I was awakened this morning at 4:00 a.m. to coughing.  It wasn’t mine.  Some hiker was night hiking and decided to take a break near my tent and smoke some weed, which led to a long coughing fit.  For some reason, they just stayed there by my tent for 5 minutes coughing.  I was about to shout out to them to move on when they did.  Their light was shining directly on my tent, so I’m sure they knew someone was there.  I just have no idea why they were so rude to sit there and wake me up and keep me awake.  It took me a while, but I was able to eventually get back to sleep.

As I started hiking, I was just thinking about how I’ve been on the Arizona Trail for about 40 miles in total, and I’ve had two pretty negative experiences with hikers being rude assholes.  One of the things that I’ve missed about long-distance backpacking is the community.  When I hiked the AT, there were a lot of unique hikers, and some were pretty eccentric, but everyone I met meant well, and even the oddest seemed harmless.  I did meet a couple of great hikers on this trail already, but then another stole my food and the one woke me up this morning.  So I’m batting .50 right now.  This got me to wondering if things have changed since I hiked the AT or if I’ve just run into some unique assholes.  I’d like to think the latter, but I have heard that with the uptick in long-distance backpacking, there’s also a minority of people doing it with not the best intentions, just for social media and their own ego.

Anyways, I don’t know what to make of it yet, but it didn’t give me the warm fuzzy feeling that long-distance backpacking on a social trail would be as enjoyable as it was for me previously.

I didn’t see the sunrise, but I did see the effects through the trees with clouds above reflecting the sunlight.  That’s what I set off to hiking this morning.  It didn’t get as cold as I thought it would, but I camped under some pines to try to hold in some more heat.  In some of the open fields that I crossed, there was a little bit of frost, but that’s not surprising.

I didn’t sleep well last night, for the 3rd night in a row.  I just go through phases like this sometimes.  I probably only slept a couple of hours each of the last three nights.  Not the best situation with all the physical exertion from hiking.  I need to restore overnight to recharge my body and prepare for the abuse I’m about to put it through the next day.

I was mostly packed already, so I had my breakfast of four cookies from the Jacob Lake bakery and headed out.  It was 2.2 miles to the trailhead, and I had waited until it was light out in hopes of getting a hitch.  I ended up walking the whole way back to the trailhead with only about 10 vehicles passing.  Oh well, not the end of the world.  However, I was really struggling this morning.  The lack of sleep had me start the day exhausted, one of my shoes had a pressure point, my right hand was still swollen and sore, and I was still pretty pissed off about my food being stolen and not having a good resupply for the next week.  I was really down and on the verge of crying on the way to the trail.  The immersion in the hike, with it being a long-distance and a lifestyle, not just a weekend trip, can make the hikes a lot more emotional.

So I’m reading my Kindle in my sleeping bag while cowboy camping this morning to kill a few minutes before the sun rose.  I’ve got one hand holding my Kindle, and all the sudden, something latched on to it hard!  It’s dark and I can’t see anything.  I shake off whatever it is, and I see a large bird with a tan and black spotted chest flying away from me.

An owl or something had dove in and grabbed my hand with it’s talons for a midnight snack.  It was dead silent flying and it was dark, so it must have been an owl.

I cleaned up with alcohol and Neosporin and bandaged it best I could on the trail.  I didn’t use that hiking pole today, and my hand is sore.  I hope it doesn’t get infected.

How bizarre…  I’ve never heard of anything like that before.

I didn’t sleep well last night, and it wasn’t because of the coyotes howling and yipping in the not too far-off distance.  At least it was a new moon, and there were a billion stars and the Milky Way above me.  So, I saw many shooting stars, which I’ve seen every night that I’ve looked for them.  I was ready to hit the trail as soon as it was light enough today.

It was one of the warmer nights that I’ve had out here last night.  I didn’t even have my hat on for the whole night, which is a first since very early on the trip.  Also, my socks and insoles dried overnight, though my shoes were still damp.  I guess an advantage of the dry desert air.  That never would have dried in other places I frequent overnight.

I put my feet into my dry socks and dry-ish shoes and proceeded to immediately cross the Paria River and get them wet again.  At least they weren’t wet when I put my feet in them, which is the hard part.

Where I was, the Paria River did a bunch of tight switchbacks.  Early on, I found myself looking around and appreciating the canyon a lot more than I was late in the day yesterday, which validates my decision to stop a little bit early since I wasn’t enjoying it too much being tired.  The cliff walls were sheer, and as I progressed into the canyon, they got taller and taller.  There were some big alcoves like in some other canyons I have seen, and in general, just great rock and views along with a relatively easy “trail”.

The wind performed an audible early last night, coming from the complete opposite direction for the rest of the night from when I set up camp.  It was early enough that I reversed my gear inside my tent to shield me better from the wind.  It didn’t actually get too cold, though.  Since I was close to the border with Arizona and daylight savings time will be ending this weekend, I preemptively set my devices to Arizona time which will effectively give me back to West Coast time with no time zone shift.  I’m just going by the sun anyways; that’s all that matters, but I needed my alarm to go off at the correct time so I didn’t miss an hour of hiking time.

I was ready to hit the trail when the sun rose.  That was about the time that others started arriving in the trailhead parking lot for the Wave.  I was the first one at the gate.  I repeated a bit of trail that I did yesterday since I couldn’t camp in the wilderness, and it was pretty easy for the most part.  There was a little bit on the Wire Pass Trail that I had not done yesterday, and it involved one spot with down climbing on a rope and a sketchy log.  But plenty of people do that every day, so I was more than capable.

After scarfing down a big bowl of oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, Deena drove me back to the trailhead.  I could have hitched, but my last two experiences with this road weren’t that great, and I wanted to hit the trail early to allow myself time to enjoy today.  I started hiking at the crack of dawn once again.

At first, I followed Buckskin Wash.  The wash started as one of those glorified drainage ditches, but canyon walls soon started to grow around it.  They progressively grew taller as I went down the canyon.  I stayed in the wash for a while, but it turned meandering with occasional potholes, which made for slower going.  So, I took to the game trails which generally followed the sides of the wash.  Much easier hiking.  I did take quite a few pictures in the canyon.  It was pretty scenic with red rock and the rising sun.  I enjoyed that section and thought that meant there must be a lot more to offer for the upcoming section of Buckskin since there’s an actual trail down that.

You would think a zero day would be relaxing, but they always manage to get really busy.  I was busy the whole day: getting my resupply, and most importantly, I needed to put resupply caches at Jacob Lake and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  There wasn’t any way for me to mail supplies, so Deena let me borrow her car and place the caches while she was working.

I had been debating going to the Wave lottery to see if I could get a permit for tomorrow since it would fit my day pretty well.  After talking to Deena, I decided to give it a shot.  There were 52 groups applying for four spots, and somehow, I won a spot!  It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if I didn’t win, but it’s great that I did since the Wave is right next to where I’m hiking anyways, and I want to see as much as I reasonably can on this trip through the area.

I placed my cache at Jacob Lake, and on my way there, I saw a couple of backpackers walking along the road.  Of course, I picked them up and took them to the trailhead since that’s where I was going anyways.  They’re hiking the Arizona Trail south, which is coincident with the Hayduke in this area, so I asked them for info on the trail behind.  Sounds like there’s good water in the area, which is great news since I was unsure.  Good luck 250 and Mika.

I got to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and scoped out electricity to recharge my battery bank when I got there.  I went to the store to see about where I could stash my food supply.  The store agreed to hold it for me until I got there, which is great!

Then it was just back home to finish up my town chores and make and eat dinner, with more fresh food!  A good night and a great stop with Deena and Steve.

Once again, I was up and ready to go before the sun was ready to go.  I waited a few minutes to hit the road.  There was a good-looking sunrise behind No Man’s Mesa, but all I could see was the reflection in the clouds.

As the weatherman predicted, it didn’t get too cold last night.  Some clouds rolled in, which helps hold in the day’s heat.  Once again, I was up and ready to roll before it was light enough to walk.  I think I just need to set my alarm back a few minutes.  The day’s length is changing rapidly right now, and I can definitely notice the difference from when I started the trail to now and the amount of daylight I have.  Sunrise is about 7:40, and sunset is about 6:40.  I had almost an hour extra when I started the trail.

I was pretty low on energy this morning, probably because I didn’t sleep much last night; not sure why.  The trail continued as it had through the pine forest below the rim of Bryce.  A couple of miles from where I camped, I intersected the actual Hayduke once again.  Occasionally, the trail would rise and cross a saddle, and I could see the rim of Bryce, but for the most part, it was buried.  I was ready for a change in pace and was getting bored with the scenery.