Statistics:
Miles: 589.8- 744.6
Days: 31- 36
The meeting of the deserts
This leg between Oracle and Patagonia was the longest (six days) and the most diverse. It is a unique section due to its ecological convergence, where the Sonoran and chihuahua Deserts meet sky islands. The Sky Islands are massive mountain ranges rising from the desert lowlands, each creating their own unique ecosystem. One day you walk among cacti and spiky bushes, the next you cross pine forests and the third is a mix of all of these.
Oracle and Mount Lemmon
We came to one of those green doors right outside Oracle. I turn around and see a brown butt jump off a rock. It can’t be a dog. It didn’t look like a deer either. I can’t leave it without investigating, so I take a few steps back down the path, look at the thick vegetation at the edge of the road and there it is: a wildcatlooking at me, completely unfazed. I take a photo and she’s still there, looking bored. I return to the door while the wildcat walks peacefully through the bush, enters the path and walks through NOBO.
The little wildcat, looking at me, half bored.
leaving oracle
the way to summer refuge It’s brutal. Sometimes it’s just a 4×4 rock road going up.
The steep rock climb ascends to Mount Lemmonn.
But once you get there, the general store is full of cold drinks, exactly what you crave after that climb. I go in to get sparkling water and buy an orange to squeeze. The non-Fanta fizzy orange drink has now become a permanent craving, stuck to my brain like a barnacle. Squeezing an orange into the neck of a small bottle turns out to be quite a challenge, so I eat the orange and go back for orange juice.
When I come out, Thunderbird, who we keep running into, is making noise with her pink ice cream in a Wingardium Leviosa movement to a girl from Alaska who stopped to chat. I guess he’s animating the story rather than trying to levitate it, but it’s too late to tune in now, so I focus on perfecting my soda to orange juice ratio.
We then visited the «Cookie Cabin» for a chocolate chip cookie and coffee. Strangely, they don’t serve coffee, but the cookie is excellent.
Marshall Creek
As soon as you leave the city, you enter a place called Marshall Creek. It still retains all the colors of autumn. You climb large stone steps through crimson, purple, orange and yellow maple leaves, on the ground, on the trees, everywhere. If I didn’t know I was in Arizona, I’d guess Japan.
rock desert
As soon as the maples end, Wilderness of Rocks begins, and it’s equally mind-blowing. Giant rocks are stacked on top of each other like stone snowmen.
We camp on a hill, the lights of Tucson glow peacefully below us. We start walking at 5 in the morning and the rocks shine under the full moon. It seems like a freezing winter morning, although it is pleasantly warm.
We’ve covered some pretty big miles lately; We are so close to the border that we just want to get there faster.
Saguaro National Park
Our next big day is over Saguaro National Parkand we have to do it at once because you can’t camp there without permits and, of course, we didn’t get any in advance. It’s 17 miles through the park. mica mountainplus 7 miles just to reach the limit. The climb is hard, but most of it is shaded, and as soon as you gain height the pine trees appear. Suddenly, you not only feel good, but you smell good too.
Kez and I noticed how, in the desert, the tree line seems inverted: instead of the trees disappearing as you go up, they only begin to appear. growing the higher you go.
As we descend the mountain, we enter a different type of forest: a saguaro forest. There are so many of them! Wildflowers bloom and butterflies flutter among the giant cacti. Sometimes you walk down entire hallways ocotillo Shrubs that almost look like underwater algae.
colossal cave
We make the mistake of camping too close to a stream. 0.2 miles seemed pretty far, but we woke up to the tent soaked with condensation. We packed up to the sound of multiple packs of coyotes and walked toward colossal cave to pick up the one resupply box we mailed ourselves, just so we wouldn’t have to hitchhike to Vail.
That place is very hiker friendly! They let us hang our tents and sleeping bags on the walls to dry, charge our electronics, and occupy all the back tables. They come over to chat, show us the hiker’s box, and give us delicious food that we can’t stop ordering.
The next section was supposed to take three days, but we covered it in two and reached the town of Patagonia to 3 pm, ready to shower, eat and resupply.
All I remember is a lot of ups and downs, a surprising amount of gunshots (I literally heard bullets whistling while eating lunch at the Helvetia resupply box), and a large rattlesnake in the corner of a visitor center at Kentucky Farm.
My shoes are now completely useless and I constantly feel like Harry and Marv in that scene from Home Alone: slipping on toy cars. Every time I go down that tight gravel, I slide. With every slide, my joints and muscles ache. I’m so ready for real, comfortable beds and long, hot showers.
Tomorrow is our last section, the one that will take us to the border and eventually back to civilized existence.
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