28.1 miles
444.6 AZT mile marker
I once again set an alarm so I could be on the trail at sunrise. Today was going to be a big day. I decided that I would hike into town today rather than spend another night on trail as planned since the last water source before town was only a few miles from where I camped and that means that I would have to carry a lot of water for most of the day if I wanted to camp again. I could do this, especially since my food load is light now just before town, but I decided it would just be simpler and easier to go to town, and I thought the mileage was feasible based on some other longer days out here.
I hit the trail at full steam, especially since it was on the 4×4 track it followed at the end of the day yesterday. It would follow this for several more easy miles. I enjoyed the sunrise while I was hiking, and soon I met a northbounder, Magician, who said his friend Mudhole was up ahead with his vehicle. I greeted Mudhole when I got to him, and he offered to top off my water and take my trash. There haven’t been any trash cans on this section of trail, and though it was my last day before town, I took him up on his offers. Hikers love getting rid of their trash instead of carrying the dead weight.
The trail was similar to yesterday in the beginning, with mountains covered in boulders, which continued when I got to actual trail after Pidgeon Spring where I filled up with 3 liters of water.
I was going strong and pushing hard today, but still stopping to take lots of pictures. I entered the Four Peaks Wilderness and the trail went around a large mountain which appeared to have four peaks, The mountain was more solid exposed rock with layers apparent, but it hosted a lot of vegetation which was changing colors for fall. I’m continuously hitting fall colors on the deciduous trees as I head south.
My motivation to keep hiking fast remained high throughout the day. Due to the limited daylight this time of the year, I knew that I would have to push hard to make it to town before dark. I only took a couple short breaks and went as fast as I could the rest of the day.
The trail wound through the mountains, staying mostly level or gradually descending throughout the day. There was good color from the trees and a constantly changing view of the mountains with the trail wrapping around them.
It got warmer as I descended and I started to wonder if I had gotten enough water at the last spring. Not much I could do about it now though.
As I descended, the alpine terrain changed to desert, and I came across my first saguaro cactus of the trip. They are so iconic in shape and easy to identify. I was happy to see this change in flora as yet another example of the land changing as I travel it.
I started to lose steam towards the end of the day since I was doing so many miles and it was getting warmer as I descended. The rocky ground was also getting to my feet, which are starting to get sore from all of the pounding. I had to whittle off a little bit of one of my insoles because I could tell a blister was coming on at the seam between the insole and shoe. It helped a bit.
At long last, I got down to the road where the trail crossed a bridge over the Roosevelt Lake dam. From here I could either take the road into town or continue on the slightly longer trail. I debated but opted for the trail since I still had enough daylight. I think that was ultimately the wrong decision as the trail did some more rocky climbing which made me thirsty for my dwindling water supply. It also passed a bunch of heavily used cow pasture which wasn’t that great. I did however steal some water from a cow trough surrounded by cows.
At long last I made it to town just before dark, and before the store which had my resupply package closed. Hiep was there, who I was not expecting to catch along with several other hikers. We all went for dinner at the restaurant where I got some charge on my devices. There is no place to stay in town, so hikers are allowed to stay in a hiker shed between a parking lot and the road, or set up tents nearby. There’s no power, showers, or laundry, so it is a limited town stop. I have worked up a pretty good stink from all of the warm hiking, but there is nothing to do about it except use my wet wipes.
Hiep bought us some beer and we worked our way through it while sitting in the hiker shed watching rain squalls roll through. I had gotten my tent up just in time to avoid the first one.
We stayed up late to finish the beer and it was a great time chatting and catching up.
