19.7 miles
351.9 AZT mile marker
It was nice to sleep indoors and not have to deal with the cold for once. Fire and I got back to the trail before 9. Breaks was spending more time in town and leaving later in the day.
The AZT has become more challenging to navigate the last couple days. They seem to have given up on trail markers. Many trail and road junctions have been completely unmarked, and that was the case this morning. We did a loop around the trailhead and arrived back at the parking lot since there were no markers. Shannon arrived with a couple more hikers and said to follow signs for Oak Springs. Turns out that didn’t help much since there were multiple junctions without signs. It took careful looking at the GPS to sort it out, but we were finally on our way. Fire immediately stopped for a smoke break and I continued on.
The day warmed up quickly, but I was also at lower elevation than I have been until now. The trail meandered a few ridges and mesas, going up and down and winding around. It is so great to have some relief in the landscape.
The flora was also dynamic as the trail traversed everything from cottonwoods in washes to juniper flats. The variety was great and really reminded me that I’m in the desert.
The trail seemed to be making its way towards some mountains in the distance; it was more or less a beeline for the day. I dropped down to several washes and climbed back up to mesas. The mesas varied in appearance from rocky to dirt to highly vegetated.
I entered the Mazatzal Wilderness, the first wilderness area of the trip. Bikes aren’t allowed here, so the trail is a bit more rugged and less graded than before. It’s also a bit more wild and obviously less well used. There is a long stretch of wilderness coming up, and I’m interested to see what it’s like.
I got onto Whiterock Mesa which was surprisingly mostly black rocks and red dirt at first. However, towards the end there was some sections of beautiful pure white rock that made me stop questioning its name. There was even some places where the white rock had apparently formed around the black porous rocks, filling in holes and cracks in the black rock; like good enveloping evil.
I had carried water for the day out of town since it didn’t sound like there was great water right on the trail, and sometimes it’s just easier to tank up at a good source. I had intended to stay near a water source 16 miles in, but it was still a bit early when I got there. I grabbed water for the night there and kept walking, unsure if I would make it to the next source or find a nice camp spot first. I ended up just going to the next water source with all of my carried water, and got there about 30 minutes before dark.
There were a couple of Aussies, Rob and Jill, camped at the spring and I joined them for dinner after setting up my tent. It’s always nice to have company.
The desert is normally dead quiet if it’s not windy. No insects, birds, or noises of any type. Since I’m near water tonight, there are plenty of insect noises which I think is a first for this trip.
Itts also quite warm tonight; I never had to put on my puffy. That’s a first for this trip as it’s usually been on before the sun even sets. I am at lower elevation now though, about 3000 feet which is a fraction of the elevation the trail was at on the plateau.