Arizona Trail Day 1 11/1/25
Gabrielle is the best angel on the trail.
Welcome to my first trail update post! I hiked two weeks on the AZT from November 1-14, 2025 and will be posting again on those days, so my entire AZT experience is in one place. I’ll be back on track where I left off on March 21st for a 3 week adventure.
Hey, I’m hot on Arizona’s trail! Last night I flew to Tucson and this morning I got a hotel room at the airport. Gabrielle picked me up at 6am and then we picked up another hiker and headed towards the trailhead. For anyone familiar with the AT, Gabrielle is the Miss Janet of the Southern Arizona Trail. She is one of the people who stores the water tanks and transports people around. I’m sure I’ll run into her again. Gabrielle drove us to Montezuma Pass.
Hungus at the southern terminus
The other hiker on the shuttle, Ticman and I hiked 1.8 miles south to the Mexican border and stopped at the monument that marks the southern end of the trail. We climbed over barbed wire and took photos of the monument before heading north again. A quarter mile after leaving the terminal we came face to face with a large snake right in the road. He wasn’t a diamond backup, but we still treated him with respect and gave him plenty of space.
The next 6 miles were all uphill to the top of Miller Peak and into the Miller Peak Wilderness. I got off in front of Ticman and didn’t see him for the rest of the day. I started off strong on the climb, but once I started getting above 8000 feet, the altitude really started to get to me. I slowed down and was on the struggling bus for the last few kilometers. What a welcome to the Arizona Trail. At the Miller Peak junction I stopped for lunch, took a nap, and continued along the trail.
I wasn’t paying attention at a trail intersection and ended up walking 1 mile in the wrong direction on a different trail before realizing my mistake. This high elevation area of the Coronado National Forest is called Sky Island, where the ecosystem is very different from the desert valley below. The ridge is full of spruce, pine, oak and aspen and the temperature is much cooler. It was a truly magical place. I stopped to take a break at the bathtub spring, which is a pipe that comes out of the ground and fills a cast iron tub in the woods.
bathtub spring
I filled up with water and then continued, stopping in Sunnyside Canyon, at the most established campsite I had seen so far. There was no threat of rain and conditions were very dry, so I simply camped under a huge pine tree.
Statistics
Border with Mexico-> Sunnyside Canyon
GPS Miles 17.3 (Miles Traveled According to Garmin)
Trail Miles 13.1 (Miles traveled according to FarOut)
Accumulated 13.1 miles (Miles traveled in this LASH)
Ascent 4811 feet
Descent 4429 feet
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