Class of 2014 NOBO

[pops c]

Drought Maps Archives:
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/MapsAndDa ... rison.aspx

Under the dropdown menu “Contiguous U.S.” select “Arizona”. Select last years date on the right side to compare maps. See how much better off we are this year; and it’s raining again!

Now, GET ON THE TRAIL!

[thedistributor]

Hi Mark,
Read your post about your partner cancelling out on you. Thats funny because the same thing happened to me and I would rather go with some one than do it alone. I was going to start at the Picket Post TH passage # 18 any time early April. My final objective if all goes well would be Flagstaff. I live in Scottsdale so logistics to getting to the TH at any time are not a problem. I have experience hiking and like you would be comfortable doing 10 to 12 miles a day to start out. I have done the GC rim to rim to rim twice also have done the southern section of the PCT and others. If you would like to discuss further please call.
Bill Considine
401-265-7473

[thedistributor]

@mark s
Hi Mark,
Not sure if I sent reply correctly. Please check forum.
Bill

[blisterfree]

@thedistributor As one of the newer mods here at the AZT forum, yours truly made a rookie mistake by placing those March *2013* posts by Mark under the Class of 2014 topic. I've since redirected them to a more suitable haven, here: viewtopic.php?f=78&t=7081&start=100

I'm trying to towel off, but am obviously still a little wet behind the ears.

[blisterfree]

@Sredfield Water is available at Trough Springs if you're equipped to go fishing, per this recent report: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=445337

[blisterfree]

@w h a Info on Freeman Road access: viewtopic.php?t=8111

[wha]

thanks blister free, I did skim that topic. I decided to take my jeep just in case. some holes and rocks at the river crossing but a car could have made it all the way.

I dropped off 12 gallons at Freeman cache. I had planned on splitting it with flo/kel but there was only 2 1/2 gals at Freeman and 2 were reserved. so now there is 12 and 1/2 free.

since I was that far I grabbed 4 more gals at the Kearny IGA and dropped them off at the kel/flo box. it now has 6 1/2 gals.

[blisterfree]

Whoa there W H A - That's some seriously impressive turnaround! Thanks!! You have gifted all cellular-based hiking life with the most precious commodity one could hope for.

I really wasn't clear on the accessibility of Freeman Road to passenger cars, and neither was the recent thread I referenced. So thanks for clarifying, and hopefully that'll encourage others to follow suit in the future. A HALF GALLON at Freeman was an utterly sorry statistic for mid-March, though perhaps the trail in that area is becoming more popular these days among section hikers. Thru-hikers may be afoot earlier than usual this year too, with the non-winter Arizona's had. (I would have expected to see a bunch of empties in the cache though, since most hikers and cyclists will refill their own containers and move on. Which is fine. Ideally those in a position to pack out empties will replace them with full bottles when doing so.)

[writelots]

@Sredfield Water is available at Trough Springs if you're equipped to go fishing, per this recent report: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=445337

Interesting... it's such a well-placed water source - it'd be great if we could get it more "regular". Maybe a few words of encouragement and a roll of duct tape? :wlift:

[wha]

Whoa there W H A - That's some seriously impressive turnaround! Thanks!! You have gifted all cellular-based hiking life with the most precious commodity one could hope for.

I really wasn't clear on the accessibility of Freeman Road to passenger cars, and neither was the recent thread I referenced. So thanks for clarifying, and hopefully that'll encourage others to follow suit in the future. A HALF GALLON at Freeman was an utterly sorry statistic for mid-March, though perhaps the trail in that area is becoming more popular these days among section hikers. Thru-hikers may be afoot earlier than usual this year too, with the non-winter Arizona's had. (I would have expected to see a bunch of empties in the cache though, since most hikers and cyclists will refill their own containers and move on. Which is fine. Ideally those in a position to pack out empties will replace them with full bottles when doing so.)

It's a nice drive across there for a little scenery too, made a nice loop going up to Kearny and around to Florence.

There were 12 empties at Freeman which I took home to recycle. Left 2 that were labeled they'd be picked up. The Flo-Kel cache had empties too, but I think someone refills them. They, and the full jugs (open tops), were labeled with marker "Kearny water". I left those.

[Sredfield]

@Sredfield Water is available at Trough Springs if you're equipped to go fishing, per this recent report: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=445337

Interesting... it's such a well-placed water source - it'd be great if we could get it more "regular". Maybe a few words of encouragement and a roll of duct tape? :wlift:

Managing and maintaining springs is a skill set the ATA desperately needs. Just what one should do if you want to improve a spring flow is a mystery to me, as is where to get the knowledge. All this exacerbated by the time required to track it down. I am told you can damage them if you don't know what you are doing.

[writelots]

@Sredfield

I am told you can damage them if you don't know what you are doing

.
And that would be disaster. I wonder if we could get some support training from folks in range management from one of the Universities. I know that water management means even more to the ranchers than to hikers (dollar signs floating on the water), so there has to be some solid research out there. Trough Spring is a mystery, as I've seen it full of water in exceedingly dry seasons and bone dry when there was water elsewhere. It'd be tremendous to know more about how all of that works.