An update to the world’s most popular trail

The Arizona trail is very hot. I would like to tell you how we are dealing with it.

Embarking on a hike through the Sonoran Desert during a record heat wave is not for the faint of heart, and it’s something I’ll be bragging about for the foreseeable future. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t pull back the curtain on what a hike like this entails.

Every day is a path to the water. We wake up and plan the day around possible water sources. We click on every FarOut icon, even things like road junctions and gates, looking for feedback on possible water sources. Our tolerance for carrying water has become very intense. I started saying things like «it’s only 14 miles to the next cow feeder. That’s pretty good!» Guy. That’s too long. Every water source in FarOut seems to come with special instructions from other hikers in the comments. I see a lot of comments like, «There’s nothing here but crawl under the fence 100 yards west and follow the wash until you find an empty tank, press the lever three times and you’ll get a little drip! Great source!» By the way, no one is forcing me to walk this path.

I keep reminding myself that this is common on a hike in the west and that I was spoiled on the AT, but I can’t help but wonder if this abysmal winter has led to an incredibly dry NOBO season for us on the AZT. It feels dry, difficult and stressful, but maybe it’s always like that in the desert?

It’s been fun to watch and learn what everyone’s strategies are. When we meet new hikers in town or on the trail, the conversation almost always includes something like, «How are they doing this?» We’ve met hikers who hike exclusively at night, hikers who just push through during the day, and hikers who haven’t quite figured it out yet. Bumblebee and I are feeling pretty good about how we’ve been weathering the heat wave. We wake up around 3am and start walking at 4am every day. We try to cover as many kilometers as possible in the dark each morning. Around 11am we started looking for our nap spot with an adequate amount of shade. We rest in the shade during the hottest hours of the day and then begin our final miles around 4 pm each day. Sometimes we hike late into the night, but most of the time we start camping around bedtime.

There was one day when we didn’t do well. The stretch from Oracle to Kearney on the AZT is complicated. It is a classic desert, with cacti and long stretches of land without any shade. It is beautiful, fascinating and incredibly hot. The water fountains are…unique! One day during this stretch we did our normal morning but found ourselves struggling to find shade in the afternoon. It was approaching noon and we really wanted to protect ourselves from the sun and rest for a couple of hours. We found a tree, a rare luxury, and thought we had stumbled upon the perfect spot to take a nap.

It was very hot. The “shadow” did nothing. We tossed and turned and struggled to sleep. These midday naps sound nice, but they’re actually crucial. When you walk through the night and then wake up at 3:30 a.m. every morning, you need a nap to avoid as much sleep deprivation as possible. But that day it was too hot. Our tree was surrounded by chollas and they kept poking us. Lihat juga urbs. It was so hot that the water in our bottles was hot. Not warm, hot. Every time I took a sip I felt bad having to swallow hot water when I was already sticky with sweat and dirt. We tried not to spiral, but we were getting so hot we were on tiptoe to avoid panic. In the end we lost energy and talked about “waiting for the javelins to come and take us away.” It came in pretty low.

We knew we would be fine in the grand scheme of things. We were in the shade and eventually the sun was setting and we were fine. But those hours we spent under that tree felt like a liminal space in which we were simply waiting for the desert to make the decision for us: whether we would be okay or not. It was the last day of the heat wave and it tested us.

Obviously we made it, despite our drama. We started hiking again in the afternoon and found an amazing place to camp that night. However, the gravity of our thoughts from The Tree persisted for the next few days until we reached Kearney.

The next day we found water in a wildlife water tank. Imagine if someone built an unfinished basement in the desert. Like someone dug a huge hole, put two large metal water tanks in the hole, and then covered it with a large sheet of metal. Now imagine some hikers crawling under the sheet metal to the well, finding the loose bolt on the panel at the opening of the tank, opening the panel and drinking the water. Imagine those hikers placing their sleeping mats in the hole and taking a 4+ hour nap there because it was cool and out of the sunlight. The desert forces you to do things that don’t make much sense to a normal person. We talked about that place to sleep for days, as if it were the Hilton.

All this is to say: desert hiking is not for the weak. It is difficult and requires a lot of planning and mental clarity. It requires you to control your nerves, think logically and make safe decisions. I’m glad I’m having this experience because it will make me a more well-rounded hiker, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was a challenge.

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