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| Hiking | 19.10 Miles |
2,728 AEG |
| | Hiking | 19.10 Miles | 6 Hrs 1 Min | | 3.17 mph |
| 2,728 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | Sometimes I am my own worst enemy. I headed out to southern Arizona with Chris, Jason and Wally to knock out another section of the Arizona Trail. We all met over at Wally’s as our rally point. Wally and Chris were going to drive to separate ends of the trail and we were going to do a key exchange when we passed each other. This really is a great way to handle some of these longer sections. However, in my haste to exchange vehicles I forgot a couple of key components. My Garmin, and even worse…….my hiking shoes! ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") I was wearing a pair of Sketchers. Honestly, I already hated these shoes going into the hike. At best, these are house shoes. They certainly have no business being on a trail.  Not having the Garmin was disheartening, but not nearly as debilitating. I was hiking with Wally who had the route and I could get the stats from others on the hike. Sigh.
Wally and I got started from the Temporal Gulch TH around 7:40. In a way, not having my Garmin is rather “freeing”. I usually spend quite a bit of time trying to note various features of a trail: when you cross a road, pass through a gate, join a dual track. Not the case today. My goal was to try to do this hike as quickly as possible. I figures the less time spent on my feet the better. There is a short connector trail to get to the Arizona Trail and then, turning south, we quickly went under the 82. From here the trail did a great job in meandering in a southeast direction, frequently avoiding the hills and taking the path of “least elevation.”The trail was pretty easy to follow and was well signed for the most part. There were several roads, cow paths and even official trails that intersected the Arizona Trail, but frequently there was a carsonite marker or a gate emblazoned with the AZ trail logo within .25 miles of the intersection to let you know that you were on the right trail. We were about 7 miles in when we junctured with the Hathway(?) Trail. Unsure about the name, but the juncture had a signed map. We probably crossed and/or joined a half a dozen roads. All interactions were well signed, except 1 (near a water tank), where Wally caught the trail leaving the road. (It was a heavily trafficked cow area, so you had to be paying attention). I’m guessing around 13 miles in, there were remnants of an old homestead. The brick walls still stood fairly tall. Hard to believe anyone making a life in that setting. Shortly after that we came to a relatively modern water tower. It had solar panels and a non-working water faucet.
I did pretty well for most of the hike, considering the circumstances. The feet started complaining about 12 miles in and then my quads started to cramp around mile 17. The last two miles I did my best to try to keep my feet and quads from rebelling. All things considered, a nice hike. A little chilly at first, but that probably helped numb the foot discomfort. Nice hiking with Wally. Good company and definitely makes for a quick hike. Including Chris and Jason, only saw 6 other hikers on the trail. Sadly, no wildlife on the trail, though I did see 3 deer and a good sized javelina on the drive. |
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