19.2 miles
678.6 AZT mile marker
Another frosted tent night though again it didn’t feel that cold. Kevin and I ended up getting ready at the same time and set out together around sunrise.
There were first some rolling hills that gradually made way to some more mixed terrain with dramatic cliffs and some swirling rock layers. We pressed forward and got to Colossal Cave where we would be resupplying when it opened. I had a resupply package, but Kevin was hoping for a good hiker box and lucked out. He was able to fully resupply from the hiker box so he wouldn’t have to go to Vail which was logistically challenging.
We relaxed at the cave for a couple hours. I had ice cream, iced tea, and when the café opened I got fried mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and chicken strips. They specialized in fried food and didn’t have anything fresh unfortunately, but it wasn’t trail food so it was good.
We did see a coati which lived in the cave and is sort of like a raccoon, but it was too quick for me to get a picture.
I dried out my frozen tent and we worked on our gear and set off.
The trail was quite a bit flatter after the cave. Just low desert terrain with grasses and bushes and occasional cactus. There wasn’t too much of note though it wasn’t a bad hike.
We passed some equestrians, one of whom wrote the first guide to the AZT. We took a break at a flowing stream. The equestrians came by again and gave us an apple and carrots which was nice.
We got some water from the stream but it tasted alkaline and there was some very bright green algae in it. Not ideal but probably drinkable. However, there was a water cache shortly, so we dumped out the nasty water and replaced it with the bottled water from the cache which tasted much better for once. We didn’t know this source wasn’t the best; other hikers had reported it as good. I haven’t been relying on caches at all this trip, but this was the first one that I was thankful for. We could have planned better and carried more water from the cave, but we didn’t know the stream wasn’t a good source.
Flat desert for the rest of the day and easy walking. It was warm but not too bad and we made good time. We crossed under I-10, our last interstate and a few miles later made camp at the first spot we had seen in a while.
Hiep walked through Vail to resupply, and he got ahead of us per a trail register. Not sure how far he is ahead.
Today wasn’t the most scenic day, but it was a nice day with a good “town” stop and some nice easy hiking.
