Day 10: Getting off the trail--finally!

Sunrise!

April 22: Today was my tenth day on the trail. Ten days since I last took a shower. Ten days since I last slept on a bed. Ten days since I last washed my clothes. Today, that would change! I was getting off the trail!

It's always a little exciting to get off the trail. The anticipation of civilization grows. There's an extra spring in one's step--and not just because my backpack was nearly empty of food as I approach civilization. As much as I love the wilderness, I'm still quite fond of running water and electricity.

I hiked through the Cienega Creek Preserve which was as lush and green as anything I'd seen so far on the trail. The trail crossed under a railroad trestle--the first railroad tracks I'd seen on the trail. It occurred to me that there was, quite literally, nowhere a train could travel east-west across Arizona south of my current location. These were the southernmost railroad tracks for cross-country traffic in America. They were busy tracks too. I heard distant trains running them all night long.

Coming out from the creek, I started seeing saguaros. A lot of saguaros. Until then, I hadn't really seen any. Oh, I saw a couple of them growing by themselves far in the distance, but now the trail went right up to them and there were entire forests of them. I was enthralled! So enormous! So majestic! The King of Cacti!

Of all the cacti I've seen, saguaros are some of my favorites. There's just something special about saguaros. They even have an entire national park named after them! You don't see a Hedgehog Cactus National Park or a Barrel Cactus National Park. There's not even an Ocotillo National Park, although technically an ocotillo isn't a cactus, it still kind of has that look and I'm particularly fond of them. But no, they don't get a whole national park to themselves. Just the saguaro. (And the Joshua Tree, but that's another story!)

So I wandered among the giant saguaros taking photos like crazy. And walking about as fast as a three-toed sloth.

Cienega Creek wasn't large, but it was water and flowing
through an otherwise inhospitable desert making it a
critical riparian habitat for wildlife. According to a sign at the trailhead,
riparian areas occupy less than 1% of Arizona but that 75% of
Arizona's native wildlife species depend on it for all or part
of their life cycles.

I wasn't in any hurry, though. I planned to meet Desert Flower and AZ Roadie later in the morning by Colossal Cave, but I only had about 5 miles to reach that point. Nope, no rush at all.... In fact, I slowed down and took a lot of "rest" breaks to make sure I didn't get there too early.

As I neared the cave, I pulled out my cell phone and tried to use it. I was skeptical it would work except, perhaps, on high ridges or mountain tops where it might pick up a distant signal, and even though I wasn't at such a point, I still managed to pick up a weak signal anyhow and gave them a call to update them on my progress.

They were already in the park, so I started describing where I was and we met a few minutes later where the trail crossed an old road.

We first stopped in Vail where I picked up some mail drops from the post office. My mom had mailed me some specialty foods I had requested (primarily dehydrated ground beef--everything else was bonus). My sister had forwarded my laptop. And I mailed myself some of the extra food I had when I was in Patagonia. So I walked out of that post office loaded down with three boxes of stuff! I'd imagine it was quite the sight for Desert Flower and AZ Roadie. =)

Then they took me out for lunch to Hotrods, a unique restaurant on the outskirts of Tucson. The one side of the restaurant was a giant window where you could watch them restoring old, classic vehicles. I'm not even really into cars but I was enthralled with the doings behind that window. I could imagine that the restaurant gets a lot of business from people who are getting their cars restored! Eat while watching them work on your car! =)

We talked mostly about the Arizona Trail--they had done a lot of hiking on parts of it all over the state and let me know what was coming up. And I told them about my experiences thus far along the trail from the Brown Fire to the disastrous day of backtracking for water. 

Here's a new danger I'd never encountered before--trains throwing
rocks thrown onto you!

Then they drove me further into civilization where they dropped me off at a Motel 6. I was so ready for a shower! And clean clothes. The grime would come off!

I called Amanda leaving a message on her voice mail about my arrival in Tucson and where I was, took a shower and cleaned up. Then spent most of the rest of the day on my laptop catch up with email, message boards and finding out what happened in the world while I was gone from it.

Amanda arrived late that evening, but it was too late by then to go out and do anything. Our adventures together would have to wait until tomorrow....

Here comes a train! Run! Run for your life!

The trail climbs out from Cienega Creek.

Another train trestle at Marsh Station Road.

Saguaros! The Kind of the Cacti!

An iron cross blister beetle.

Power lines into Tucson.

The saguaros just dwarf little old me! They're the skyscrapers of the desert!

La Posta Quemada Ranch

AZ Roadie (L) and Desert Flower (R) picked me up off the trail
and took me into civilization. Thank you! =)

Eating at Hotrods while watching old cars being restored. One of the
tabletop settings had cards describing the different vehicles they
were working on which I thought was a brilliant idea!

Day 9: How to Kill Time

Sunrise over Twin Tanks.

April 21: I found myself in something of a dilemma. I was finally making good time on the trail, but now I had to force myself to slow down. Amanda and I had agreed to meet at Colossal Cave in a couple of days but at the pace I was going, I'd get there too soon. Close to two days too soon! So I started thinking about how I could solve that problem.

I'd been taking long, two or three-hour lunch breaks ever since leaving Patagonia. During the hottest part of the day because hey, that's always the best time to take a long break. =) But that hasn't been enough. I was still going too fast!

I'd been doing a voracious amount of reading on my Kindle during that time. In five days, I had read "A" Is For Alibi and "B" Is For Burglar by Sue Grafton and Never Go Back by Lee Child. I usually read maybe one book per week. Three in five days in unprecedented! Glad they were on a Kindle and I didn't have to carry so many books on my back.

So I needed to kill time. Or.... get off the trail at Colossal Cave without Amanda's help. It was a lot easier to entertain myself off the trail. I love to read, but not for 6 or more hours each day! (I'd also read for a few hours in camp at the end of the day besides the long lunch breaks and shorter snack breaks.) But really, reading was all I had to kill time on the trail. Off trail, there were televisions and Internets and towns to explore.

So that was my biggest, pressing problem when I woke up in the morning. How to kill time.

The morning started clear and beautiful. It would be warm too. Not hot, perhaps, but definitely warm. And as far as I could see were short, stubby cactus. Not many trees at all, and the few that did exist didn't provide much shade.

Tucson suburbs in the distance!

I was surprised when, not ten minutes into the morning's hike, I bumped into two people walking their dog. It seemed a little "out there" for people to be walking their dog. They didn't carry any water or other hiking equipment--they were merely out for a walk. I think maybe they lived nearby, and they were nice enough, but I missed the sign that it was: I'd be seeing a lot of people on this section of trail.

I was approaching Tucson now and as a relatively large city, it had a relatively large population. And many of those people like to get outdoors. All day long I had mountain bikes zipping past me and bumped into a couple of more hikers. They were everywhere! I saw more people on the trail today than the entire rest of the hike combined! It was kind of exhilarating, and I'd happily stop to chat with any of them if for no other reason than to kill time. But I was also happy just to have people around to talk to. =)

Most of the mountain bikers whipped by without much more than a wave, but I talked to most all of the foot traffic I met along the way. And it seemed like every one of them told me about seeing a gila monster recently. One woman pulled out her cell phone to show me a photo she took of a gila monster she saw on the trail just a week earlier.

I was envious. The one thing I wanted to see before I started this trail was a gila monster. If I could see a gila monster, on the trail and in the wild--just one--the entire trip would be worth it. So far, I hadn't seen a gila monster. I know they are rarely seen because they spend almost their entire lives underground and out of view, but I figure walking 800 miles through Arizona is bound to give me a pretty good shot at seeing one. For now, all I was seeing were other people's photos of gila monsters!

Ocotillo hanging over the trail

The trail was mostly flat, passing through rolling hills. The hills were so gentle, though, it felt essentially flat. They didn't slow me down at all!

Fairly early in the morning, I climbed to the ridgeline of a small hill and could see a huge expanse of civilization in the distance. The suburbs of Tucson. Maybe Tucson itself for all I knew. The civilization looked like it was a good 5 or 10 miles away, but I dropped my pack and pulled out the cell phone my sister had mailed to me in Patagonia. If it was going to work anywhere, this would be the place for it.

I tried using the cell phone at least once every day since I had gotten it, but so far it was never able to pick up a signal. This morning, it finally got a signal. One bar. Which wasn't enough to make a phone call. Drats!

I moved around on the ridge a bit, turning in circles hoping another direction might get a better signal than the current one, and lifted my arm high in the air and I got a second bar. That was enough to make a phone call! Of course, it would be difficult to talk on the phone with it high over my head, so I put it on speakerphone and started making calls. A new way to kill time! And... an idea was starting to form....

I called my mom first since I hadn't talked to her at all since I started the hike and I told her about my misadventures. I called my sister to let her know that I was still okay--no search and rescue crews, please!--and that for the first time, the cell phone she mailed to me was working! Then I called Desert Flower--a letterboxer that lived in Tucson.

Mesquite on the trail

She had emailed me her contact information asking if there was anything she and AZ Roadie could do to help on my trip since they lived nearby, and I was hoping they might have the time and inclination to pick me up off the trail a day earlier than I had originally planned. I'd still have to hike slow, but getting off an entire day early would alleviate a tremendous amount of otherwise empty time to kill. I was able to talk to her and we agreed to meet at Colossal Cave the next morning.

With that planned, I called Amanda to let her know about the change in my schedule. I'd be in a hotel somewhere in the outskirts of Tucson when she got into town now. No need to pick me up off the trail. I didn't know which hotel--I'd figure out that later--but I'd call her with more information when I had it.

At that point, I ran out of people to call and I lowered the cell phone. My arm was getting tired from holding it in the air anyhow. =)

The trail was a pleasant walk, and I enjoyed it immensely. It never got steep, it never got unpleasantly hot, and the views were awesome everywhere. I could see far ahead to a mountain range that I had little doubt included Saguaro National Park which I'd be hiking through soon enough, and I could see far behind me along the trail I covered. Fabulous views everywhere! And it seemed like every tree, bush and cactus were blooming with brilliant colors.

The trail crosses under State Highway 83 through a culvert which provided a huge expanse of solid shade, so I took a two hour break under it. An hour into my break, two German mountain bikers showed up and stopped to join me in the shade. We chatted a bit and they told me that they had started biking the Arizona Trail several years earlier but eventually quit after running out of patches for the flat tires that the cactus caused. Over a hundred flat tires in all! They came back this year to finish the trail and, so far, hadn't gotten a single flat tire. They seemed mystified about that. Not complaining, but thought it was odd they'd have so much trouble with flats last time and not this time.

I thought it was curious myself. Maybe they biked in the fall last time and more cactus thorns littered the trail in the fall than in the spring? Maybe this part of the trail just wasn't as prone to flat tires as the part they covered in years past? Maybe this year was just a "non flat tire" year while the previous time they bike was a particularly bad year for flat due to weather conditions. (This year Arizona was in a drought--maybe that caused fewer cactus thorns to end up on the trail this year?)

I don't know the reason, but it was interesting that they'd suffer from so many flat tires last time and absolutely zero this time.

Prickly bear bloom

"Of course," I told them, "now that you've said that, you're going to leave here, go about 5 minutes and one of you will end up with a flat tire!"

I told them that I was hoping to see a gila monster along the hike, and they told me that they saw one just the day before at a picnic area by Colossal Cave then pulled out their cell phones to show me photos they took. I made a mental note to pay special attention for gila monsters when I reached that picnic area. Maybe I'd get lucky and see it to. Maybe.... 

We eventually parted ways. I continued northbound and the two German mountain bikers continued southbound, never to be seen again. (Not by me, at least. I'm sure other people saw them again, though!)

I didn't walk for more than an hour or so before I reached Interstate 10 and another culvert that went under it. This culvert wasn't as large or spacious as the previous one, but I could still use the shade that it provided and proceeded to take another two-hour break. Although I'd be getting off the trail an entire day earlier than planned, I still needed to take it slow!

My data book showed a fairly reliable source of water from the Cienega River and I figured I'd camp there for the night. At least that was the plan until I reached the Gabe Zimmerman Trailhead.

Gabe Zimmerman was one of the people shot and killed during the 2011 Tucson shooting which injured Gabrille Giffords. It included a very nice tribute to the man, but there was also a sign about the area, and it said that camping was not allowed in the Cienega Creek National Preserve. Now what to do...?

Sunset was fast approaching and I wasn't sure how far I'd have to hike to get to the other side of the preserve, so I decided to camp before the river. I wasn't entirely sure exactly where the boundaries of the preserve were located, but I knew the river itself would be in it. Maybe this trailhead was part of it, but I was still some distance away from the water itself so maybe it wasn't. I decided to walk down the trail, not more than a quarter mile or so, to set up camp. I wasn't sure if I'd be in the preserve or not, but at least I would be well away from the water and can honor the spirit of the rules even if I might have technically been in the wrong. Under the current circumstances, it seemed like the best I could do.

And that's what happened. I found a flat area, well away from the creek, just off the side of the trail and set up camp for the night.

Prickly pear bloom

Cholla bloom

Another cholla with a different bloom!

State Highway 83 underpass. I'd take a two-hour break in this shade!

My new German mountain biking friends.

Crossing the Old Sonoita Highway. No culverts here!

I did all of my reading on a Kindle, but some hikers and bikers carry paperback
books. When they're done, they'll put it in a plastic bag (to protect it from the
elements) then leave it on the trail for another hiker to take. I didn't
take this one, but I have read it before! =)

Rabbits were everywhere on the trail! But this was the only
blurry photo I nabbed of one. It hiding in the shade didn't
help the photo any!

Interstate 10 is in view!

I took another two-hour break under Interstate 10. =)

The trail was essentially flat the whole day, but those mountains ahead
promise that the trail won't be staying flat for much longer! Saguaro National Park
is up there somewhere And we'll be going right through it!

A tribute to Gabe Zimmerman at the trailhead named for him.

Coolest bike rack ever!!!

That dark green line in the distance... that's the Cienega River and is definitely
illegal for me to camp! So I suddenly had to find a place to camp near the trailhead
instead. At least it appears to be fairly flat and wide. Finding
somewhere suitable shouldn't be difficult! (And it wasn't.)

Day 8: Wildlife of the AZT

Lots of grasslands to walk through Easter morning!

April 20: Easter morning! Not that it mattered much on the Arizona Trail. There were no Easter eggs hidden along the trail, nor kids frolicking around looking for them. It was just another day on the trail, and had I not been keeping track of the dates in my journal, I wouldn't have even known it was a holiday at all.

My tarp was surprisingly wet in the morning. It didn't rain during the night. A slight sprinkle the evening before, but the night was dry and I expected my tarp to be as well, but it was soaking wet from condensation--the first hint of condensation I'd seen so far on the trail. I shook out as much of it as I could and packed the tarp. I could pull it out later to fully dry in the sun.

It's taken a week, but I've finally seen my first two snakes on the trail. I was beginning to wonder why I hadn't seen any--this is prime snake country and surely I should have seen them by now! And not more than a half hour later after having this thought, I was careening down the trail at a relatively high rate of speed (gravity and momentum were working with me at the time) when a snake basking in the sun on the trail did its own careening--right off the side of the trail and down the hill. It covered maybe 30 feet in just a couple of seconds. For an animal with no legs, that thing can move! I only saw it for a brief couple of seconds, and the only thing I could determine was that it wasn't a rattlesnake. Probably some sort of non-venomous snake.

The second snake reared its head as I was traveling through a thicket of prickly pear cactus. Bushels of it lined both sides of the trail, and I had just rounded a corner when I heard it--the tell-tale sound of a rattlesnake's rattle. It was close, and it was loud. I jumped--at least as much as I could with a heavy pack on my back--and quickly stepped several feet away from the noise.

My heart was thumping pretty hard then--that snake scared the bejesus out of me! Only then did I turn around and look for the source of the noise and there it was, coiled up and watching me. If there was ever a definition of menacing, that was it. Now that it was behind me and safely out of striking range, I wasn't too worried about the rattler. I pulled out my camera to take photos, and it would occasionally rattle its tail again warning me to back off. I was a little annoyed with the snake--it was largely hidden under the prickly pear cactus, in the shade of an otherwise very bright day making him difficult to photograph. I'd have liked to lure him out into the sun, but I didn't know how to do that.

Yum! Water!

I did the best I could, though, then continued hiking.

Near one road crossing, I could see a bunch of pickup trucks parked on the side of the road along with the sounds of gunfire coming from that direction. I figured they were probably target shooting, which makes me a little nervous. I don't like walking around areas where bullets might be flying around indiscriminately. I hoped the people shooting off the guns were doing so responsibly and wouldn't shoot in a direction unless they knew without a shadow of a doubt it wasn't in the direction of a trail or hikers.

Then I heard a much larger explosion. What the hell?! BOOM! What have those guys got--a freakin' bazooka?!

I was relieved when the trail passed them high on a hillside and that the trail didn't run directly through their shooting range. After about 20 minutes, I got far enough away that I couldn't hear the shooting anymore. If I wasn't safe before, I figured I was now.

I finally stopped for the night at Twin Tanks. I knew there should be water there, and there was. And since I arrived there late in the afternoon, I figured I may as well just stop for the night. When I walked up to the edge of the water, I spotted movement on a small hillside on the other side of the water and turned my head to look directly at it. It was moving southward, behind some brush, and I caught faints hints of it until a break in the bushes when I saw it clearly--a coyote! That was so a coyote! YES!

I pulled out my camera and tried to take photos of it. It was far away and didn't photograph well, and I had to time it between small gaps in the brush. I moved away from the water and behind some trees. The coyote didn't seem to notice me (not yet, at least!), and I wanted to keep it that way. The trees were also a little closer to the path the coyote was following so I might be able to get a bit closer for slightly better photos.

Then came a larger gap in the bushes where a dirt ATV road climbed up to meet the road. The coyote turned off the road and followed the ATV ruts towards my direction. I snapped a couple of more photos. I must have made a noise just then, because the coyote looked up, saw me, then dashed back up the hill and away. It was gone.

There was an old campsite along the stock tank, and I went ahead and set up camp in it. The place was littered with trash and debris--probably left by those who drove in rather than thru-hikers. Thru-hikers wouldn't have carried this sort of garbage in the first place. But other than that, it was a nice place to camp, in the shade of some large trees on nice, soft sand along with logs and rocks I could use to sit on. There was a fire ring as well, but I'm too lazy to make campfires so that went unused.

The skies were still clear of rain clouds so I didn't set up the tarp tonight. Nope, I'd be waking up under the stars tonight!

Fishhook cactus

Globemallows

The cacti all seemed to be in bloom this time of year, and the blooms
are just gorgeous! This one came from a prickly pear cactus.

Moon setting over these ocotillos.

It's an entire ocotillo forest!

Lizards are always common along the Arizona Trail, but they're
devilishly hard to get photos of. Here's a rare lizard that
cooperated with my photo session!

Fairy dusters

I waited for about five minutes trying to shoo this cow off the trail, but he
wouldn't shoo and eventually I just went off trail to get around it.

Ocotillo in bloom.

I stopped for lunch in a dry riverbed. A few minutes later, these two
fellows dropped in for a visit. They kept sneaking in closer and closer
and eventually I picked up and moved further down the riverbed.

Hedgehog cactus in bloom.

I just liked the pattern of the bark on this tree. =)

My view during a late afternoon snack break. These were the only trees large
enough to provide shade for miles so I took full advantage of them!

This tree was nice to look at, but it didn't really provide much shade!
Neither did the prickly pear cactus on the right!

Ocotillo blooms

Another ocotillo bloom

Rattlesnake! This little bugger scared the crap out of me!

Twin Tanks in the distance--and my campsite for the night!

The campsite even included this. You know it's a nice campsite when....

My best photo of the coyote. A mere second or two after this photo was taken,
the guy finally noticed me and ran off in the opposite direction.