Arizona National Scenic Trail (AZT) – over 800 miles from Mexico to Utah, May 2018.

I guess it is time to get caught up.  I have been very lazy about getting to writing on the blog but have gotten 4, well almost 4 more trails done since the last time I posted.  I’ll cover them in the order hiked.

5/15 –Up at 4:30 to get to the airport for 7:30 flight to Phoenix, AZ, for a hike on the Arizona National Trail.   The Harrisburg flight was on time but we had problems in Phil.  I am traveling with friend, Fred Rickter, a good hiking buddy.  The plane loaded and left the terminal only to sit in a long line waiting for takeoff.  During the wait the pilot turned off the engine to save fuel and when the pilot went to start it again it would not start so we went back to the terminal.  After that problem was fixed they discovered another, so that was taken care of then, guess what, Problem #3.  Wow!  Not feeling really good about this plane.  So we all deplaned for about 1 hour while that problem was taken care of then back on the plane for takeoff.  One has to wonder that if there were 3 problems, were there maybe 4?  Anyway we finally arrived in Phoenix picked up our rental car and drove to Flagstaff arriving at Barry and Terry Brennaman’s, late, tired and hungry.  After eating a nice dinner of taco pie went to bed with plans for the next three days hike.

5/16 – After doing some shopping for provisions we drove 33 miles north of Flagstaff to get on the AZT at Rt 417, Cedar Ranch, to hike south toward Flagstaff.  This section travels through pine, spruce, and aspen forests at a high elevation reaching 9,000’.  It skirts the west side of the San Francisco Peaks, where Mt Humphreys Peak is the tallest in AZ at 12,633’.  Our packs where pretty heavy with carrying several liters of water.  There is no water along AZT, like streams or ponds, so you have to depend on water caches and carrying a lot.  With the high elevation, time change, and not much sleep the night before I was really dragging, but did get to our planned camping spot.  Along the way we met a young lady from York, PA, who was out in AZ doing a thru hike on the AZ.  York is very close to my home in PA.

5/17 –Not much sleep again last night.  I always have trouble sleeping at high elevation and we were camped above 7,000’.  But I started the day feeling pretty good, the trail is good and well blazed with great views of the SF Peaks.  By 1:00 I was beat so I decided it would be best if I quit for a day or two to get acclimated and try to get caught up on sleep.  Terry came and picked me up and I went back to Brennaman’s for a shower and nap.  Fred and Barry hiked on.

5/18 – Fred and Barry decided to just stay out one more night and then came back to Flagstaff.  Barry had a flat tire to fix and I had to pick up a rental car so we would have two cars to drive north to hike from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to Utah.

5/19 – Drove to the Grand Canyon North Rim and waited in line for camping permits.  Rob, a friend of Barry’s, was also there with his friend Ron. The ranger, Steve, was a friend of Fred’s from when he was a volunteer at Natural Bridges NP.  So we had a bit of a homecoming week with chatting and picture taking, while others in line patiently looked on.  After all the chatting Steve discovered the computer was down so we could not get permits anyway.
We hiked around the visitor center, to Bright Angle Point and a few other short trails to enjoy the view of the canyon.  If you have never seen the Grand Canyon there is really no way to describe it and if you have, you know.

We spent the next few days hiking north through the Kaibab Plateau.  I did not keep a daily log, but found the trail well blazed and maintained.  We camped the first night with Rob and Ron and had fun exchanging stories.  Rob promised us a story that included a beer, a naked lady, and one other thing that I can’t remember, but he couldn’t get it together so promised it for the next time.  Any way we made our way north for 41 miles to Jacob Lake.  Hiking along the East Rim (I did not know there was an East Rim) and thru a large burned area.  In 2002, 50,000 acres burned.  It was a man set fire and burned so hot it is only now recovering.  Oddly it is called the “warm fire”. The aspen growth is coming along with trees 8’ to 10’ tall.  The nice thing about the burn is it opened up the view to the east to the Vermillion Cliffs.  After the burn, the trail goes back into the trees and in and out of pine forest and beautiful meadows.  The meadows are open grazing for Bison and Beefalos, but we saw neither, just cow pies and a skeleton.

It was very cold camping at night, in the low 30’s and the tents where covered with frost in the morning, but the days were great hiking weather.  When we got back to the Jacob Lake, Barry left us to head back to Flagstaff and Fred and I got ready for the next leg, a 28 mile stretch that would get us into Utah.

In the morning Fred discovered that he had lost his trekking poles and thought he may have left them at the “East Rim Lookout” parking area.  So after breakfast at the Jacob Lake Café we drove back to the parking lot and there they were.  While there we decided to hike the 3+ miles to a lookout known as the Edward Abbey lookout.  We had missed the side trail when we hiked past 2 days before.  Edward Abbey, author of “Desert Solitude” and several other books, worked there as fire spotter.  But legend has it that he spent most his time writing and missed some fires so the Forest Service closed the tower.  There is an old ramshackled cabin with some furniture and a dead porcupine in it.
After returning to Jacob Lake we drove north to cache some water along what a local called a knarly road.  We had filled our water jugs at the North Rim where water is pumped up from Roaring Spring about half way down the Kaibab Trail.  Um! Um! Good water.

Hiked 28 miles from Rt 89 to Utah.  The final major ecosystem change on the AZT occurs on this route.  The trail begins with ponderosa pine forest and descends into high desert.  I enjoyed all the blooming cacti, they were beautiful.

Rob and Ron gave us a lift from the Utah border back to our car and we then drove to the South Rim and camped 3 nights in the National Forest just outside the park and did some day hiking along the South Rim and Coconino Rim.

Great hike.