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| Backpack | 51.60 Miles |
8,140 AEG |
| | Backpack | 51.60 Miles | 2 Days | | |
| 8,140 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I was dropped off at Montezuma Pass on 3/31 with the goal of getting to Casa Blanca Canyon TH on 4/1 at 7pm. I started walking at 7:45am. 35 hours would be enough time for 52 miles, right?
The first 2 miles up to the juniper point reminded me why I go in from Miller Canyon for my Huachuca hiking if I can. Some blowdowns and snow between there and the Miller Peak turnoff. I've done Miller Peak several times, so I passed this time given the time constraints. About 3/4 of a mile of snow after Miller, and then a good stretch of mud.
Passed 2 thru-hikers, Bonnie and Clyde, at Bathtub Spring. The Crest Trail was scenic as always. A drainage just past the Ida Canyon trail junction had flowing water--never seen that before.
My memory from doing the whole AZT a decade ago was that Sunnyside was an immediate descent and quick stroll to the wilderness border. I award my memory half points. It's definitely a sharp drop, but a much longer walk along the canyon then I remembered. No complaints about that longer walk since there was flowing water from before the stone wall until the wilderness boundary. Very different than on my thru-hike (a few algae pools is all I recall seeing). I first passed another 2 thru-hikers, Regular Guy and Baby, in this stretch, and then we leap-frogged several times.
After the wilderness boundary, my memory was a long network of annoying dirt roads to get to Parker Canyon Lake TH. Zero points for my memory. I had no memory of Scotia Canyon, so I'm glad I did it again and got to enjoy it. Even with the controlled burns going on (a very good idea--so much fuel out there), it was a lovely walk. A bit of dirt roads (and a large, full-to-bursting windmill tank off to the left), and then I was at Parker Canyon Lake TH.
I met a couple there doing trail magic, and trail support for their daughter. They had all kinds of beverages and treats, but I limited myself to some water and a homemade snickers bar (although the canned iced coffee was so tempting). Very generous of them.
I made it to Parker Canyon (more flowing water) and then took a wrong turn down the creek to get some bonus miles. I figured out my error but decided to call it a day since there were good campsites and I knew any future campsites for the next few miles would be dry. I camped near another thru-hiker, Noah, but we didn't talk much. According to my old databook, I had done about 22 miles. Not a bad start.
I was rolling at 6am on 4/1. Perfect walking temperature before the sun was on me. My memory said AZT #2 was a never-ending series of hills, and it was correct this time. So many hills, and the climb to the high point was a hot one. A fast descent to the Canelo Hills TH, and AZT #2 was done. I had loaded up on water from Parker Canyon, but topped off a little from the TH cache.
I remembered the views along #3 being some of my favorite on the southern stretch of the trail, and they delivered again. Big sweeping views of grasslands + many mountains = perfect. It helped that all the grass and thorn brush had been thoroughly whacked away from the trail. Yay for trail crews.
I first passed an 83yo thru-hiker in this stretch (didn't get his name), and we leap-frogged for several hours. I hope I'm still out hiking like him at that age.
I remembered not being a big fan of the 4x4 road walking last time, but it was much improved this time by having water everywhere (to the point that some wash crossings were tricky). A totally different trail experience from a decade ago. People thru-hiking it this year are so lucky.
I stopped for more water at Red Bank Well. It no longer sprays out the side like it used to, but pressing the float on the trough worked. I probably could've made it to the end with what I had, but I didn't have the mileage numbers for the new trail stretch and decided to play it safe. Shortly after Red Bank, I saw a flock of 12 turkeys off to the side of the trail.
I left Red Bank around 2:30 and was feeling the time crunch, especially since I didn't know the exact distance to the end. I hit the sign where the old & new trail split, and was thrilled to discover it had zero mileage information on it (aside from a scale which was obviously inaccurate). I was also thrilled to discover the new trail appeared to have a bad case of the meanders.
Granted, I was trying to make miles, but I was less than impressed with the new stretch. Meandering, dry (a feat given all the water out there right now), and meandering. Not a section I'll feel the need to repeat soon.
I rolled into Casa Blanca Canyon TH at 6:45pm. I had enough time to rearrange my gear, drink some water, and then my ride was there at 7pm. About 30 miles in 13 hours for the second day, and 52 miles total in 35 hours. I can live with that.
Misc:
--I was surprised how big the packs were on the thru-hikers I saw. My gear isn't particularly small, but I was super-ultralight in comparison. Even if I had gear for a longer thru instead of an overnight, I would've only had another 1.5 pounds or so.
--a nice amount of poppies in the stretch between Red Bank and the trail split, but no mariposa lilies yet.
--so much water, and much better signage than a decade ago. It felt like easy mode compared to the AZT I remember. |
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Route Editor
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Route 
. There are a couple steeper climbs that level out after a bit. Then the switchbacks come. Relentlessly. My lungs were burning and my heart was racing. I can normally keep going at a slower rate and keep a steady pace. A few times I just had to stop and breathe. My time on this ascent was pretty good by my standards, however. No mile took more than 38 minutes to do. I've done hikes where the combo of steepness and rockiness had me at 45 min+ miles. The better conditions of the trail exposed my lack of cardio conditioning for this. 
I got to my chosen turn around point (somehow) and started back. 
I’ve been looking forward to doing the AZ trail for years. Doing passage 1 (in my mind) officially “christens” this endeavor. I was hoping to knock out the AZ trail in rapid succession, but I’ve discovered the difficulty in reaching some of the TH’s and orchestrating shuttles can be as hard as hiking the trail itself. 
I managed to do this passage with the assistance of Darrell, who is making his own way through the AZ trail section by section. We parked one car at the beginning of section 2 and then drove up to Montezuma’s Pass to begin the hike. The roads/TH’s for this passage are very nice…car accessible. We got started just before 6am. A little bit later than we hoped. (It took us about an hour to get from Parker Canyon Lake and get the cars situated). 
It had a decent amount of shade from the surrounding pines and a lovely grove of young aspens, just starting to leaf after the winter season. And there was even patches of snow edging portions of the trail. (We only encountered three small banks during the entire hike). I say should have been because….Darrell, who is a very fast flat/downhill hiker had leapt ahead of me and was out of sight. I caught up with him a couple of minutes later to discover that he had gone down and fractured his finger (we actually were afraid that he had broken it). It was nasty to look at…all bent out of shape. We were about 6 miles in and talked about turning around. After some deliberation he decided that he still had 9 good fingers and two good legs. What was one broken finger? We pressed on. 
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