AZT Mile 752.2, May 29

AZT Mile 752.2 tentsite, Tuesday May 29. 

Walked 11 miles from tentsite at mike 741.2, plus 7 miles round trip back to Mile 737.7 - searching for lost mat etc. for a grand total of 18 miles. 

Dear Trail Friends 

Wow. If was a long day and more miles than I intended to ask my feet to do in one day. 

I decided that it was worth going back to look for my mat. I even decided the poop bag was probably there too because it made sense if I used it during a rest stop that I might set it down and forget to put it away - especially if I left something else as well (or didn’t check thoroughly). 

I woke up at 2:30am and started walking at 3:30. I took a very light version of my pack, leaving my tent, part of my water, my bag of clothes, my iPhone recharger battery - I figured I left about 8 pounds behind. I wanted to take the food bag just in case it might - despite the op sak that is supposed to contain scents - attract critters. And I wanted my emergency bag - in case of an emergency.  

I was lucky that I remembered the mile number 737.7 of my rest stop. Even so it wasn’t so easy to find the exact spot. I went back and forth, back and forth along the tenth mile stretch the gps identified as 737.7. I thought I recognized a tree and it was part of an area that looked like the photo I had taken there. But no mat and no green poop sack. I searched all around on both sides of the trail, even looking up into tree branches, trying to imagine where wind might have blown it. And then I decided to give up. I was glad I went back, I was sure I searched in the right place, and I wasn’t able to find it. What’s done can’t be undone. Just as I turned to head back, I saw the mat, where it had been blown against a young evergreen tree several yards from the tree I had rested against. Having a clearer idea of wind direction, I did one more careful search for the green sack with no luck. 

I forgot to mention that the sun came up slowly as I walked and at much the same time the moon began to set. Photo I is the moon as I’m conducting my search. 

I hiked back to my tentsite and never found either my green sack (I thought it could fallen out of my pack if I didn’t secure it properly) or any sign of Barry. I’ve pretty much concluded he took another rest day or is hiking much slower than he originally planned and that I won’t see him again. 

As I walked back I saw a group of elk at a small lake. When they saw me they ran away with that elegant leaping run of theirs. I took a rest stop near the lake and one elk came and watched me from a safe distance. 

Very early in the hike I entered a burn area - a comment in the gps app suggested this would cover the whole area from approximately Mile 744 to Mile 762 and to plan accordingly for campsites. I wasn’t sure what this meant but it might mean no safe campsite opportunities in the burn area. It did mean a long stretch with no shade on a hot day. Photo 2 is a collage of views of the burn area. 

I became more and more fascinated with the rocks and frustrated with the way the iPhone photos did not communicate the vibrant colors. I would have shucked my pack and spent hours on my knees searching for tiny rocks with vivid colors that I could bring home to remind me of the magic. In the end I put them all back - it didn’t work. But in the meantime I had a long inner debate about violating the “Leave No Trace” rule (which includes to take nothing with you.) I thought how much those tiny rocks could mean to me and how unnoticeable their absence would be. I argued that if thousands of people reasoned like me the ground might eventually be nude of rocks. This seemed highly unlikely. I thought of a distinction Gary Snyder made between wilderness and wildness. Wildness is what happens outside human planning and control. It can be a bird or a flower in New York City. Wilderness is something or things, environments created out of wildness at a time before the human population density destroyed most of it. Most of what is left is now managed wilderness - defined and planned and protected by humans. I am profoundly ambivalent about managed wilderness. It is the way wilderness evokes wildness that matters most to me. Yet without human agency it would not continue to exist. Rules like “leave no trace” are part of that - and I am ambivalent about them. Sometimes I think it’s like cayote throwing the stars into the sky. What’s done cannot be undone. 

I include another collage of rocks just because they fail so miserably to communicate the power of these colorful rocks and the magic and mystery of their presence. They are in a way the same stuff as the canyon walks.  Arizona is all about rocks. So photo 3 - the rocks. 

Photo 4 is me at a rest stop with my sun umbrella. I intended to send it home then made a quick check of weather for the next week (lacking WiFi I had to ask at the lodge front desk). It looked like it was going to get less and less cloudy and more and more hot (up to 90 I think by tomorrow) in Fredonia (which was my best guess for the weather on the trail). So I kept the umbrella. And I am so glad I did. It is impossible for me at least to rest on a hot day without shade. The umbrella doesn’t provide all I need and it’s hard to set up at rest stops (the gizmos that attach it to the backpack work great when I’m wearing it but not at all when it’s off) but it is so much better than nothing. 

Just for contrast photo 5 shows me in the merciless sun. 

I actually took the second photo after trying to comb my hair. I took it to show Suzi the barber why I need my hair shorter on top when I am on the trail. 

There was an incredible view of some amazing landscape toward the end of today’s hike. Photo 7 was my favorite shot of it. 

If Judy were here and she and I were doing drawing meditations I would try to give a simplified abstracted version of those colors and shapes. Maybe I will when I get home. Though I never seem to want to draw alone since drawing with Judy. Our silent shared drawing creates a something very comforting - like what Quakers call a “gathered meeting” that holds me as I draw. 

There is so much more to tell about today. But I need to sleep. So here’s the beautiful spot I found to put up my tent in photo 8. 

Good night. Sweet dreams. See you on the trail.