Questions on Passage #14 & #15

[Kramirez]

Dear Hikers,

My partner and I will be visiting Arizona from Asheville, NC and plan to do some of the Arizona Scenic Trail. We will be arriving in late February and have four days. We were thinking about passage #14 & #15. Is it possible to do both in that amount of time? If so, is there a shuttle option at the end of #15? Or is it only an out and back option? If there is an option to only do one, which one is a favorite? Also, are bears an issue and do we need to make bear hangs? Lastly, how is the water situation going? I have been reading the forums and hearing it is pretty good but that levels have dropped in the last month. Thank you for all of your help. Hiker Kathy

[sandyfortner]

@Kramirez
14 and 15 are absolutely do-able in 4 days as long as you're a reasonably good hiker. Pretty easy sections. Shuttling may be a little tough from the end of 15, but you might be able to hitch. If you plan to stay at the Chalet in Oracle before starting at 14, you may want to contact Marni and see if she, or anyone she knows, could shuttle you. No bear concerns on these passages. There's a hiker coming through and he has been pretty good about posting water updates. Check the forum and water sources. We have more rain coming this weekend.

[Kramirez]

Thank you, what great information! We planned to camp the night before starting passage #14. Are there places to camp at the trailhead or do we need to stay at the Chalet in Oracle? Also, are there any other passages you would recommend for 4 days/3 nights? I rather liked the secluded description from the trail book. Lastly, this will be our first hike with carrying water. We know to plan for at least 1 gallon per day per person. Do we need to carry all 4 gallons per person? What do you usually take as a reserve in case the water sources are not great? Many thanks.

[prywreck]

@Kramirez
Friend & I just hiked passage 14. We stayed at Chalet Inn the night before (Nice Rooms). There is plenty of room to camp at the Tiger mine trail head in the parking area. The box at Freeman had about 8 full containers of water and passage 14 had water to filter at some of the wells. I carried 4 liters of water and came back with one liter left.

[Sredfield]

Cattle tanks in that country have water, and with the rain falling now they probably will for a while. Filter and treat it tho.

[garyc57]

My son and I are hiking #14 this Friday and Saturday. My wife and I cached 4 gallons near the middle. Probably over-kill, but better too much than not enough.

As an aside... the aztrail.org website says all the well and tank water belongs to the property owners, and says we have to get "permission", but never tells HOW to get that permission.

[rcorfman]

@garyc57
It seems like caching any water on passage 14 is overkill. There's plenty of water on that passage.

[mazatzal]

@rcorfman So why two drop boxes?

[rcorfman]

@mazatzal
I don't know, maybe because they're at the two ends and passages #13 and #15 are dry? My comment was about only doing #14, of which there are three good water sources on or near the trail.

[garyc57]

@garyc57
It seems like caching any water on passage 14 is overkill. There's plenty of water on that passage.

You're right, but I hike sooo slow, that stopping to filter water just kills the distance I can hike in a day. So, I cache, and carry just enough water to get to the cache.

The plan is to hike to the cache, eat dinner, sleep, eat breakfast, fill up the Geigerrig [shameless plug!], and hike the rest of the segment.

[Kramirez]

@prywreck Thank you so much for the information on Passage 14 & 15. Hike On!