AZT Mile 778.1 tentsite. June 1

AZT Mile 778.1 tentsite. Friday, June 1

Walked from AZT 761.7 (16.4 miles) plus about 4 miles from Kaibab Camper Village (including about 1/2 mile detour taking wrong road) for a total of 20.4 miles

Dear Trail Friends,

I woke up early and decided to go ahead and get up and start walking, forgetting how confused I get in the dark when trails aren’t as simple and clearly defined as they were in the Grand Canyon. I made the one mile hike to Jacob Lake Inn alright, but was surprised at how confused I felt trying to follow the trail given that I had walked it twice in the light (and gotten lost one of those times, River, remember?)

Unfortunately I thought all I had to do was turn right when I got to the Inn. I hadn’t checked it out carefully by daylight and didn’t realize that the Inn is right at the intersection of 89A, the road I was supposed to be on, and 67, the one I was not supposed to be on. So of course I turned right onto 67. Thank heaven I had cell coverage and could use Apple Maps because my AZT app didn’t include this part of the off-trail map. 

So I turned around, walked back, and got on 89A. I think only two cars passed me the whole walk, one from each direction, which made it much easier than when I was walking and hitching - the shoulder was very narrow - or nonexistent - and the cars whizzed by. 

The early morning part of my trail walk I kept noticing partly dead trees - trees that had been in a fire but managed to survive. I thought a lot about the fact that a lot of branches can die and there can still be some life at the top of the tree. I thought about it in relation to aging and to my sister’s fight to survive both cancer and the side effects of her treatment. Photo 1 is a collage of trees that seemed to me to be part living, part dead. 

Photo 2 is a close-up of a wave pattern in a tree’s bark. It made me think of the Wave made of rock that is such a tourist destination. I thought about how interesting the forms and patterns in the natural world are - and how amazing that it is all what I call unconscious design (which is to say I don’t believe in a conscious designer of the universe). 

The terrain changed from woods to low plants - and I did not fall in love with it. Photos 3 and 4 show the new landscape I found myself in.

It was a dry gnarled landscape with hard red clay. I thought it was poetic that I was back in a desert, that it brought the hike that started in the deserts of south Arizona to a kind of full circle completion. But I loved the desert then and I didn’t now. I tried to be a good sport and look for something to love. So photo 5 is a wildflower collage. But the fact is there weren’t that many of them and their colorful presence and fragrance did little to endear the environment to me. 

I saw one of the Kaibab squirrels - with their amazing platinum blonde tails - but she totally refused to pose for me. Dashed to the top of a very tall tree and tucked her tail behind her. 

I saw several horned roads that seemed to be adaptively colored to match the red clay. They were not cooperative photo subjects either. If you can see the horned toad in this picture (photo 6) you get three silver stars. 

Among the critters who would not pose for me was an interesting rabbit with very long ears and a longer tail than most rabbits have (photo 7)

One good thing about bones in the desert is that they are very cooperative about not running away when you try to take their picture. And they are very white. (Photo 7)

So it wasn’t the greatest day ever on the trail. The best part was I really wanted an afternoon nap but the ants were crawling all over me at my rest stop. Not a fun way to nap. So I stopped a few miles later and actually pitched my tent in a shady spot - first time I have ever done that - pitched my tent just for a midday nap. It was wonderful. 

After the nap I felt renewed and enjoyed the hike much more than earlier in the day. I hiked to the last cache of water (I was a little alarmed by how much water I was drinking and relieved that the cache was there). I set up my tent and watched my last sunset on the trail (photo 8) - a very ho hum sunset. 

Tomorrow I will arrive at the state line. I will spend the night there and trail angel Tim will pick me up Sunday morning. 

See you on the trail - tomorrow completes the walk (started last spring) from the Mexico border to the Utah state line. A total of 790 miles (just 100 of them this year). 

Thanks as always for walking with me - especially this year when I was so filled with uncertainty about my feet (among other things). 

Bye for now.