The Desert is ANGRY

An angry dead cactus!

From the Utah border to Pine, the Arizona Trail was challenging but never overwhelming. Think spin class instructor pushing you to finish strong or that workout partner begging for one more rep. But since Pine, the trail is no longer a friendly push to reach my potential...the trail feels angry! I am reminded of a workshop I took to prepare me for desert hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. Multiple presenters talked about the dangers, many of which are included on this list by the Arizona Trail Association. At the end of the presentation, someone stepped up to the podium and said: a lot of what you just heard is fear-mongering. Just remember this one thing and you'll be fine...just remember everything in the desert is trying to KILL YOU. After hiking through the desert on the Pacific Crest Trail I was convinced the desert was trying to pop my air mattress, but I wasn't sure it was trying the kill me. The Arizona Trail has changed my mind.

Since Pine, the trail has stepped up its game and it's not playing nice. For sure the desert is still trying to pop my air mattress, but it now feels personal. The trail is crazy rocky and steep, usually at the same time. I can't believe how steep it is in some passages, going up and coming down. As much as I dislike the monotony of switchbacks, I am not a fan of the trail construction by rolling a bolder down the side of a mountain and calling the resulting path of destruction a trail. Even some of the dirt roads that are part of the trail are crazy steep! Did it cost extra after constructing the road to scatter a ton of rocks the size of softballs on it? I don't get it! This is not a trail, it's a torture test for knees, ankles, feet, shoes, heart, and mind.

The water since Pine has also been challenging...and by challenging I mean hard to find. The last water source included a rope and bucket provided by a trail angel to dip into a well that was difficult to find much less access. And most of the water is green and filled with bugs, some dead and some not...yet. I am backflushing my filter every day just to get a few liters of less green water to drink and cook with. Add to that the heat which means I need even more water to stay hydrated. 

And then there are the pokey things that want to pop my air mattress. The billions of dead ones on the ground are the least of my problems. I used to think that plants grew in the direction of the sun, but apparently plants with thorns, prickles, quills, barbs, and quills grow in the direction of the trail! It's like they want to reach out and shred my clothes or even better, draw blood! I've got more scratches on my legs than I can count and if I hike this trail again I'm carrying an extra pint of blood...just in case.

I have the luxury of typing this post from my laptop that Eva brought to Phoenix. I have a spelling and grammar checker browser extension and often it wants to replace the work trail with trial. I think it might be right.

But after a few days of rest, good food, and allowing my scratches to heal, I am ready to tackle the final three hundred miles to the border of Mexico. Eva will drop me off where John picked me up and I'll start pounding out the final miles. There will be some tough miles ahead, but I hiked over 200 of them in 2022 and I don't remember wondering, why is the trail trying to kill me? 

Thanks for following along!

Butterfingers