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| Hiking | 30.15 Miles |
2,689 AEG |
| | Hiking | 30.15 Miles | 10 Hrs 11 Mns | | 3.32 mph |
| 2,689 ft AEG | 1 Hour 6 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Planned on doing this west to east with Nick, while JJ & johnlp did it form east to west. Last minute, Nick had a conflict so I did this one on my own. First time I've done a 30-mile day on my own, but it turned out fine.
Drove out Freeman Road, and started off about 7am. The Arizona Trail here is faint in spots. Early in the morning I saw the largest jackrabbit I've ever seen, it was as large as young adult bobcat.
In climbing up the ridge at about the 4 1/2 mile mark, the trail was also a bit hard to follow because of all the well defined cattle trails criss-crossing the trail. When I climbed the ridgeline, I stopped for a short breakfast break and soak in the views when two AZT through hikers came by from the south. They were on day 11 and estimated they had 35 days to go to Utah. One of them had a Pacific Crest Trail tattoo, so this wasn't his first trek.
Made it to Beehive Well...lots of water there in the tank but it was nasty. You'll need a pretty serious filter for this stuff. Said goodbye here to the Arizona Trail, left the mountains, and started the long walk down Putnam Wash. It was dry until I met the convergence of Camp Grant Wash, then I hit some water and found the first gila monster of the day.
Made my way to the San Pedro River, nice riparian area, great lunch spot. Even saw horses (I'm assuming wild horses) just roaming around free out there. The reroute of the GET now sends you a mile or so upriver along the banks before breaking off. You have to cross the San Pedro a few times in this distance. That day I only had to take my boots off one time because the cross wasn't passable without getting in, but I'm sure it varies a lot by season.
Met JJ and johnlp here and had lunch, then took off, headed out of river and up the bank. Once up there, warning...there are a lot of other trails. You can think you're doing the right one, the same one you had been on, only to find out that you are going the wrong direction. Watch your GPS closely in this area, until you hit the first dirt road.
From here, you toward the road section of this segment 5 and 6 combined hike. A couple of short dirt roads and then you cross AZ77. AZ77 ends segment 5 and starts segment 6.
The first few miles of segment 6 is quite boring, hiking down the paved Aravaipa Road past the college. Eventually you get off the paved road and turn off to dirt roads and eventually back onto singletrack. Some of that singletrack is pretty sketchy and not sure footed. Follow little ribbon ties in trees where you can find them, and definitely follow the GPS.
Eventually you do a quick descent and end up on Aravaipa Road about 3 miles from the trailhead, and you follow it to the end.
Ran into my second gila monster maybe a quarter mile from the Aravaipa trailhead. He didn't like me taking pictures of him like the first one did, he actually hissed at me.
Finished up at the Aravaipa Trailhead around 5:15.
Great day, pretty decent timing too. Thanks JJ & John for helping setting us up.
FIRST 7 SEGMENTS & 150 MILES OF THE GET ... done!  |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
pincushion cacti blooming well...a few poppies and other flowers as well... |
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Beehive Well |
76-100% full |
76-100% full |
| | | The tank was full but water was very nasty, algae-ridden. |
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Camp Grant Wash |
Light flow |
Light flow |
| | | It was running maybe a gallon a minute. | | _____________________
| "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." — Henry David Thoreau |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
. I tried to detour around but that area is riddled with private property. I couldn’t find a legal way around without going about ½ mile to north. Then I just explored up the river and bushwhacked over to the Camino Rio road. The road follows the river and yes there private property along the road. I looks like someone owns a portion of the river.
. We had to walk around the herd. Then is started to rain on us 
! I rained for about 10 minutes.
, then we saw a speedy little snake, that was such a flash across the road we couldn't identify it. We saw one more snake that was dead, looked to me like it was a small gopher snake. It looked like it had actually been stepped on by a cow, because there were no other vehicle marks in the road where we were. It was laying in a cow track. We saw coveys of quail everywhere, Western Tanagers, etc. It was a great day, we were back home by around 2:30 because it got hot!
