Oct. 6
We are on the last leg of our trip to complete the Arizona Trail. We have checked the weather and looks like we are going to have some great fall weather, warm days and cool nights!
We are on the move by 6 leaving this beautiful campsite. Spirit Kicks is still sound asleep, but know he will catch up to us. We are making some tentative plans about how to get picked up at the end of the hike together. We decide to walk to the shower/bathrooms where we went yesterday. The doors are unlocked so in we go. Just before leaving the building we hear a key turning in the lock, locking the doors. My heart skips a beat thinking that we might just have gotten locked in. I breather a sigh of relief when I notice there is a way to unlock the door, which I quickly do. There is a women outside who is getting ready to clean the bathrooms, telling us that these doors should have been locked. Glad they weren’t and glad we could get out. We head down to the trailhead and momentarily have a difficult time finding the start of the trail. Soon though we are on the trail and heading towards Utah. It is a beautiful morning and we check Far Out to make sure we are on track. We comment on the beautiful meadows and lack of wildlife. Down the road we go! Too far down the road we go! When we haven’t seen a sign for awhile, Don pulls out Far Out and relays the news that we have gone almost 2 miles out of our way! That is not the way we want to start the morning! Nothing to do but turn around, retrace our steps and perhaps not admire the meadows as much.
Coming in the other direction is Spirit Kick, he wonders if something is wrong. He also missed the turn, but he has barely missed the turn and then we all see the sign that shows where we should have gone. We hike together for a little while, then Spirit Kick takes off as he is faster than us. The south bounders are out in force today. We count 22 hikers. The majority are heading to the Mexican border, but several are finishing up the hike they started this Spring. It is a beautiful day and the Aspen are close to peak.
Great contrast with the Arizona blue sky.
One hiker that stops to talk has a distinct accent. When we ask her where she is from, she says Tahiti! This is the first hikers that we have met from that country. It makes it more unique, because we are going to Tahiti in Nov. We take our photos and plan to meet up in Papetee.
So fun to meet hikers from all over the world.
We find Spirit Kick waiting for us at the entrance to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. A park ranger leaves 6 gallons of water on a picnic table for hikers. We eat our lunch and I wish that we hadn’t hiked an extra 4 miles this morning. The scenery continues to be beautiful and overall the trail isn’t that difficult.
There is a sign for the Arizona Trail that includes the section of the Grand Canyon.
What a privilege to have hiked thru the Canyon!
We talk to a lot of the hikers and listen to their stories. We are going to meet Spirit Kick at Crystal Springs. It is a great water source of clear, cold water. Don and I decide to have dinner here and afterwards hike a little more. Even though the hiking hasn’t been hard, the extra 4 miles have added up to our energy level. Spirit Kick is going to camp near the East Rim Most likely there is going to be a frost tonight so we decided to camp before that and to find a place in the forest.
Miles hiked 18.5 on trail and @4 miles off trail
Oct. 7
Before we set up our tent last night, we headed over to see the sunset over the east Rim. This trail never ceases to amaze us with all the scenic views.
Our strategy worked and we had no frost on our tent when we woke up. There wasn’t any frost on the ground till we headed to our first water source, a wildlife drinker.
The water was cold and clear. Just what we want to see. These drinkers are put in by sportsman associations, some of them are quite elaborate.
As we headed down the valley, we came upon several meadows that were thick with frost.
We met a south bounder who said that he had to get up at 4 and start hiking because he was so cold. We are light hikers, but doubt if we will ever be ultra lite hikers as we like more comforts when it comes to sleeping bags and clothing.
We are enjoying the signs of the frost on the leaves.
Many miles today are thru wide open meadows.
We enjoy hiking thru the golden Aspen.
The trail today is a mix of up, down and flat. Most hikers comment that this area is all flat. We think that they have short memories. We make it to a water source called the Cement Trough. Spirit Kick is here and is debating about whether to camp here or not when a pick up truck pulls into where he was going to put his tent. After eating dinner here, we decide to move to a trail head about 2 miles away We have made contact with a trail angel who may be able to pick us up at the end of the trail. She is dropping some hikers off, however, if we decide to try to do it., we will have a lot of hiking to put in before the pick up. We make it to the Murphy Lake trailhead and quickly put up the tent. We look at Far Out and tentatively come up with a plan. If we can put a long day in tomorrow, a noon pick up may work for the following day.
Miles hiked 23
Oct. 8
It was a warm night as we are continually loosing elevation. we were up by 4;30 and on the trail at 5;45.
The trail according to Far Out is going to be mostly flat with lots of down. It sure has started that way,. we check out more aspen trees.
Never tire of them!
Today though we start the day off by being in a pine forest.
Can’t complain about this terrain when we are trying to make time.
We also walk thru large burned forests. It seems like Aspen trees replace a lot of the burned trees,
It is an eerie feeling walking thru these dead trees.
We are continuing to meet a lot of south bound hikers. Most of them are anxious to keep moving. We meet Tweeky, who is finishing up her hike by going from Utah to Flagstaff, the opposite of us. She tells us to wait as she would like to take our photo as the background is beautiful.
And then we take a photo of her!
A fun encounter!
We are looking forward to getting water at Umbrella tank. The report is that the water is clear and cold.
And it is…just have to avoid the swimmers
This is part of the water system that collects rain water and then pipes it to the trough.
Our next stop was at a trailhead that had we wanted we could have gone to Jacob Lake. Instead we took advantage of the cell service and got caught up on what was happening in the world. That was a mistake! Spirit Kick was able to contact the trail angel and gave her a heads up that we were going to try to be at the terminus by noon tomorrow.
We meet a couple of hikers that tell us we will have about 8 miles of very flat terrain coming up.
That was an accurate description, however they didn’t tell us that we would be hiking in a savanah
type environment. I was waiting for some elephants to appear on the horizon.
When we got back in the woods, we always appreciated the flowers.
We were going to check out a water source that had mixed reviews. We weren't out of water, but getting a little low. The name of this place was Rock Apron. It was under construction, but the description said that you could get water out of a large tire. The road to the tire was huge as was the destruction of all the trees that were cleared for 3 large containers that we assumed in the future will collect water. The tire did have water, but when Spirit Kick tried some he said even with some flavoring it still tasted like tire. We filled up a water container and hoped that we would not have to use it. We made it to the winter trailhead just as it was getting dark and the storm clouds were rolling in. We quickly put up our tent, but the storm bypassed us and no rain fell. We are tired, but hope that after a good night of sleep our bodies will be ready to roll tomorrow.
Miles hiked 26
Oct.9
This could be the day that our hike of the Arizona Trail comes to an end. If all goes as planned we should be at the terminus before noon. We are going to give it our best shot. It is 6 miles to the next water and we feel that we have enough to get us there. We decide to dump out the tire water and move on. We are on the trail by 5:15. There is no moon and barely a glimmer of light in the sky. With our lights on bright, well I should say Donna’s. Don is having some challenges with his. We slowly pick our way down the trail. This section of trail is not well defined and several times we check with Far Out to make sure we are indeed on the right path. Fortunately we are and move forward. Finally the sun comes up and we can move faster. With little water and not a lot of food our packs are light. The trail is not flat as we work our way up to ridges and down the other side. We almost starting hiking down a gully before seeing the trail to the right of us. We can not afford any extra miles today. Don checks to see how close we are to the water and he says we are really close, when it doesn’t shortly appear we realize that it was a straight line to the water not the trail way. Eventually we see the fence enclosure and the water source.
It is a good one and we fill up our bottles with enough water to get to the trailhead.
We climb up to a ridge.
And once at the top we see the colorful cliffs of Utah.
Down below we can make out the campground which is where the terminus monument is located,
Once again we are not expecting this view.
Spirit Kick who is now hiking with us, tells us that we are looking at the Wave which is a hard to get permitted area.
We work our way down the ridge encountering lots of switch backs. We also meet several hikers coming up the ridge. One hiker is carrying 5 liters of water. We tell him that isn’t necessary , but I don’t think that he believed us.
By 10;00 we are at the terminus! Wow we did it!
We check out the signs and take photos .
One of Don and I
And one of our trail family!
Spirit Kick, Peter Pan and Bigfoot
A poem by Dale Shewalter says it all!
We see a jeep driving down to the campground and out pops 3 hikers. Denise has arrived and shares cold orange juice and tasty apples with us.
Thank you Denise!
Denise drives down the 10 miles of bumpy dirt road before reaching the pavement that will take us to Page. She drops us off at the airport and we are able to rent a car that will take us back to Flagstaff where our van is parked.
The parting shot!
Miles hiked 11