No Longer On a Highway

I’ve officially made it to Flagstaff, AZ, a little over 200 miles down the Arizona Trail! It has been quite an adjustment for me completing these first couple hundred miles, which I’ll go into later, but first a recap and some photos of the past ten days through Northern Arizona.

My parents dropped my hiking partner, Colin, and me off at the Utah/Arizona border on November 2. I looked through water reports one more time on the app Guthook and saw someone posted the day before that no water existed between Jacob Lake, AZ and the North Kaibab Trailhead, approximately seventy miles. This was the absolute last thing I wanted to hear getting ready to start the trip. We had cached some water the night before at Murray Lake Trailhead, but I was worried it wouldn’t be enough. There were at least a few good water sources before the Murray Lake Trailhead, so we would just need a couple long water carries

While the water sources on the start of the trail may not look amazing, they are water. A common theme of many water sources for this trip will be holes in the ground or tanks (there is some flowing water though!). We also noticed that while we weren’t able to find the water sources immediately, we could usually tell where they were because flocks of birds would be very interested in a certain area, which was usually the water.

Leading up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon we saw only two other northbound hikers. The North Kaibab is all but closed for the winter. It is also freezing to camp up there right now as we had a couple mornings waking up to frozen water. We even hiked past many patches of snow.

Despite it’s loneliness, the North Kaibab had many moments of beauty with large meadows in valleys with spruces dotting the hillsides.

Also, in case anyone was wondering, we found at least four usable and decent water sources in between Murray Lake Trailhead and the North Kaibab Trailhead. While the others technically weren’t visible from the trail, we walked by a small pond literally right on the trail. But just to be safe we did a six liter water carry to our cached water and then an eight liter carry to get us to the North Rim. Colin thought this water source below was one of our best yet.

I secured a permit for us to stay at Cottonwood Campground in the canyon, so we camped on the border of the park and hiked to the camp the next day. I may or may not have had a minor melt down on the North Rim as a medical issue I’d been dealing with since the second day of this trip had finally made it so uncomfortable to walk that I was no longer enjoying myself. Luckily a phone call to mom can always calm me down and she convinced me that I just need to get to the South Rim to go to the clinic in the village.

A friend of mine and former co-worker at Babbit’s Backcountry, Joe, met us at Cottonwood with the plans to hike to Flagstaff with me. Joe has done more hiking than probably anyone and hikes ridiculously high mile days, but he agreed to slow down a bit to hike at my pace for awhile.

We woke up early to leave Cottonwood and arrive at Phantom Ranch, where we met to AZT south bounders traveling by mountain bike. Except for the canyon they were carrying there bikes on their backs. We talked to them later and they said they couldn’t walk the next day after hiking out the South Kaibab.

I had never hiked out of the South Kaibab before (only ran down it once) as I’ve had an obsession with the Bright Angel trail. Even my parents told me to give it a rest, so I finally hiked out on the South Kaibab, the official AZT, and have decided it’s my new favorite trail.

Joe and I took the rest of the afternoon to do chores in the Grand Canyon Village. I got the medicine I needed from the clinic and took care of my resupply.

The next day started the fastest pace I have ever set in my life. Joe convinced me I could do three back to back thirty mile days to make it to Flagstaff in three and a half days. The trail is pretty flat between the canyon and Flagstaff, so it seemed mostly reasonable. It still required walking basically non stop all day though.

Our first night we reached almost thirty-two miles. I reached an all new hiker trash low, where the two of us set up shop for the night in a pit toilet at a trailhead (sorry mom and dad!). Now before anyone starts judging (trust me, I’d be judging too) it was a very clean pit toilet (like crazy clean), it was freezing outside, and it was warm inside.

Day two we made it about twenty-nine miles, traveling through the Babbit’s Ranch. In the afternoon, after a day of ponderosa pine forests and a morning of flat ranch land we finally got a view of the San Francisco Peaks. While collecting water from a tank, we had some horses from a near by pen come out to greet us and try to lick the salt from our packs. We also had a gorgeous sunset to end the day.

The next day started our third, thirty mile day. Around noon Joe had to get off the trail into Flagstaff, by assistance of a trail angel, due to a migraine. By this time we were officially in the Coconino National Forest with the peaks now in reach. I ended up camping my first solo night near Snow Bowl Road.

The final morning I had just over twelve miles to make it to Buffalo Park. There are two routes that go through Flagstaff, the official route and the urban route. I chose the urban route because it goes by areas that I’ve already visited (Walnut Canyon) and I would like to be on my way to areas I’ve yet to see or haven’t seen for awhile. My boyfriend picked me up from the park and a friend will drop me off at Butler Ave where I will pick up the urban route back to the trail. Now I know I have a broken foot path, but I have run and hike so many miles over my past six years living here that I can survive skipping about three.

From here I travel on through Happy Jack and Blue Ridge to Pine where I get to pass all the prescribed burns we did for work this season.

I’m getting there, but my heart is not quite into this trail yet. I’ve legitimately wanted to quit the trail twice, something I never really considered on the PCT. Sure I had challenging days and I wanted to be home, but actually quitting never crossed my mind.  I’m not entirely sure why I’m stuck in this headspace, but I have at least a few reasons.

First, the AZT is drastically different from the PCT in terms of usage. The PCT is a highway of hikers, whereas I’m at the tail end of an already low numbers hiking season (we’ve confirmed at least two hikers behind me). Even though I’ve had two hiking partners, the trail just feels  lonely. While I knew the AZT is under traveled compared to the PCT, I miss meeting new hikers and hearing their experiences. Heading into this next section I’m most worried about how I’ll handle hiking on my own.

Second, next to the Grand Canyon, the San Francisco Peaks, and one view into the Saddle Mountain Wilderness, the trail has been kind of boring. I’ve been told that Northern Arizona is like this and the real magic of the trail starts once I drop off the Mogollon Rim, but even still, it’s been challenging finding reasons to continue when the scenery is less than stunning and landscapes I see everyday for work.

Third, I think I exaggerated the time frame in my head too much. While the trail only takes about a month and a half to complete (at my speed anyway) it’s still 800 miles. When I started the PCT I knew I was committing six months of life and to just settle in, but now I feel like I need to rush to finish as fast as I can because “it won’t take as long.” So my mind keeps wanting that finish line to be tomorrow.

Fourth, the PCT traveled through three different states that weren’t Arizona. For whatever reason it just felt like I had to continue to finish because I was so far away and it would be a major hassle to return again. Arizona is my home state and everything is so close. Part of me almost wants to just section hike it and call it good because it’s literally right in my backyard. Then I could get back to family and friends.

Finally, I feel just a little burnt out. I finished work on October 25, moved out of my apartment in Flagstaff October 30, drove up to Utah November 1 and then started November 2. I was so excited and ready to start the trail I forgot to give myself a moment to breathe.

Despite all that though, so many people are cheering me on and it’s about time that I start believing in myself too. This is something that I struggled with on the PCT as well, and while finishing the PCT helped my confidence, I still struggle to find myself capable. One way or another, if I just keep convincing myself to just try another hundred miles I’ll eventually finish the trail, right?

I have so many things to look forward to that I’m using those to help keep me on the trail. I love desert views and have been told they’re spectacular. I get to backpack a week with my dad, without having a boy scout troop attached (he used to be a scoutmaster). Friends would like to visit for the day. My co-worker and friend will join me around Tucson. My PCT hiking partner will finish the trail with me. I’ll have completed my most solo hiking and camping nights ever (though how successfully completed is yet to be determined).

Overall, so many things to look forward to that I need to focus on instead of worrying about the outcome of not finishing. While that would even be a learning lesson in itself, I can do this and people have told me I can do this, so it’s time for me to start believing it.