Roosevelt to Kearny Archives - Yeti Hikes

Arizona Trail Day 29: Kearny Zero Day

Yeti — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 20:20:03 +0000

0 miles
524.6 AZT mile marker

Today was a zero day. I am 2 days ahead of where I need to be based on a notional schedule to get me to the end of the trail the day before Thanksgiving.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I needed to mentally try to dig myself out of the slump I’m in and it never hurts to give my body a break.

I did all the normal town things including laundry and getting my sleeping bag in the dryer to drive out any latent moisture.

Not much else to say; I ate, relaxed, and got myself set up for the next stages of the trail where I won’t have too many good town amenities, though I will have shorter stretches between being able to resupply with food.

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Arizona Trail Day 28: Gila River into Kearny

Yeti — Sun, 06 Nov 2022 20:20:03 +0000

15.7 miles
524.6 AZT mile marker

It was another night with a lot of condensation. At one point during the night I could tell even my bag was getting wet again, but then some wind picked up and I think helped dry things slightly. That didn’t matter too much though since I was headed to town today where I could get everything dry easily.

I set off at a good pace, with town drawing me in. I hadn’t gotten a shower or done laundry in more than a week, and I needed a good town stop.

The trail followed the Gila River, but kept its distance, winding through the hills next to the river. It never really directly approached the river, so it wasn’t actually like it was following a major waterway. I had filtered enough water at camp to get me to town, so it didn’t matter that I didn’t actually get to the river as I crossed dry wash after dry wash.

The trail was generally flat with some small gradual climbs and descents as needed to continue a line on the side hill traverse, but it wasn’t very difficult. There wasn’t too much in the way of scenery either. The terrain was gentle and not too dramatic, so it was just an average desert landscape.

I was struggling again today with motivation, and was only focused on doing the miles until town. I will be taking a day off in town to try to change my perspective since just doing the miles is not a sustainable way to finish this trail. I kept looking at my trail app to see how many miles were left to town.

I passed Druid whose very detailed trail notes I had been following on my trail app, but I was hiking faster and I continued to drive forward.

I came to a point where the trail paralleled a railroad track. I considered just following the tracks since it was a lot shorter distance to get to the same place, but it appeared it could get narrow along the route and I decided not to risk not having a place to bail if a train came. Hiep later told me he took the tracks and there was no such concern and he really enjoyed them. You just never know.

It was getting warm again, especially since I was at low elevation, and I had to take a couple brief stops. However, at long last I made it to the trailhead, and walked about a mile out to the main road.

It took about 15 minutes for me to catch a hitch into the town of Kearny with a Ed, who has picked up hikers 3 days in a row now. He took me right to the Inn where I was staying.

My room wasn’t ready so I hung out in the attached bar with a couple cool beverages which were given for free since my room was late being ready. Works for me. Hiep showed up. We are sharing the double room.

Since we are taking tomorrow off, we didn’t have to focus on our town chores and just hung out for the night. We had the largest size pizza that the only open restaurant in town, and may have had some more drinks before heading to bed.

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Arizona Trail Day 27: Gila River

Yeti — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 19:20:03 +0000

20.8 miles
508.9 AZT mile marker

It wasn’t a good night. When I awoke, my sleeping bag was absolutely soaked with condensation. The pavilion did nothing to keep it off of me. I’ve never gotten a down bag so wet on a trip, but there was nothing I could do about it now so I stuffed it in its stuff sack where I’m sure the water would migrate into the down. The rest of my gear was wet too; my puffy, food bag, etc. Such a hassle. I guess I won’t be camping without my tent again on this hike.

I started off in a pretty glum mood between my wet gear and not yet having confirmation that my next resupply package with a new pair of shoes had shipped. The scenery was great with a rocky prominence nicely bathing in the sunrise as I gradually made my way around it. However, I just couldn’t get into the hike today. I was just thinking about the miles I had to do in 2 stretches; to a water source and then on to camp at the Gila River.

As I circled the rocky prominence, I had to put on an audiobook to get me motivated for the day. I shortly met some Grand Enchantment Trail hikers and we chatted for a bit and shared trail info, that helped pick me up some as I traversed rolling hills and faced off with cows.

Gradually, the rolling hills turned more rugged with rocky cliff faces, which I was not expecting for today. I’ve been doing very little reading on the trail ahead so it is more of a surprise. The terrain remained desert with tons of cactus and scrub which continued until I got to a rainwater collector built for hikers.

I took a good break at the collector for lunch, to put my sleeping bag in the warm direct sun to get some of the water out of it, and to look at the surrounding increasingly dramatic terrain. This really helped me to do a reset over lunch. I had plenty of time to get to where I was planning to camp and the next water source, but it was good to know that I didn’t have to worry about getting my bag dry since I had already taken care of that. I was planning a “shorter” 21 mile day, but I wanted to get to the Gila River early and try to relax by it to help come through my trail funk.

Long distance backpacking can be a much bigger mental than physical challenge. Though many things can go wrong with your body like foot issues, shin splints, blisters, pulled muscles, Achilles issues, etc., if you are careful and a little lucky you can avoid most of those issues. However, you also have to want to mentally hike 800 miles through the desert with limited water sources, a hot sun, deal with the wear and tear on your body and your pack weight. I’ve also done a lot of this hike solo even if I am leap frogging with other hikers. That means that even if I am not enjoying the trail at the moment, I have to reach into myself for the fortitude to continue down the path. You can’t just quit the first time you encounter a challenge. You are in it for the long haul and have to persevere through the easy and enjoyable as well as hard challenging times.

I seem to be mentally going through a slump on the trail, and need to figure out how to escape it to start enjoying the trail again versus just pounding out the miles.

Anyways, after lunch I was feeling better and even hiked for a while without an audiobook. The trail stayed high above a valley, climbing to a saddle where the valley turned into a canyon. It was great to see the more rugged terrain and I took a couple breaks just to enjoy it since I had plenty of time to get to camp.

I exited the canyon and shifted to following a different watercourse with similar rocky cliffs and prominences dominating it. It was great to get into some more rugged and scenic terrain like this.

It did get warm towards the end of the day, and I had to take a break in the shade at one point. The trail flattened out as I approached the Gila River and the trail’s lowest point.

When the trail turned to follow the river at a distance, I followed a 4×4 track briefly to get to the river itself. I found a campsite nearby and planned to relax next to the river since I got to camp early. I collected some muddy river water and had to use my settling agent for the first time of the trip which worked good enough. It’s been a constant struggle on the trip to keep my water filter clean enough to filter at a reasonable rate. I have to frequently clean it and spend some more time on it at each town stop.

As I was just starting to relax, some off roaders arrived at the other side of the river. The river could be driven across, and one group attempted it. It was a family in a 4 seater. They got most of the way across and got stuck. Trying to get out, everyone got soaked. The 2 young children started crying, the mother who was driving also started crying because she got it stuck and everyone wet. The dad tried to get it out while still managing to hold onto his beer, but it was no use. Eventually the others in their group towed them out backwards. It was not quite the relaxing sit by the river I was expecting, so I just went back to my campsite.

Then there was some sort of high caliber machine gun fire going on in the distance for hours, some people set up camp across the river and lit off some extremely loud firecrackers, and there was a lot of noise from off-roaders in the area. Not really was I was expecting, but I was already set up and it was getting dark so there wasn’t much I could do.

There was a great sunset to offset all the commotion. Then I put in my ear plugs for the night, though thankfully everything died down by the time I went to sleep.

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Arizona Trail Day 26: Exiting Superstition Wilderness

Yeti — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 19:20:03 +0000

24.1 miles
488.1 AZT mile marker

It definitely got cold last night. Not the coldest night of the trip, but cold. It was also very humid and damp out which I knew would lead to condensation in my tent. When I woke during the night, it was building up thick, so I opened one door to try to ventilate. When I woke up in the morning, my entire tent was coated in a layer of frost, and there was some on my quilt as well.

I slept well, but it was hard to get out of my bag, looking at my rock hard frozen socks and shoes. They were absolutely solid. I put my socks in my pockets a bit to melt them, and beat on my shoes to loosen them up a bit. I did everything I could from my sleeping bag, but there came the point where I had to give it up and commit to cold feet.

It took some work to get my feet into my shoes. I had to stand up and work my feet for a bit just to get them in. Then I raced to pack up my frozen tent, just putting it in its stuff sack laden with frost. The key to get warm is to get moving, so I set off as quickly as I could.

The trail was going up a valley that was pretty lush and thick with grasses and reeds. All of these were coated in a thick layer of frost that was quite beautiful and also cold as I pushed my way through them and got more and more ice on me. All I could do was keep moving.

Moving kept me warm enough, though I was continually rewetted with all of the ice I was pushing through.

I went up the valley for a while before coming to a saddle. The temperature was increasing, and enough to let me start delayering. It is always hard to get started on the cold mornings, but if you just do it, it gets better soon enough.

Down and up again to the last ridge in the Superstitions and I took a break before starting the long gradual descent. My shoes were still soaked at this point since they kept getting rewetted by the vegetation. Heading down though, the slope was facing the sun and had already dried, letting me finally start drying my lower half.

It was a nice descent through mesquite and then following a desert wash. It was not particularly dramatic, but just pleasant. I got back into cactus country with loads of saguaro.

I got to a trailhead and saw I could walk a dirt road to save a couple trail miles, but opted for the trail since I had the time and I was hiking the trail, not the road. The trail was actually nice and easy, flatly winding its way through the hills with tons of colorful rocks and cactus.

I also had to decide what to do about water for the night. I could either go a bit off trail to get some water and carry it until I camped, or I could hike 10 miles to a water cache. Obviously I decided to hike 10 miles because who wants to carry water if they don’t have to.

This put me in a slight daylight crunch, so I had to keep moving to get to the cache by dark. I had the energy though.

I passed through a tight canyon and wash which has been rare on this trail. I expected a lot more of that. Then it was rolling hills for the rest of the day with some dramatic mountains in the distance. The whole afternoon was very pleasant scenery.

I crossed US-60 and shortly came to the cache which had plenty of water and a trailhead. The trailhead was empty and there were a couple picnic pavilions. I had been planning to camp around there, and the pavilions made the decision for me. I just spread out my gear beneath one and I’ll camp without my tent. I’ve got a picnic table, water, and a privy. Nice setup. There is road noise in the distance, but I have ear plugs so it should be fine. The pavilion should keep out some of the super bright moonlight too.

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Arizona Trail Day 25: Stormy Superstition Wilderness

Yeti — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 19:20:03 +0000

19.4 miles
464 AZT mile marker

I didn’t get the best night’s sleep due to lights and road noise. There were a few rain squalls that rolled through, but they weren’t bad and the wind dried my tent by morning.

I had to get organized in the morning; package my food, find water, and a little more power, but I was ready to hit the trail not much later than usual since I was awake early due to not sleeping well.

Heading out of town, the pack is always the heaviest, and there is usually a climb, and this was no exception. The trail wandered around for a bit and followed a steep road before settling in tracing a dry creek bed into the hills.

The creek trail was pretty lush, and the cows really liked it too since the trail was about paved in their droppings. I was feeling a bit sluggish in the morning due to either the beers or lack of sleep, or the combination.

After a while, the trail took to rapidly crossing the dry wash which got annoying, so I just walked straight up the wash until the trail finally left it. It was so much easier.

It had started to spit some occasional rain drops, so I geared up as I continued uphill steeply on a 4×4 track. Near the top, I came across a hunter that had just got back from a month of running aid in Ukraine. Interesting chat and of course he offered me food and water which I didn’t need.

I entered the Superstition Wilderness and climbed to a high point with the wind picking up. Heading down I ran into Hiep who had found a nice sheltered spot to hide and have his lunch. I crowded in for mine as well. I’m glad I did since the weather decided to turn nasty after that.

The trail followed the top of a ridge for a while, and there was a strong cross wind. The clouds were also low and blowing directly across the ridge at times. Then it started with a mix of rain, snow, and hail, driven hard by the wind.

I was initially just slogging through the weather, but it quickly energized me and I came to love the experience of powering through with the weather unable to stop me. I ended up thoroughly enjoying the harsh weather on the ridge.

Turning off the ridge, I was finally able to put my rain pants on, out of the wind. My pants were wet, but I figured they would dry under the rain pants. However, I was hesitant to actually wear the new rain pants since there are a lot of grabby and pokey things reaching into the trail like mesquite. I didn’t want to destroy the pants the first time I used them. My fears were realized as the vegetation seemed much more attracted to the rain pants than my hiking pants, but I just did my best to shoo them away with my hiking poles, but it was a constant battle. The trail is frequently overlapped with vegetation.

Off the ridge, I quickly began to run out of steam. When I turned uphill again, I was almost dead in the water. I tried some electrolyte tabs and they immediately picked me up and I powered up the next mountain ridge.

The Superstitions were a bit rocky and rugged with cliffs and rock prominences. I couldn’t fully see everything due to the low clouds and weather, but it was nice terrain.

A few more ups and downs and it was getting late in the day. I grabbed water at a stream crossing and decided to get the next tent spot. I had to hike for a bit to find somewhere slightly sheltered. There were many open places, but I expected those would get very cold with the weather clearing overnight. With darkness approaching, I found a good enough spot beneath some pines.

I set up camp and ended up getting in my tent shortly thereafter since my feet were getting cold. This was actually the first time of the trip they got wet, but it was quickly approaching freezing as night closed in.

I hid in my sleeping bag and got warmed up and had dinner. Hiep rolled in and set up as well. When I got out of my tent around 8 to pee before bed, my rain pants which I had left hanging on the tent were already frozen solid. That didn’t take long, and the temperature was dropping quickly. I knew I would have some gear issues in the morning, but there was nothing I could do about it other than keep my water filter warm. Expecting a cold night, I closed down my tent and went to bed.

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