The first 100 miles: the walk

And so, we go hiking again.

We woke up the first morning of our Arizona Trail Thru-Hike feeling confused. Some parts of Arizona follow daylight saving time and some do not, and we decided to begin our hike on March 8, the first day of daylight saving time. At about 4am, Bumblebee had to humbly walk up to the front desk and ask «what time is it now?» We started this confused and we’ll probably end it the same way.

We boarded a ferry with three other former hikers and began the journey toward Montezuma Pass early that morning. I found it very familiar and comforting to be surrounded by other hikers. We were using trail names, exchanging stories, and talking like hikers again. It’s been a couple of years since I finished the AT and I missed my people.

The border

We arrived at the Montezuma pass, we put on our backpacks and started walking. We walked 1.8 miles to the Mexican border and took pictures with the monument, which at the time was only covered by barbed wire, but was right next to an incomplete section of the wall. It was chilling to be right next to the “border wall” we have heard so much about over the last decade. Seeing it in real life made me angry, disappointed, and confused. To all those migrating toward a safer future: I hope that one day you can walk across the country with the same freedom and dignity offered to hikers. I’m supporting you.

My first impression of the AZT

The Arizona Trail really throws you into the deep end to begin with. We started by climbing Miller Peak, in the heat, towards our water source for the day, which was a bathtub in the middle of the desert. I won’t complain about a spring-fed bathtub as a water source, because you’ll find I’d find much more gnarly sources, but it was a bit disarming. We made a little over 4k gain on our first day and then camped in a wind and rain storm. Fire test.

We learned quickly in the first few days that these miles would fly by. We continued watching FarOut and were really excited about the numbers we were seeing (this is a rare feeling for a hiker). We ended up doing a little over 100 miles in our first week, even with two black days in the city.

The desert is what it wants to be

I am learning that what I imagined as “the wilderness” my entire life was completely wrong. Here there are mountains, wooded forests and lots of life. Within a mile you can see the pine trees slowly fading into a prickly pear forest. Turn a corner and you’ll see a stretch of trail that looks like a completely different ecosystem than the one you’re on. The trail is so mentally stimulating that I have yet to listen to a single podcast. I am very focused on the road ahead of me. If I’m not careful, I’ll lose my route name.

This trail is impressive. It is full of different types of cacti and wildflowers. I’m learning more about ocotillos, prickly pears and even starting to see some saguaros.

The camping has been incredible. We’ve been treated to some magical sunrises and sunsets, and we’ve been packing our tents in some beautiful little spots dotted with plant life.

It’s been incredibly hot and we haven’t even hit the heat wave yet, so we’ve been taking advantage of night walks and afternoon naps in the shade.

The bad things

I forgot how much long distance hiking hurts. Every day a different muscle talks to me and complains. I still remember how to figure out an injury and «the pain of the day.» I remember a friend on AT told me, “this is just your body figuring out how to do this every day.” I’ve been repeating that like a mantra, but every twinge seems to have consequences and every misstep seems like a narrowly averted catastrophe. When you love hiking and want to complete a great trail, the looming threat of injury can be exhausting. So now, a week later, I’ll start practicing the mental work of dealing with the physical aspect of hiking. I’ll do my stretches. I’ll use my cork ball. I will rest, eat and drink. I will enjoy the kilometers I travel.

The most magical mile

Around the trail’s 100 mile mark, Bumblebee and I experienced the entire fantasy of a trail in just one mile. We were walking, near the end of the day, commenting on how much this felt like The Desert. We were in a thick cactus patch and actually traversed a flat section of trail and took tons of pictures of new plants. At that moment a hiker approached us with his pack of dogs. We stopped and chatted with him and learned that he had been a Glacier National Park ranger and was now traveling full time with his dogs. It was fascinating. We said goodbye and left to continue walking. A few minutes later we heard “Ladies!” and I turned to see him running down the path toward us. He was holding a small piece of petrified wood. He gave it to us as a good luck charm and told us he wanted us to have it as a reminder that we would always go out and that there would always be someone supporting us. With tears in his eyes, he returned to his dogs.

About 2 minutes later we saw some cows on the road. This is not unusual in the AZT, but then we noticed two cowboys on horses herding cattle toward us. I said «Jeans!» And Bumblebee replied, «Do I look good?» We stood there, amazed, and waved awkwardly at them. They waved at us as they walked by, literally into the sunset.

Magic trail in the AZT

We’ve had a lot of luck with Trail Magic. In our first week, we’ve had several instances of this and it feels especially magical considering we’re in the middle of the desert. On the third day we stopped at a water tower at the beginning of a trail when a car suddenly stopped. We were actually about to leave, but our hiker instincts kicked in and we all hesitated to see what could happen. Lady O’ Lakes appeared, an angel of the trail who offered us fruits and sweets! Check out kshk. It was incredible.

A couple of days later, we found ourselves really struggling to get through a couple of particularly dry miles. The heat had taken effect and thoughts were getting darker. He was in a bad mood. A fellow hiker named Squirt walked past us and said, “I have a friend on the trail!” In fact, his friend Ungerwhere was on the road with his van, cooking scrambled eggs and really boosting morale. He even showed us his special raccoon fur. He caught us just when we needed him most.

Heal trauma purist

Over a nice lunch in Patagonia, Bumblebee and I had a productive conversation about mileage, goals, and general outdoor activities. We originally planned to hike the entire trail, outside of the major closures on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. However, we changed our plans slightly after learning more about the trail north of the closure. We decided that taking a 5+ hour drive at the end of a hike so we could hike ~40 miles of trail across the plains isn’t really something we feel the need to do. We decided that our end point for our hike would be the Grand Canyon to the closing point. It seems like a more festive place to end the hike, and then we can spend more time hiking inside the canyon and exploring it. These next 6 weeks will be fleeting and we don’t want to waste any of that precious time in a car by skipping fire closure mileage. We made plans to return someday and run the R2R2R once the entire Grand Canyon opens up again, and we feel much more excited about our end point for the trail.

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