Horni -Zone – The walk

‘How cute!
Here I am tuning into the tour in my first days of the AZT. This section will cover the stretch from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to Cedar Ranch Tank.

Day one:

After an incredible train ride from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon, we hit the road in the afternoon and left SOBO on the AZT! Side note: The Grand Canyon Railway is a fun way to get to the South Rim. At first the road was paved and we didn’t see anyone. As the afternoon wore on I got tired and started dragging my feet, but then a little friend named Horny Toad showed up!!!!!!!! Horny made my day. First objective, accomplished! ✔️. I was so excited that I decided to refer to Arizona as Horn-i-zona! For our first afternoon on the trail, we basically headed south from Grand Canyon National Park.

Now is the time to tell you my challenge of the day. I like to set myself a daily challenge. My challenge is to assemble my sleeping bag, air mattress and pillow in less than 7 minutes.🔥 At the end of the day I will reveal to you whether I did it or not.

My feet have been hurting all day. I thought it was just the beginning of a new path, but at the end of the day I discovered, «Wow, my feet had started to form blisters!» I put Leuko tape on it. I’m a killer hiker with my Leuko tape!

Today my time to set up mine is 3 minutes and 14 seconds. Challenge accomplished! ✅

Now I’m going to move on to today’s Oh Dear, Gear. This is a time where I share about a piece of my gear or a small group of gear. Today is about my puffy Columbia. My Columbia jacket is purple and super warm. I love it. That’s all for today, see you tomorrow! 😊

Day 2:

I’m going to say what the challenge of the day is from the beginning. I’ll be setting up the tent and my Themarest, sleeping bag and pillow in less than ten minutes. But I will count on LSL’s help with the store.

My Leuko tape didn’t work, so I have a blister, a big old damn blister. 😩 Now we’ll see how it goes tomorrow morning.

Today we reached a good water source! We have been transporting a lot of water due to the distance between water sources. I carry between 2.5 and 3 liters and my mother sometimes carries up to 5.5 liters when there are many kilometers in the water. That’s a lot of water weight! At first I thought this tank was a little strange because it was underground and you had to go under a low metal roof to access the tanks. They were titled «wildlife tanks.» We had to reach into a large, dark tank to get water. But it was fine once I got the hang of it and it turned out that it looked cleaner than many other fonts. Check out this link to learn how we got water from this wildlife tank.

We also saw another horny toad today. Did you know that the correct term for a horny toad is horny lizard? I just found out about that. It’s like cougars are sometimes called cougars, but cougar isn’t actually the correct term.

As we got closer to the camp, I started looking at the ground a couple of meters away from me. I hang my head like this when I get tired. But when we got to setting up the tent during the evening portion, I was zooming! And yes, full day challenge!!!! ✅

Lastly, Oh dear, Gear. My Topo shoes! I have Mountain Racers and so far I like the Altras better because I don’t get blisters. This is my first hike in Topos. But I will try Topos again, perhaps in a different model. I took a few short walks with them, but maybe not enough. I hope tomorrow is a happy day for your feet. Let’s find out!

Day 3:

LSL and I met a hiker named Slocahontas. It was launched the same day as us, but in the morning. We talked for a while during the lunch break. This is only the second hiker we’ve seen on this trail!

I had three amazing meals today! Number One is a healthy peanut butter and Nutella bagel from Jason brand. Meal two was a package of tuna made with my favorite brand (Pollo del Mar) and then some sweets. Dinner was Butternut Dal Bhat, a Peak Refuel Freeze Dried Food! One of Truck’n’muck’s favorites.

Now don’t get your hopes up…there are no Horny Lizards today. But… we saw two tarantulas in the morning. They looked cute and fluffy.

I’ve been thinking about the challenge of the day. I’ve decided to try not to complain about anything after lunch. 🔥🔥🔥 I listened to music and dreamed about various things and boom I did it! Don’t complain!!!!!!!!! PJ gold star ⭐️

The last few days have basically been hikes through the flat desert, so I thought about a lot of things today. Like making a 2026 calendar, going to Europe, getting a haircut (I want my hair to look like Gracie Abrams). When I thought about trail stuff, I wondered when we would find the next best water source or «I’m so glad it’s flat!»

Oh dear, team:

Today is the first group of equipment. I’m referring to solar coverage. I have sun gloves from REI that work great! They are also water. Then I use BareMinrals facial sunscreen and Banana Boat for the rest of my body. Also a hat.

See you in the morning.

Day 4:

Hello everyone,

I’m sitting in our X-domo Durston tent after a long 19.8 mile flat hike. Throughout the day I met two nice hikers. One at East Cedar Tank (where we filled with water). It’s a nice tank, but there is a lot of algae in the pool. However, there is a pipe under the floor that water comes out of, so it’s okay. We fill the pipe. Anyway, the lady we saw by the tank was going to be NOBO and had done the Colorado Trail over the summer. We talked for a while while filtering water and then parted ways. Then we met Loose Tree. He stopped by our tent in the morning when I was waking up. Then we saw him on his lunch break and ate together. Then we saw him setting up his tent later. It’s nice to meet some other hikers on this otherwise quiet trail.

Now it’s time for Oh Dear, Gear.

I’m going to talk about the sleeping pad I use. I have a Thermarest! The model is Neoair. The truck bought me a different one a while ago, but then the deflectors started moving and it turned into a banana. Well, that’s what you called it anyway. So I returned it to the company and in exchange they sent me a big yellow one. If this one blows up like the first one then it will really be a banana 🍌 🍌🍌 So far this one has worked well on both the JMT and the AZT.

My challenge for the day is not to complain for ONE WHOLE DAY! When I asked LSL how it went, she smiled and said «just a small amount.» So for the first time I get a ⛔️. Sorry guys.

All in all, this has been a pretty easy section of the trail. Continuing south on the AZT…

😘😘😘

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