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| Backpack | 28.60 Miles |
3,799 AEG |
| | Backpack | 28.60 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 3,799 ft AEG | | 17 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | Well Mark has been encouraging me to do a few triplogs as I slowly work my way through passages of the AZ Trail. So here goes...Our trip started at the Pine TH, a cool 44 degrees at about 9:45 a.m. and perfect weather for the 12 mile day. My high school best friend, Sandy, and her niece, Lauren, were joining me so I wouldn't have to go it alone.  This was my first chance to try out my new ultralight gear, Z-packs Nero pack and 5 degree bag ( I shiver most nights while camping), Klymit ultralight insulated sleeping pad,a 36 ounce bivy, Esbit pocket stove, 2 days of food, a few necessities, and 2 L water. All weighed in at 17 lbs. I'll be skipping down the trail, hippity, hoppity! 
We were bright eyed, freshly bathed, full of energy and chatter as we headed off along the rocky trail. We kept a sluggish, comfortable pace and as we hiked, pointed out all of the interesting Arizona flora and fauna to Lauren, who was here for the hike from Tennessee. The highlight of her day was seeing Arizona maples, century plants, a herd of elk, and we discussed what a she-wee is used for, and how to use a pee rag. Ah, the young gal has so much to learn!
Weary and talked out, we arrived at Twin Buttes TH where we set up camp for the night. We each claimed a flat piece of real estate to pitch our tents. I think we were all sleeping by 9:00. Peaking out of my tent a few times during the night, it was downright chilly, the sky was clear and the Milk Way didn't disappoint! 
Day 2 started with a bull who was bellowing, strutting his stuff through our campsite. But if he was looking for a gal, his poopy butt would certainly be a turnoff. We ate breakfast, packed up and were on the trail by 9, thinking we'd have a 6 hour, 11 mile hike to LF Ranch, hop, skip and a jump! I mean really, that is our usual hiking pace. Well, I've never been on a trail with so much volcanic type rock and baby heads and it was a slow, painful trek. Lauren learned how to use the chain and piece of wood to open the ranchers gates. Without this little contraption, we would have had to slide under the barb wire fence. Our day was enjoyable, ran into 2 solo hikers who were NoBo, and 3 cowboys in search of their cattle, and the view of the Mazatzals was awesome.
Whiterock spring was full of nice clean water, which we filtered, then headed on our way. Our final descent to the Verde River took us an excruciating hour to go 1 mile. We were unable to find Polk spring, so much debris from fallen trees filled the area. So we continued on to the Verde to fill up with water for the evening and next day. The water was calf deep and refreshing on the feet as we crossed it after the 8 hour hike. 
We thought we'd find a place to camp by the Verde, but the thought of having to listen to the peacocks "meowing" all night made us push on towards Doll Baby TH, where we were to meet Mark on our last day. We reached our campsite arount 6:30, had a bit of time to pitch tents, eat a meal and crawl into our bags for another much needed sleep. The stars didn't disappoint, and the peacocks actually settled down after the sun set. Coyotes howling in the night is always a welcome sound to me.
Last day, I had the troops up at 5:30 with a departure time of 7:00. After Sandy asked permission to please give her a few more minutes to brush her teeth, I cracked the whip  and we headed out to meet Mark by Doll Baby Ruins TH. It was a somber, death march out, no more chatter, we were no longer fresh as a daisy, but we didn't care. Mark was like a beacon at the top of the hill, although none of us even gave him more than a grunt for acknowledgement. He pushed us on to the hilltop where we hit the TH to Doll Baby ruins, we dropped our packs, made a quick hike to the hilltop ruins, which was impressive as always.
By 10:00, we had reached Doll Baby TH, Mark had been so thoughtful and had packed us each a cool bubbly beverage. Our 3 day trip and new gear was a success. Going back to work was brutal today. But there is always the anticipation of the next AZ Trail hike! |
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Whiterock Spring |
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| | | Full trough of water, easy to filter with a little cup left by someone. | | _____________________
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Route Editor
Route Scout
and they left camp early the next morning. 
and I think I heard complaining about elevation gains, cussing about how heavy water is, rocky trail, on and on, but I was far enough ahead, I pretended not to hear. We finally reached the high point on the ridge and it was rather windy. It was either the weather or it was the young solo hiker who blew by us, creating the breeze. Nice to see young women alone on the trail. We were passed by only 3 solo NOBO backpackers, 2 women, 1 young guy. The guy apparently came up on my buddy as she was cussing to herself and slugging along, asked her if she was hiking through, to which she responded "hell no". Poor guy looked scared when he passed me, just grunted a greeting and scurried on. We decided to call it a day about 4/10th of a mile from City Creek Trail. It was a cool, quiet night, beautiful stars, I slept well. Day 3 we had an easy escape route, down City Creek Trail where Cannondale Kid met us with giant homemade chocolate chip cookies. I loved this part of the AZ Trail and saw places I'll likely never get to see again. The return to work the next day was brutal, reality stinks.
, assuming the pace would slow down, but apparently Keith has one speed 
We reached the junction of Barnhardt and AZT 23 about 1:00 p.m., had a quick lunch, and returned text messages since we had cell phone service. The AZT was pretty rocky and wet, we were able to filter water prior to reaching Chilson Springs. Chilson Camp was beckoning us, so we left the trail and headed down to set up camp there. After setting up, we continued on the AZT for about 40 minutes, then turned around as we wanted to be back at camp by 5:00 in order to get water boiling for our dehydrated meals. The weather was getting chilly and windy, we added layers of clothes, ate our dinner and hung our food bags (bear bait I guess?). We couldn't stop shivering, so crawled into our tents at 6:30. We knew it would be a long, cold night. We found a thermometer in the tent Kelly had borrowed, so left it out on the table to see how cold it would get. We both woke up around 4:00 with cold feet, suffered until 7:00 in our tents, then braved the cold and got moving. Our thermometer read 20 degrees 
Route 
. It was a pretty easy hike for the first few miles, I was chatting away with no response from my friend. 
She was "focused on her breathing" . In other words, shut the heck up. 
We were trying our best to stay hydrated, but I swear, we old gals had to stop every 30 minutes to water the bushes along the trail. As the sun rose, we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow. The smoke from the Museum fire was visible, but didn't pose a problem for us. We met a nice young man we named Pinky, due to his bright pink shirt. We drafted him most of the way up. Finally we reached the saddle and the views were amazing. A quick bite to eat, empty the bladder, we were on our way again. Then, we came upon something I have never seen along this trail - bro scat. Seriously, someone had taken a dump next to the trail 
and left their toilet paper with a "copper penny" staring up at us. (If you don't know what that is, think about it for a minute). We voiced our disgust, but there was no one around to hear us. We weren't going to let that ruin our trip, so moved along. We slugs finally reached the summit around 9:00. 
She looked so frail, but obviously she was quite a bit stronger than she looked. She had started at the Meridian Trailhead and was just about to complete the full loop. I have to wonder what time they got started and how she managed to make it through some of the rough terrain without a fall or two. I rarely make it round trip without at least going down once like a sack of potatoes.
It didn't take long to convince her we'd be fine and we were on our way again. A few more hours into the hike ,Gabrielle surprised us once again by asking if we could take... a break 
. OMG, then she pulled out a Paradise Bakery sandwich to share and all was right with the world again. 
