009, I felt better about hiking in mountainous terrain. I thought the Arizona

Trail (AZT) would be a good test for the desert, my next concern. At nearly 800 miles it would

not be a summer-long commitment, yet a major test for desert hiking. After purchasing the

Arizona Trail guide book, Dan, (my grandson) and I created a chart of recommended hiking

months that made it appear I could start at the end of February. Then my plans started to

expand. If all went well I would finish up in April; then I would be in shape and in time to start

the Pacific Crest Trail near that trail’s most popular starting time at the end of April. After

emailing Arizona Trail stewards, I was wisely informed by Fred Gaudet and Gary Horner that my

starting date should be a month later. I then chose the end of March which turned out to be

much better with plenty of water but still plenty of snow at times. This meant hiking the Pacific

Crest Trail that same year was no longer possible.

So then I thought about hiking the Colorado Trail after the Arizona Trail. I was introduced to the

Colorado Trail by Mike whom I had met on the Tahoe Rim Trail. He and his wife had hiked the

Colorado Trail and she sent me a link to her pictures. He said the trail was well marked, with

bridges (no streams to ford!), and her pictures showed it would be a beautiful hike. With higher

elevations in Colorado there would be plenty of time after finishing the Arizona Trail before I

could start the Colorado Trail. This turned out to be the plan I followed. Because of my concerns

of hiking in the desert I sent out an email

to all of the passage trail stewards asking

for any particular information I should

have. There was a great response of

information and offers of help. After

reading their emails I felt a lot more

comfortable with my sense of the trail. My

wife Eloise was willing to drop me off in

the desert. My grandson Dan was out of

college for spring break and offered to

help drive. That solved my transportation

to the Mexican border. Eloise and Chet

But first we headed to Flagstaff where there are two trail routes: one through town for

resupplying, and the second going around east and north of town. Doug Thomas, a trail

steward, had given me valuable information on Flagstaff which meant that I could take the trail

around town (still finding resupply spots close to the trail) and not the less desirable one

through town. Also, there was a KOA near the trail north of town where I could shower and do

laundry before continuing on my hike.

2

We stopped in and asked if they would hold a food drop until I hiked back through and picked it

up. They were glad to help. So we filled a box to last until the Grand Canyon, the next resupply

stop north. This was the pattern that we used as we headed south. At each possible resupply

point we left a food drop and boxed it up at that time knowing how far it was to the last one we

had left. Gray Ghost at U.S. Mexico border

The trailhead for the start of the

Arizona Trail is at Montezuma Pass.

From there, you have to hike 1.9 miles

south on the trail to the border, then

back to Montezuma Pass. Dan and I

did this on March 27 and the three of

us spent that night in a motel in Sierra

Vista. I thought this might make the

next day’s mileage over Miller Peak at

9,050’ easier.

I had two goals in mind for the first

day, March 28: one was crossing over

Miller Peak that still had snow on it, and two was to be as far north of the border as possible. I

was given a lot of warnings about people illegally crossing the border. I did not get very far the

first day. There were many different trails made by the border crossers and I did considerable

searching for the trail after the peak. I finally started to use my GPS (which I wasn’t planning on

taking along until the last minute). Used right, a GPS would have solved all my problems but my

GPS was an older cheaper model that had limited memory and couldn’t hold all the coordinates

for the trail. My solution was to load the waypoints on my IPod as a document, then take a

waypoint reading with the GPS and compare that reading with the ones stored on the IPod. The

coordinates the Arizona Trail use read to 5 decimal points. Example (33.10583 N, 111.00167 W).

If the readings for the next waypoint are larger (33.15732 N, 111.08051 W), then I knew I had to

travel north and west. This worked but did not give me precise compass directions or distances

to the needed waypoint. I became fairly competent at this procedure especially after finding

out the GPS batteries lasted a long time and I had extras in most of my drop boxes. I then

started to play with it to become more experienced when necessary.

The first full day I hiked only 8 trail miles, with all my wandering and trying to find the right trail.

By the time I gave up and started using the GPS, I had passed Bathtub Spring which is just like it

sounds-an old bathtub to catch spring water. I have seen pictures of it and decided that I had

enough and didn’t want to backtrack so I moved on.

3

The next 3 days weren’t too bad; I

managed 50 miles. There is a lot of trash

along the trail: cans, bottles, school-size

backpacks, clothes. Quite a few containers

were Electrolit and Red Bull, apparently

used for energy in border crossings. I never

saw or heard any people until I was near

Patagonia.

Patagonia didn’t turn out as planned. The

guide book said there was a trailer park as

you came into town that had showers and

laundry and I heard they had a great pizza place called the Velvet Elvis. The manager at the

trailer park would not let me shower there and wasn’t particularly friendly. Next stop was for

pizza but they were open only limited hours and were closed when I was there. Next to the

pizza shop was a small grocery store and I was saved! They had pints of Ben & Jerry’s!

On April 1st I stopped early; it started raining and sleeting. I set my tent up and crawled in and

had a cold dinner. Nothing froze inside the tent but there was quite a bit of ice outside the tent

in the morning.

On the drive down to the start of the trail we had seen a sign for Kentucky Camp which I had

read about in the guide book. We decided to drive in and investigate. We met Steve who is a

volunteer caretaker there and he offered to hold a food drop for me. Kentucky Camp is a 1904

ranch headquarters for a 1904 gold mining operation. They spent between $125,000 and

$200,000 for 8-1/2 miles of pipe, tunnels, and ditches. The

plan was to bring water from Santa Rita mountain streams

to a reservoir that would hold water for 10 months of

hydraulic mining. The operation returned only $3,000 before

being abandoned. A day before a stockholders’ meeting, the

mining engineer that thought up the idea fell to his death

from a hotel window and the lawyer for the primary investor

ended up owning the ranch. Sounds like a made-to-order

movie story. When I reached Kentucky Camp, (at trail mile 79.6) Steve was gone but he had told

me where my food drop would be if he wasn’t there, which was under a garbage can with a

cactus on top. When I lifted it up he had a towel and bar of soap lying on my box. They have a

solar shower there (who needs Patagonia?). When he returned, we sat on the veranda of the

restored adobe ranch house and had a beer while we exchanged stories. He let me stay in the

ranch house that night which had electricity so I was able to charge my phone and IPod.

Kentucky Camp

4

In the first few days on the trail I saw a few mule deer, a small herd of Javelinas, Jack Rabbits,

and lots of cows. There were many varieties of cactus. When I was nearing I-10 east of Tucson, I

saw my first Saguaro cactus. With a snowy winter and hiking in the spring I was lucky to see the

desert in bloom: at times it was like walking in a flower garden.

Cholla cactus

I had no way to check temperatures but the three days before Tucson were my hottest days on

the trail. As I neared I-10, the trail became quite well used with walkers and bicyclists. I did talk

to a few people and was offered water. Late in the afternoon I stopped under I-10 in a tunnel

(at trail mile 113.2). It was nice and cool in there with a cement floor swept clean by occasional

water flows-a good place to cook dinner. After dinner I took a nice break. It wasn’t long until I

decided to spend the night there. (This decision was probably influenced by a great night under

a small bridge on the Ice Age Trail). This was different; the traffic didn’t die down: lots of noise.

About 10:00 p.m., Will, another thru hiker, came by. Will and I decided to meet the next

morning at La Posta Quemada Ranch. Then about 1:00 a.m., I heard a sound by my pack. When

I turned on my head lamp, a rat (pack rat?) took off. That was enough! I packed up and moved

about ½ mile north of I-10.

La Posta Quemada Ranch was where I had my next food drop. They have a small lunch counter

and other tourist attractions; I was able to buy juice and burritos. That night we camped at

Hope Camp, a dead end part of the trail near the southern boundary of Saguaro National Park.

We had a noisy visitor both that night and the next morning: a Gila Woodpecker was tapping on

the blades of the old windmill.

The trail is not yet finished through the park. The guide

book says to go to the visitor center and ask for

information. The visitor center is on the opposite end

of the park from Manning Camp where the trail picks

up again. Will was familiar with the park and he

suggested we follow the southern boundary east until

we reach an old trail that leads up to Manning Camp.

5

Shortly after leaving Hope Camp we found

some new trail which we followed east until it

ran out. Then we followed a flag line until we

came to more new trail coming in from the

east. This took us to the old trail and then up

to Manning Camp. This new section will be a

beautiful addition. We crossed a nice stream

with some great rock work for steps. I noticed

the workers had left all their hand tools on the

new trail; they had some rust on them and the

handles were bleached some. It looked like

they hadn’t been working there for a while. After reaching the old trail it was quite a climb to

Manning Camp and Will, being faster, moved ahead.

When I reached Manning Camp (at trail mile141.9) elev. 7,942’, it was late afternoon and the

snow was soft so I decided to camp and wait until morning so I didn’t have to posthole (which

means walking in deep snow with each foot sinking in). In the morning I still had to climb to

8,602’ before the trail headed down. I had a lot of trouble finding the trail in snow; they don’t

mark it for winter travel. When I left the park there was a box for signing in. I saw Will had

signed the night before (it’s great to be young and move fast).

On many nights I “cowboy” camped meaning I would just lay down my pad with my sleeping

bag on top and crawl in. With no bugs or dew this was nice with great views of the night sky

and it was easier to hear the night sounds. Some of the things heard at night on the hike were

Elf Owls, Poorwills and Horned Owls.

Near Mt. Lemmon there is a section of trail

closed because of a previous fire. The

information indicated I should take the

Wilderness of Rock Trail (at trail mile 180)

east and then north through

Summerhaven and reconnect with the

Arizona Trail north of town. I followed it

quite a distance and it just ran out. I gave

up and went back to the Arizona Trail and

followed it, figuring I would just try to hike

through the burned area. The next morning I met a hiker who was familiar with the trail and he

said I could take a trail out to Mt. Lemmon and then head down a road and that would take me

to the north edge of town.

Wilderness of Rock

Will on new trail

6

This worked well but it meant I had a lot of extra elevation gain and more snow. I did pass the

Steward Observatory on Mt. Lemmon and a ski hill called Ski Valley that was still open for skiing

on April 10th!

The next morning I reached Hwy. 77 (at 209 trail miles) and started to walk into the town of

Oracle. I had to walk about a mile before I could get cell reception and call for a ride from the

Chalet Village Motel. I was beat both mentally and physically! When I found out it was only

$75.00 for two nights, I decided to take a zero day (zero hiking and minimal walking). They had

a Dollar Store across the street and a restaurant close by. I was able to have my pints of ice

cream, a few meals and lots of rest. That was my low point on the trail. I felt much better after

recuperating in Oracle and was never that tired again.

The next part of the trail was over 50 miles without a dependable source of water, so

volunteers put out jugs of water at Freeman Road about halfway through this stretch. Since this

was a wetter year, there was some seasonal water in that stretch, but I still found their cache

helpful. This was a long section with open country and modest ups and downs. I followed the

Pipeline Road for 12 miles: a dirt track that seemed to go on forever. This is the type of hiking

that makes the brain seem to melt and I end up in some kind of a trance and just keep plugging

along. The eyes need to feed the brain a little diversity once in a while. The only excitement is

lizards running off and vultures above; they are my constant companions.

At the Kevin Bridge over the Gila River I ran into Mark Flint and three other fellows who were

affiliated with the trail. They gave me some water and fresh fruit which was a great treat. At

dusk that evening as I was dropping down into Walnut Canyon (at trail mile 280), I saw a flock

of 50 good-sized birds flying below me. They were obviously bothered by me but I needed

water. When I did reach the bottom of the canyon they finally settled down just downstream

from me. They were White-faced Ibis, a mudflat shore bird with a long curved bill. They are not

at all suited to a rocky stream at the bottom of a canyon. I guess they must have been migrating

and this was the only water around for them to rest on for the night.

Gila Monster Horned Lizard

7

The next morning I met Bill Dayton (Punkin) from Texas, a man my age hiking the Grand

Enchantment Trail which runs for 730 miles east/west across New Mexico and Arizona. It shares

70 Miles with the AZT.

Shortly after I met him I had stopped at a Y in the trail and dropped my pack to get out a snack

and figure out which way to go next. Before I had done anything, a man and a woman out for a

day hike came by and he said he knew which way to go. Well, we went north up White Canyon

which started out with plenty of tracks but they slowly petered out. I finally used my better

judgment and stopped to figure things out. I should have taken the other trail northwest. Now I

had to either backtrack or head west cross country to reconnect to the Arizona Trail. There was

a side canyon ahead that we hoped to take out and reach the AZT. This worked but when we

were close to the AZT, we reached a steep drop-off of a few hundred feet looking down on the

AZT. We did find a chute and managed to work our way down. It is now a few hours later and I

have maybe 2 or 3 trail miles in: will I ever learn?

I am starting to see a few interesting

things like Gila Monsters,

Rattlesnakes and quite a few Horned

Lizards/Toads. The first Rattlesnake

was coiled right next to the trail. I put

my foot down about 3” from its head

before I saw it. It was late afternoon

and cooling down. That might have

slowed his response or maybe I was

just lucky. It ignored me.

My next food and motel stop was in

the town of Superior. When I reached

Hwy. 60 (at mile 298.6) I called Merlin at the Copper Mountain Motel for a ride into town. He

was taking two hikers back to the trail and was able to pick me up right away. There are three

restaurants and a Dollar Store close to the motel. I had time for three meals and ice cream in

between meals. Lunch was the first meal. I ate Mexican food (burritos). Dinner was Asian food

and I enjoyed it though I can’t remember what I ordered. Breakfast the next morning was

American and I ordered scrambled eggs and ham. It was pretty depressing to look at. It

appeared to be one small egg and a thin piece lunchmeat. But I ate it anyway.

After my breakfast Merlin shuttled me back to the trail. And I started hiking again. The views, in

addition to many flowers, are mostly of Saguaro, Barrel, and Prickly Pear cacti. There was an

easy morning gradual elevation gain for 10 miles. Then came a 2,500’ elevation gain in the next

6 miles making for a tough afternoon.

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

8

I had two highlights for the day: the first in Whitford Canyon, a pair of Zone-tailed Hawks (new

life-list bird) was nesting in a large cottonwood tree beside a stream. The second was at the end

of the day watching and listening to a frog croak as I was filling my water bottles.

I had been wearing a pair of resoled boots and the new soles started to separate from the boot.

They stayed glued at the toe and heel but were completely separated in between. I called my

support crew (Eloise) and asked her to send a pair that still had some miles left on them. My

worry was whether they would hold up for 90 miles until a food pick up which would be enough

time for the substitutes to be shipped. The tops have always held up well but the soles wear

out in 700 miles. I thought the type of soles I had weren’t replaceable but I did find a place in

Colorado that would do it for $50. The boots cost $150 and this seemed like a good deal. The

day before I left home I decided to put them on the scale and found they were 10 oz. heavier

than their original weight. That makes two reasons why I will not resole boots again. I was

surprised that they didn’t get any worse in those 90 miles. I was glad to reach Roosevelt Marina

(at 343 trail miles) and pick up my other boots and a food drop we had left. This is a floating

marina with a store on the floats. It had snacks and ice cream bars but no pints. Too bad for

me!

A few miles before Roosevelt Marina I found a BlackBerry phone on the trail. It still had a

charge and you could find phone numbers on it so I think it will be easy to find the owner. I left

it at the Forest Service information center next to the marina.

One other thing I found on the trail near Mt. Lemmon was a brand new Leki trekking pole. I

gave that to a man who coincidentally had only one trekking pole. He had given me information

on detouring around a closed area. I had no desire to carry the pole. I found it on a very steep

part of the mountain and I wonder if somebody was hiking earlier in the season in deep snow

and lost it and was afraid to try to go down the mountain to retrieve it. Later I wondered if I

should have just poked it into the ground for visibility: maybe they were planning on returning

later to retrieve it.

I did lose my new compass in the first week. I

hope I was on the trail when I lost it so

somebody can find it and benefit.

Spending my time at home in Wisconsin last

winter planning this trip I pictured a flat hot

desert with a few cactus. The reality was quite

different. Much of it was like I thought but there

was more elevation change than I expected.

Most of the high places had snow but a hiker doesn’t stay there. It is usually just up and over.

9

There were many lower mountains and canyons that made the trail more interesting. Arizona is

unique with their Sky Islands which means that the country is upside down: the forests are on

top of the mountains because of lower temperatures and more moisture at higher elevations.

Instead of climbing up above tree line you climb up to tree line.

After Roosevelt Lake the trail passes through the Four Peaks Wilderness. This section is remote

and hard to maintain. Recent fires and summer’s heavy rains have let the Manzanita bushes

take over parts of the trail: it was a difficult section to hike through. From Roosevelt Lake to

Pine is 107 miles without a reasonable place to resupply. With two challenging sections, it

would take me quite a few days to hike this. Dan Sands, a trail steward from Phoenix, offered to

bring a food drop to me at Hwy. 87 (at trail mile 385.5). This lightened my pack a lot. When I

was a few miles from Hwy. 87 I called him and he said he would be there in one hour. I wasn’t

sure of the distance I had to go and didn’t want to keep him waiting so I started picking up my

pace. I hadn’t gone far before I managed to fall flat on my face. Whatever I tripped on didn’t

give me time for any protective move. I was flat on my face with my cap visor over my glasses

and hands at my sides. My first concern was for all my instruments: binoculars on sternum

strap of backpack, IPod in shirt pocket, camera, phone and GPS in front pockets of my pants.

Miraculously, everything was fine except that the frames on my glasses were bent. Then I

examined myself and found that one finger on my left hand had two gashes with a narrow strip

of skin left between them. And also the webbing between the middle fingers was split quite

deep. I carry a small first aid kit that weighs 1oz. This was enough for immediate care but I

didn’t have enough band aids for replacing as the cuts healed so I called Dan again and asked

him to bring more band aids. As it turned out, I was closer to Hwy. 87 than I thought and I had

time to eat a hot lunch while I waited.

The next day I entered the Mazatzal

Wilderness. There was extensive damage from

the 2004 Willow Fire. The AZT website said the

trail was 90% cleaned up in the spring of 2009;

but winter must have been hard on it. Parts of

this section looked like it was nicely forested

before the fire. Now all the large dead trees are

slowly falling. I thought it looked like a good

place to spend some stimulus dollars and put

some out-of-work loggers to work, cleaning it up and cutting down any dead trees that would

reach the trail in the future. In the email updates we send out, I said I crawled over or under or

around thousands of fallen trees: this was probably an exaggeration but it felt like it was true at

the time. For all my complaining this was still one of the more scenic parts of the trail. I also saw

my only black bear of the trip in the Mazatzal Wilderness.

10

From the Mazatzal Wilderness to Pine

there were some noticeable elevation

changes of over 3,000’ feet. And I had

my first river to ford: the East Verde

River (at mile 437). The East Verde

River was shallow and maybe 100’

across. In the Cottonwood trees along

the river there were about a dozen

Turkey Vultures. Since the beginning

of the trail I have seen the vultures

circling above me. I always wondered:

did they know more about the

condition I’m in than I did? Or maybe

my pace was so bad they thought I was on my last legs.

I wasn’t able to reach Pine (at mile 461.2) in time for laundry and rest. I didn’t want to rent a

room for two nights so I camped just short of town and went in the next morning and stayed

one night. This left me time for four meals and my pint of Ben & Jerry’s.

Leaving Pine, the trail heads north/east staying below the Mogollon Rim. This is an escarpment

that creates a different environment. The Mogollon Rim starts near the New Mexico border and

runs 200 miles westerly. Below the rim the elevation is mostly 4,000’/5,000’; above the rim,

the elevation is closer to 7,000’. This means that south of the rim there were more cacti and

desert plants. On the upper plateau there are more Ponderosa Pine forests. There were fewer

cacti after reaching the top of the rim. The trail had recently been worked on as I left Pine and

that made it a nice hike with great views of the rim above me and good trees and bushes

around for birding. I was able to add a new bird to my life list: a Black-throated Gray Warbler!

That evening I reached the Washington Park Trailhead in a heavy wet snowfall (on April 29, at

mile 478). I set up camp under a pine tree and had a cold dinner and a long night. The next

morning I had lots of trouble figuring out where the trail went. In the snow the night before I

saw the parking area and took the side trail right to it not knowing the real trail went right on

from that point. In the parking area there was an AZT sign that was on a trail that went across

the East Verde River. This turned out to be wrong and I wasted a lot of time following that trail

until I met a man that was familiar with the area and he put me on the right trail. When I

reached the top of the rim there was quite a lot of snow in the woods. Later in the day I had

another stream to ford. After taking my shoes and socks off and crossing the stream and

putting them back on, I went to grab my poles only to realize I had left them lying on the other

side of the stream! The good part was I had clean feet!

Vultures

11

On the morning I planned on reaching

Mormon Lake, I packed up dry and started

hiking. It wasn’t long before it started

snowing, about an inch of snow fell; then

it quit and mostly melted. Then it started

again and I just couldn’t find the trail. I

had to stop and wait an hour for it to melt

again; then it was easy to find. I could

have used my GPS. But I just needed a

break and as it turned out I was too early

to get a room anyway. I took a zero day at

Mormon Lake (at mile 535). Mormon Lake

had a small store, lodging, bar, restaurant, campground, laundry, and a post office within the

store where I picked up a food drop and another pair of boots Eloise had sent me. The used

ones I was wearing didn’t have as many miles left as I thought; only 100 miles. I had a new pair

of a different brand that I had hoped to start the Colorado Trail with but I had to ask her to

send them. I thought I had worn them enough to break them in but they did give me a blister

right away.

At breakfast the next morning I met Mark who was doing a bicycle race on the Arizona Trail.

They weren’t racing head to head; it was on the honor system. They use quite a bit of the trail

but have to take roads around some areas where bikes aren’t allowed. He said he would have

to carry his bike across Grand Canyon.

I have been seeing Elk lately (one had a

collar) and the Abert’s or Tassel-eared

squirrel. Some nights I hear coyotes and one

day a coyote slowly crossed the trail right in

front of me. He was so smooth and graceful

it was like a dream to watch it.

My next stop was the Flagstaff KOA (at mile

586.4) where we had left the first food box

for me. The trail was a mix of Ponderosa

Pine and open country but easy to find for

the most part. There were often views of the

snow-covered San Francisco Peaks above Flagstaff. Twice when I was confused with trail

signage, I called an AZT steward for help. Once was before Flagstaff and once after

Summerhaven (thank you, Bev and Doug).

Elk

12

I rented a cabin at the KOA because the last few days had been very windy and I wanted to get

out of the wind for the night. The KOA turned out to be a special stop. Jennifer and Jake, a

young couple that worked at the KOA with his parents, were interested in my hike and stopped

by my cabin after work and I showed them my gear and talked about backpacking. They then

invited me to share dinner with them and his parents who also work at the KOA.

When I was at the KOA there was a forest fire just north of Flagstaff. I wondered if it would

affect the trail. It was fine for me although I did see smoke as I left town. In June they had

another fire that did close part of the trail from Flagstaff to the Snowbowl ski lodge.

The next morning on May 7th I had 2,400’ of elevation gain to what I believe was the highest

point on the trail: 9,321’ at Snowbowl ski area. I needed to reach Snowbowl and replenish my

water before 4:00 p.m. when they closed for the day. The first few miles out of town went well

but there was deep snow as I hiked higher. I was looking for sawn limbs and logs and other

signs of work that might indicate where the

trail was. It was afternoon when the snow

was getting softer and I was doing a

combination of postholing and walking on

hard pack snow (mostly on top). The sudden

drop from hard snow to sinking in made it

rough. I tore my pants and scratched my

knee on some rocks under the snow. I did

reach Snowbowl just before closing. I took

my first decent break of the day at

Snowbowl. While resting, two different

couples saw my pack and wanted to know

what I was doing. I had a nice visit with them. One of

them lived in New England near the Long Trail (a 273-

mile trail in Vermont) and offered to help with

transportation if I decided to hike it. Hmmm. I

camped shortly after Snowbowl. The next morning I

was hiking on crusted snow again. The snow wasn’t

too deep but many pine trees kept it from melting so

the trail was still hard to find at times. But the trail

was gradually losing elevation making it easier to

hike and get below snow line. Shortly after starting I

had shin pain. I think it was because of postholing the day before but I didn’t feel it then.

Sawn limbs: Trail!

13

This was one of my most diverse days of

habitat on the trail. The day started with

pine woods and snow that turned into

mature Aspen woods. Later it was open

country with juniper bushes, to very open

country with just open range land and only

an occasional bush. This turned out to also

be my longest (highest) mileage day on the

trail: 31.0 miles. I’m not sure why I did that-

maybe because it was so open and

repetitious in the afternoon. Maybe my

sore shin hurt more resting than walking. Or

maybe it was reaching a gravel road at 5:00

pm in the most open desolate part when

Cookie Willet stopped and asked if I wanted

a cooold breeew. An ice cold beer and good

company in the middle of the desert on a

long day rejuvenated me for a while. I did

end up hiking on just a two track until well

into dark. I carry two 1 liter bottles on each

side of my pack and I soon learned that the

temperature varied greatly depending on

sun exposure. I have to move water from

side to side during the day for temperatures and for weight balance. In my misery I failed to

keep track of that and by the end of the day one side had no water and the other had two liters.

Between difference in weight and limping I was walking at about 10 degrees to the left. I had no

energy to stop and fix this. All I wanted to do was plod ahead. I finally settled down and cowboy

camped for the night. In the morning the bottom of my sleeping pad was filled with tiny spines

that I hadn’t seen when setting up. Uff da!

The next day the views slowly changed again as I left open range and moved back into large

pines. My shin was sore but much improved over the day before. That night I cowboy camped

again. In the middle of the night it started to snow and I had to set up my tent. In the morning

there was just enough snow to whiten the ground. On May 10 at 7,500’ elevation the snow is

slow to melt in the morning. I hiked most of the day in pine woods occasionally glimpsing the

Grand Canyon through the trees. It looked like they do a lot of controlled understory burning in

the Park which would make it much harder to have major fires. That night I camped near the

town of Tusayan with only 8 miles to go before reaching the south rim of Grand Canyon.

Cookie Willet

14

I had my first full views of Grand Canyon

at 9:15 on May 11, 2010. The first order of

business was to visit the park store for my

usual pint of ice cream. I also bought

some food for the remainder of the trip

which was 100 miles. Then I called Li

Brannfors, a trail steward who had given

me a lot of advice and help. He

encouraged me to use a GPS and found a

good deal ($300.00) on one that would

have held all the Arizona trail waypoints. I

was too cheap to spend the money, not

having any plans to need one with that much memory again. I do regret that I didn’t take his

advice. I would have saved many hours of confusion. It would have let me enjoy the hike more,

with less time and effort spent navigating. But then again, it would have taken some of the

adventure out of the trip.

Li picked me up at the store and let me stay two nights with him. He dropped me off along the

bus routes the first morning (which was a zero day). With the Park’s free bus system I was able

to play tourist on the south rim all day. There were plenty of places to eat and I could try to

catch up on my calorie deficit. I saw a sign for a Condor talk in the afternoon. Being a birder I

wasn’t going to miss it. Just before the talk we started to see the

Condors flying overhead. There were as many as nine in view at one

time. Condors are a new bird on my life list, but because they are so

heavily managed technically, you can’t count them. That evening

another Arizona Trail hiker named Christine (aka German Tourist)

stopped at Li’s. She is from Germany and has hiked most of the

major United States trails and others around the word. Li has also hiked thousands of miles. My

experience (about 4,000 miles at that time) paled in comparison to theirs.

I had assumed I would have to hike rim to rim (21 miles) because a reservation must be made

months in advance to camp inside the canyon. Since I hiked 700 miles to get there, I could not

have known the day I needed the permit. When I was exploring the rim, I met a family coming

out of the canyon that had spent a few nights down there and they encouraged me to check

the Backcountry office because they had seen some empty campsites when they were in the

canyon. I took their advice and went right to the Backcountry office. They did have a site open

at Cottonwood Camp! This was great! It meant I didn’t have to rush across the canyon. I could

take my time and enjoy an experience I probably will never have again.

Condor

15

The Arizona Trail uses the south Kaibab Trail

(7,230’ elev) to descend 7 miles to the bridge

(2,483’ elev) over the Colorado River. The trail

then follows the north Kaibab Trail an

additional 7.7 miles to Cottonwood Camp

(4,049’ elev). Just after crossing the Colorado

River on a foot bridge is Phantom Ranch. They

have snacks! I went in and had ice cold

lemonade and a bagel with cream cheese. As I

came out of the store a young woman named

Shirley sitting on a bench asked if I wanted to

hike to Utah with her. I was slow to make a commitment not knowing her pace or schedule. But

we decided to try it and see how it went. On the way down into the canyon, I had met a mother

and daughter, Amie and Trisha, from Wisconsin, who had been hiking and camping in the

canyon for a few days. Shirley had talked to them after I had and they had described me and my

goal; so as soon as Shirley saw me she knew who I was. I do leave a memorable impression; I’m

not sure if that’s good or bad. Shirley has been hiking the Arizona Trail in 100 mile sections and

this was her third time out. She had a permit to camp at Cottonwood Camp also. We decided to

try hiking together and both changed our schedule by half a day and we made it to Utah

together. Shirley had worked in the office on the north rim at one time and lives in Arizona,

making her a good source of information.

The next morning’s climb up to the north rim (8,217’ elev) was 6.7 miles and elev. gain of

4,168’. Shirley had descended too fast the day before and had some hip trouble but it didn’t

slow her down. We made good time heading up and reached the rim at 11:00 am. It started to

rain and snow; by the time we reached the top the snow was falling hard. I took one look across

the road where the trail headed into the woods and I decided to take the road to Jacob Lake. It

wasn’t the snow coming down that stopped me; it was all the snow left from the winter. We

still had 11.8 trail miles to the Park boundary and another 924’ elev. gain. I’m not sure how

many road miles that was but it would be a little less.

We wanted to obey the rules and not make camp until

after we left the Park. As we started hiking the road,

the snow banks were as high as I am: 6’3”. The snow

storm quit soon after we started down the road and

the sun came out which made a pleasant road walk.

We camped right along the road just outside the park

boundary that night at over 9,000’ elev on May 14th.

16

I had a warm enough night but it was cold packing

up in the morning. Shirley had an especially hard

time of it. She was just sick with the cold. I was

glad to be there to help pack up her tent and start

her moving to get warm. Shirley had a small

thermometer and it read that it was below 20

degrees. Nights like that I put at least one of my

water bottles in my sleeping bag with me to keep

it from freezing. The day before, we had the road

all to ourselves. But on May 15th the north rim

opens for the season and it was surprising how many vehicles were ready to visit the Park.

There is a gas station/convenience store not far north of the Park boundary that opens for the

season on the same day as the park opens. We stopped in and had snacks and sat and visited

with a couple of tourists from Israel. There was no cell phone reception for us from the north

rim until the Utah border. The gas station had a pay phone and Jacob Lake had a pay phone.

That helped because I needed to make final arrangements with my brother and sister in-law

(Gordy and Judy) to pick me up. Shirley and I spent one more night camped just off the road.

Then we were able to reach Jacob Lake the next morning. Between phone calls and resupplying

for the last 28 miles, we managed to have breakfast and lunch (and my pint of ice cream)

before rejoining the trail 2.4 miles NE of Jacob Lake. I was surprised that my shins started to

hurt on the road walk which was about 40 miles. Having walked over 500 miles on roads the

previous year with no trouble didn’t make sense. They felt better almost immediately after

rejoining the trail. My new boots (third pair on the trail) didn’t look like they had many miles

left in them when I finished the trail. They were a style with molded rubber over the toe. They

were separating on top of the toes between the rubber and the body of the boot. It was only

the outer layer so I hadn’t worried about it but at 300 miles of use, I was disappointed. I had

hoped to do the Colorado Trail with them and decided I would use them to start the Colorado

Trail and see how many more miles they would last. I was amazed that the boots didn’t change

much and I ended up wearing them for all of the Colorado

Trail: 500 miles. From a high point of 9,141’ elevation north

of Grand Canyon near the park boundary to 4,992’ at the

Utah / Arizona state line the trail has only modest elevation

changes which made a nice easy finish. From Jacob Lake to

the Utah border there isn’t any good dependable water.

AZT volunteers put out a water cache at Winter Road: we

used about a quart and there were still 5 gallons left; 2 ½

gallons on each side of Winter Road. The last morning was easy and we were early for our

meeting with Gordy and Judy: but they were already there and walking out to meet us.

17

Postscript

For all my complaints I did find the Arizona Trail amazing: Desert, cacti, flowers, mountains,

pine forests, Grand Canyon, lizards, snakes, elk, bear, coyotes, deer, and 103 species of birds (3

lifers). How could one not enjoy it? I am so glad I had the chance to hike the Arizona Trail. I

want to thank all the trail volunteers who make adventures like this possible.

A note on GPS: I had the chance to go back in July and hike the trail from the north rim of Grand

Canyon to Jacob Lake; the part we road-walked in May. Shirley and her fiancé, Bob, brought

their horses and joined me. I still missed a few miles because of trail closure due to fire damage.

This time I had the way points loaded on my GPS. It was so easy to just let it read the present

location and then click on next (or second closest), if the first wasn’t the direction you were

traveling. It would tell you exactly how far and which direction you needed to go. To be clear:

my GPS did not have near enough memory to do this for the whole 800 miles.

Old and new energy sources View from my tent on a snowy morning

Saguaro cactus along the trail Ocotillo: Fourquieria splendens