Day 5: Patagonia!

Moonset in the morning!

April 17: Whenever I start nearing a trail town, I start picking up my pace. I'm looking forward to real food at restaurants and some of the comforts of home. And today, I'd be heading into my first trail town: Patagonia. The nice thing about this particular trail town--the trail actually runs right into town. I didn't have to hike off trail or hitch a ride into town. Those are the most convenient trail towns by far.

I stopped yesterday a little short of where I'd otherwise stop because the trail was going to hit a paved road that it followed the rest of the way into town, and I didn't want to try camping alongside a relatively busy, paved road. So I hiked as close to the road as I dared before setting up camp. And now I woke up and hit the trail, excited about my impending stop in Patagonia.

It didn't take long for me to hit the paved road and activity picked up greatly. A lot of border patrol vehicles passed me--there were far more border patrols than civilian vehicles, in fact. Two of the vehicles had pulled over to talk to me. Probably just to check me out and make sure I wasn't an illegal alien, but they were friendly, chatted a couple of minutes, then continued onwards to their destinations. Most of them drove by me without even slowing down.

As I neared the town, a fire truck and ambulance passed me with their lights flashing. I couldn't imagine where they might be headed--it didn't seem like there was very much out here except border patrols.

As the trail approached Patagonia, civilization thickened. Sidewalks suddenly appeared on the edge of the road and I tromped onto them. Buildings thickened, and traffic picked up so civilians now outnumbered the border patrols. And finally, I reached the center of town where the trail wrapped around three sides of the post office.

The post office was my first stop. I delayed my start in the morning so I wouldn't get into town until after the post office had opened, and it had opened maybe a half hour earlier. I walked in and told the woman behind the counter that I should have a package waiting for me, sent general delivery, and gave her my name.

"Oh, good! You're here! Your sister called! She's worried about you because of the fire!"

"She called here?!" I said, more than a little surprised. I suppose it was an obvious place to to call--it's the one place she knew I would be going to in Patagonia since I had asked her to mail me a food drop there. But she shouldn't have hit any panic buttons yet. Had I been turned back because of the fire and couldn't get around it, I would have gotten off the trail and somehow contacted her. My thought has always been "no news is good news," and I had no news. And anyhow, I had told her that I expected to get into town either the day before or today. I had hoped for the day before, but I lost nearly an entire day having to backtrack for water. But still, it's not like I'd been missing. I said I might arrive on the 17th, and it was now the 17th. Right on time!

Those red flowers are the tips of an ocotillo bush.
You'll see a lot of ocotillos in these parts!

"Yes, she called here. And she said you have to call her to let her know you're okay! She sounded pretty worried! And she mailed you a cell phone to make sure you'd call."

"She mailed me a cell phone?!" I laughed. Now that was just hilarious. As most of my friends and family know, I don't have a cell phone. And there was a good chance that the town of Patagonia wouldn't have a pay phone readily available. "Wow," I said. "I guess I should call her!"

"If the cell phone doesn't work," the woman continued, "you can use ours."

She went back and got my package, and I took it into the outer lobby with all of the PO boxes where I sat down on a bench and riffled through it. She also gave me the trail register which would be my first bit of knowledge about who was ahead of me on the trail. It wasn't very useful in that regard, though--the last person who signed it did so about a month earlier. Were there no other hikers ahead of me?!

I found the cell phone--a prepaid Virgin Mobile phone and figured out how to turn it on. It looked for a signal for a minute or so but never seemed to figure out that it wasn't getting one and eventually I turned it off. Stupid cell phones! Even when I have one, I can't use it!

I emptied my pack--most of my food goes at the bottom of it since I won't need it during the day. Only a bag of snacks goes on the top. Consequently, I needed to empty my entire pack to get to the food bag at the bottom and fill it up. I spent the better part of a half hour rearranging everything in my pack.

Then I went back into the inner lobby and told the woman that the cell phone didn't work and could I use the post office phone to let everyone know I okay. She gave me the phone and I used a calling card to call my sister. She didn't answer her phone, though, so I left a message letting her know I had made it to Patagonia and was doing fine. The fire hadn't gotten me.

Thistles

I also called Amanda to give her an update on my progress. She was planning to come out to visit in less than a week and she needed to know where to find me! Amanda did answer her phone, and I told her I was a day behind where I wanted to be but I expected to be near Vail or Colossal Cave when she flew out.

I usually call my mom with updates on my progress, but I didn't think time because I didn't want to tie up the post office's phone line all day, but I did ask Amanda to call mom for me and let her know I was okay.

I returned the phone, then picked up a couple of priority mail boxes to mail some additional stuff. Somehow, I had too much food, and the extra could be mailed ahead to myself at Vail. And I decided to mail home tent stakes and a razor, neither of which I'd been using.

The tent stakes would be useful if I had to set up a tarp every night, but so far I hadn't set it up at all. Apparently, it doesn't rain very often in Arizona! And I figured the rare times I did have to set up my tarp, I could use rocks, trees and brush to stake things down.

I also had delusions of shaving on the trail, but it was now my fifth day on the trail and so far, I'd only seen one small creek that had enough clean water to shave with. There just wasn't enough water around to shave regularly, and I'd finally given up that delusion. So the tent stakes and razors would be sent home.

I went into the outer lobby to pack up the two packages, and while packing them, I heard a phone ring inside the building and the woman behind the counter answer the phone. "Oh, he might still be here! He was going to mail some stuff ahead! Wait a second!" I knew it had to be my sister. She had gotten my message and called the post office hoping I was still around.

I got up and started approaching the inner lobby and the woman came out with the phone. "It's your sister!" It was one of those cordless phones so she had brought it out into the outer lobby for me.

And Tierra told me about being worried sick about me because of the Brown Fire. She had called the border patrol, forest service, and everyone else she could think of to keep an eye out for me and find out how close the fire was to the trail. It wasn't a search and rescue exactly--not yet, at least--since I hadn't checked in late, but if I hadn't checked in by today when I told her I would, then she was going to get a whole search and rescue crew going! "Gee," I said, "I'm glad I checked in, then!"

Prickly poppy

I told her about the fire being maybe a mile off of the trail, but that I did run into four firefighters on the trail which made her angry. "They should have called me and let me know you were okay! They were all supposed to be keeping an eye out for you!" I didn't know what to tell her. It was obvious that the four I ran into didn't know anything about me, but I did run into them relatively early in the day that second day on the trail. I don't know exactly when Tierra found out about the fire (sometime that same day), but depending on the timing, it's possible I could have already passed through by the time anyone heard to look out for me. Maybe they did get a notification after I passed through, but then had no way to verify one way or another if it was really me they saw or some other hiker? Or maybe they just told Tierra they'd keep their eyes pealed for me to make her happy then didn't follow through. Who knows?

"Well, it doesn't matter now--I'm clearly okay! And I definitely don't need a search and rescue team looking for my decomposing body anywhere!" =)

We eventually ended our conversation and I returned the phone, mailed two packages to myself, then went out to explore the rest of Patagonia.

My next stop was the library, which I had trouble finding and had to ask a couple of locals for directions. It was a short ways off the trail and off the main drag, hidden in a nondescript building. It was still relatively early in the morning--getting close to 10:00--and I knew the library might not even be open yet, but I didn't see any hours posted outside of the building. I tried the front door and it opened, so I walked in and saw.... absolutely nobody. There was a front desk, but nobody was behind it. I poked my head around the corner into the stacks and still saw nobody. It was a little eerie. Was the library closed or open? The door was open, but nobody appeared to be home.... "Hello?" I said, tentatively. "Is anyone here?"

I saw a bank of computers ahead and started walking towards them, and a few seconds later someone came out.

"Oh, hi!" I said. I was glad to finally find someone, but I almost felt like I'd been caught doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing. "I wanted to get online. Do I need to sign anything or whatever to use a computer?"

The woman told me that they didn't open until 10:00, but it was close enough and I could go ahead and use a computer. No signing in necessary. Which left me wondering why they left the front door unlocked if they weren't even open, but I didn't ask. I was just happy to get online and make sure my websites were running okay. After the whole server migration nightmare just before starting the hike, I wanted to make sure everything was running okay. Amanda told me everything seemed to be running fine when she was on them, but I wanted to see what errors the server had recorded.

Really, guys, this is too much. All you need is a simple
sign to let me know when I've arrived into Patagonia.
The extravagance here is just too much!

The server was running great, though, and no unexpected errors had reared their ugly heads. I spent the better part of an hour checking email and catching up on the message boards.

Then I left to get some lunch. I decided to eat at the Velvet Elvis where I ordered a slice of pizza, a salad and a Coke. The food was good, but mostly I liked the name of the place. Who wouldn't want to say that they've eaten at the Velvet Elvis? =)

I wrote some postcards which I picked up at a store between the library and the Velvet Elvis and asked if they'd fill up all of my water bottles for the trail--which amounted to about nine liters. Technically, I should be able to find water on the trail long before I needed that much water, but after seeing how awful much of the surface water was, I wanted to carry as much tap water and string it out for as long as I could. The less surface water I drank (treated or not!), the better.

Next door was the Patagonia Market, a small general store that my notes warned was good for short-term resupply only. As a result, I didn't send as many snacks ahead to myself to the post office as I otherwise would have. I figured a general store would have plenty of snacks and junk food for hikers. It's only breakfast and dinners where places like this might leave me where a severe lack of options.

So I raided the store buying all sorts of junk food--including an ice cream sandwich, a banana and a Coke which I'd consume on the curb outside since none of those pack well.

While checking out, the trail mix I picked up wouldn't scan, and the clerk asked me how much they had cost so she could type in the prices manually. (They were on the shelf immediately behind me.) I told her the price, then she asked if I was purchasing my stash with food stamps.

I laughed at this. I thought the question was funny. "I look that bad, do I?" To be fair, my last shower was four days ago and I had since covered over 50 miles of some very strenuous terrain. I couldn't have smelled good.

Border patrol! They're out to get you!

"No! I didn't mean that!" she said, clearly horrified. "I'm so sorry I asked! But I can't type in prices manually if people pay with food stamps, and it would have been a hassle to undo that...." She seemed like she was blushing now. "I'm so embarrassed I even asked!"

I laughed even more at her discomfort since I hadn't been the least bit offended at the question. "It's okay, really! I'm not offended!"

Then she went on, "There are people who drive in with brand new cars, then pay for food with food stamps. It's disgusting! So I didn't mean to suggest that I thought you were on food stamps because of how you looked!"

I got a good laugh out of the whole routine, but she was clearly embarrassed about the whole situation despite my reassurances.

After paying for everything, I went outside where I ate the ice cream sandwich, banana and drank the Coke on the curb looking like a homeless man on food stamps. Because, for the most part, I basically was homeless at the time. But not on food stamps!

I'd been in town for several hours now, but it was time to move on. I picked up my pack which was bulging heavier than ever--stuffed with six days of food and nine liters of water. Good grief, it was miserably heavy!

I hobbled over to the post office one last time to send the postcards--I figured that should take at least an ounce off my backpack--then walked out of town on Highway 82. The trail soon turned onto 1st Avenue, which turned into a dirt forest service road heading north.

The walking was fast and easy. The forest service road was wide with gentle slopes, slowly gaining in elevation. About five miles out of town, I saw a pre-existing road-side campsite shaded with trees and decided to stop there for the night. All-in-all, a pretty good day. And my first full day on the trail without running into any problems at all! Maybe I'm getting the hang of this Arizona Trail after all!

I saw this barrel and ammo can on the side of the road while walking
into town. Assuming you've never seen one of these before (I haven't!),
any guesses what it is? Oh, you'll never guess.... I never would have guessed!

I pulled out one of the envelopes to read, and it's clearly meant for hunters.
Step #1 pretty much told me that.
Step #2 didn't really surprise me.
Step #3 caused my eyes to pop out a little. Do what?!!!
And Step #4 had me backing away from the wing barrel!

Baby calf want to come out to play? Do you? =)

Patagonia Post Office. The Arizona Trail comes in on the road to the right, turns
onto the road in front of the post office, then turns another 90 degrees onto
the road on the left of the post office. So, quite literally, the trail loops
around three sides of this post office! May as well drop in for a visit!

I stumbled onto the Butterfly Garden while looking for the library.

Patagonia really is a cute town, and here's a mural I found while still
looking for the library.

The old Patagonia trail station is now (apparently) a courthouse!

The Patagonia Market. They do accept food stamps here! ;o)

Artwork in front of the Velvet Elvis.

Patagonia has Sonoita Creek running nearby.

Okay, maybe 'running' isn't the right word to describe this creek....

Walking out of Patagonia along Highway 87.

I'm a little surprised that the fire danger is only "high" considering that
the Brown Fire was burning out of control not far away!

Oh, darn... And I had so set my hopes on a visit!

I'll think about it....

Glad that's cleared up. For a second, I thought maybe
I was actually on the map! ;o)

More border patrol activities....

Mesquite

Ocotillo

I'm kind of surprised that this tree is even still alive!

I just love these ocotillos!

This looks like a nice place to camp. Let's stop for the day!

Sweat stains on my shirt!

Writing a daily summary of my adventures in my journal is a nightly tradition.
Even before I cook dinner. =)

Day 4: Walking In Circles

Morning shadows.

April 16: I got up a bit later than normal. Partly because I went to sleep so late the night before due to night hiking, but partly because it was so cold in the morning, I didn't want to leave the warm comfort of my sleeping bag.

But eventually, I made it up and out of my bag and set off to resume the hike the Utah. I kept my eyes open for the dirt stock tank at Pauline Canyon, mostly out of curiosity than because I needed any water. I still wanted to know why I had so much trouble finding the water! If I knew what had gone so wrong the day before, perhaps I could avoid it in a similar situation later. But again, I never saw any pools of water along the trail. To this day, I still don't know what went wrong. Except that the water couldn't possibly be as close to the trail as my notes would indicate. A little more direction would have been helpful!

The cattle blocking the trail just before Middle Canyon had clearly around moved since I had left them 20 hours earlier, but they were still blocking the trail and I picked my way around them off  trail. I didn't follow the game trail in the wrong direction this time--I do (sometimes!) learn from my mistakes.

When I reached Middle Canyon, it was a milestone of sorts. This was where I had turned back the day before and finally, after nearly an entire day, I was progressing over new territory. I pulled out my camera--I needed to start taking photos again for Walking 4 Fun. It was kind of nice to walk without worrying about photos, bending over any interesting flowers and taking several photos hoping one of them might be in focus and look half decent and keeping an eye open for an interesting perspective on an otherwise boring section. Sometimes getting down close to the ground and looking upwards has an interest effect. Sometimes getting high and looking down has an interesting look. But sometimes, I just wanted to walk and not worry about any of that. Although I hated walking over ground I had already covered, it was a nice break from "working" on Walking 4 Fun.

The next water source was Down Under Tank--a dirt stock tank. Had I not backtracked, this would have been the water I would have needed to reach. It was impossible to miss--right off the side of the trail and it was a pretty large body of water. The trail between Pauline Canyon and the stock tank wasn't even particularly difficult--mostly rolling hills and it was considerably easier to walk than the backtracking I had done. In hindsight, knowing what I do now, I wouldn't have done the backtracking at all, but I still feel like I made the right decision--I didn't know for certain beforehand that I could find this stock tank or that it would have plenty of water, and I couldn't have known that this section of trail would be so much easier to walk than the stuff behind me.

Need to make a barbed-wire fence? I found everything
you need for it here!

However, the water was nasty. Not only was it muddy, but the edges were churned up with thousands of cow prints and surrounding terrain was filled with cow patties. Trap Tank wasn't pleasant, but at least it didn't look like it was abused by cattle.

According to my notes, additional water sources weren't far ahead, and they included notes like "solar pump and spigot" which sounded a lot better than what I was looking at so I skipped by the stock tank without stopping. (Okay, I stopped to take photos. I didn't stop to get water!)

Cattle were everywhere around these parts, and many of them were calves. The calves made me nervous, though, because their parents were clearly nervous when I approached within a quarter-mile of their offspring. More than once I veered off the trail to give a wide birth around them.

Another 1.7 miles after Down Under Tank, I reached the Cott Tank Exclosure and the solar-powered pump with a spigot. Clear, cool fresh water, straight out of the ground. That's what I'm talking about! The trail had very little shade along this section, and the solar panels provided some shade for a quick snack break. The area was fenced off with signs warning that no camping was allowed here to protect the wildlife, but I didn't plan to camp. It looked like there must have been a failure or two in the fence at some point since old cow pies littered the area. Nothing fresh that I could see, though.

Then I hefted the pack back on and kept walking. The trail passed by a small, no-longer-flowing creek. The stagnant water that was left formed pools covered with algae. Better than the stock tank, I suppose, but I was glad I could get water from the solar pump and spigot instead.

I followed the sign posts marking the Arizona Trail as it curved right, then curved right again, and I realized I was now walking almost 180 degrees in the opposite direction as when I left the Cott Tank Exclosure. When I left, the sun was on my left. Now it was on my right. I didn't think much of it except to wonder why they couldn't have just routed the trail northward from Cott Tank instead of meandering needlessly--the trail often seems to do a lot of needless meandering.

Prickly pear cactus

The next data point in my information was Red Bank Well--another solar pump with a storage tank 1.7 miles past Cott Tank. I finally spotted it in the distance to the right. The trail approached a barbed-wire fence with a warning that no camping was allowed within this area, and I stopped in my tracks. This sign and fence looked suspiciously like the last one I had seen just before I reached Cott Tank Exclosure. I took another look at the solar panels and tank in the distance and cussed.

I was back at Cott Tank! How the hell did I get back here?! I just walked in a giant circle!

I completed the circle by walking back to the tank, then sat down in the same shade I had stopped at before to pull out my maps and figure out what went wrong. I hadn't really been looking at my maps--just the data sheet which listed noteworthy points along the trail and their distances, but the map clearly showed no, wide-arching U that I found so suspicious before. The trail should have kept going westward. How did I miss the trail junction? And how did I follow Arizona Trail markers all the way back to the Cott Tank Exclosure? That was the thing that really puzzled me. If I hadn't seen any trail markers for the better part of a mile, I'd have grown suspicious at the lack of them. But I was following trail markers, and they led me directly here!

I followed the trail westward again, retracing my steps. Again. I really needed to stop doing this if I was ever going to reach Utah, mumbling some not-so-kind words about the Arizona Trail Association.

I felt like the trail was trying to buck me off. First, my start was delayed by two weeks due to server issues. Then there was the Brown Fire to scare me off. Then not finding the water source yesterday and having to backtrack nearly 7 miles. And now this. Setback after setback, and I have to admit, I was tempted just to quit. Screw it! I could come back when the trail is more accepting of me! In all my thru-hikes, I'd never run into so many problems so early in the trail.

I passed over the non-flowing creekbed again, then found the trail junction I had missed before. The trail made a sharp, 90-degree turn to the left, and I had missed it. The trail disappeared into a dry creekbed. There was a signpost marking the turn, but it was posted on the right side of the trail so I thought it was pointing to the trail on the left side of the signpost. It wasn't pointing to the trail on the left side of the signpost, however, it was pointing to the left!

And when I looked at the side of signpost, I figured out why I was able to follow trail markers all the way back to the Cott Tank Exclosure--it was the horse and bike route. Horses and bikes weren't allowed in the Cott Tank Exclosure and used a different path between here and there than the hikers did. I followed the hiker trail out, then the horse/bike trail back.

It was an easy mistake to make, but I still slapped myself mentally for walking an extra (and unnecessary) 1.7 miles to make a giant circle. Had I installed that particular signpost, I would have put it on the left side of the trail so when it pointed left, it looked like the arrow pointed to a turn rather than pointed to the trail on the left side of the marker. That small change in the position of the signpost could have saved me 1.7 miles of unnecessary walking.

That, and I should actually look at my maps more. Speaking of which, I should do that now. I kept my maps and data sheets in the right, front pocket of my shirt and I went to pull it out... and couldn't find the map. The datasheet was there. The list of water reports was there. But the map was missing. Damn it to hell! It must have fallen out somewhere in the past half mile! Why does this trail hate me so much?!

I wasn't going to go back to look for it even though it couldn't have been more than half a mile behind me. I'd done more than my fair share of unnecessary walking already and I wasn't going to add to it more. Anyhow, I had already hiked that section of trail twice! I wasn't in the mood to make it three or four times.

It wasn't that big of deal, though. That map page only had about three more miles of trail listed on it before I would have walked off the page. Then I'd be on to the next page of maps, and those I still had. As long as the trail didn't try to do anything tricky--you know, like split between a horse route and a hiker route--I should be fine without a map for the next three miles.

The rest of the day provided no more challenges and I set up camp near Redrock Ranch Road.

As darkness approached, I looked for my headlamp and couldn't find it anywhere. I poured out each of my bags one at a time looking for it--not in the food bag, not with the toiletries, not in my clothing bag. I checked all of the pockets of the clothes I was wearing, but no, they were empty too. I retraced my steps to where I did my thing in the woods thinking maybe I had somehow dropped it along the way, but I didn't find it there either. It was gone. My headlamp was gone! ARGH!

How the heck did I lose that? Maybe some animal ran off with it while I was busy pooping in the woods? I banged my forehead with my hand in frustration and.... oh, there it was! I'd been wearing it the whole time. Don't know why it didn't occur to me to search my head for a headlamp!

Well, at least that problem was solved. Even if it took me about 15 minutes longer to solve than it should have! I went to sleep hoping that tomorrow held no more problems for me....

Much of the trail today went through these rolling hills
with very little shade.

Down Under Tank didn't look like very good water....

You can see the thousands of hoof prints churning up mud along the edge
by cattle drinking from the water. What you can't see
in this photo are all the cow pies surrounding the area.

Silverleaf nightshade

Solar-powered pump and spigot in the Cott Tank Exclosure.

This is the signpost that failed me.... I didn't realize that the Arizona Trail
split into a bike/horse trail in one direction and a hiker trail in the other.
From the direction I came, I only saw the one arrow pointing left, but I
didn't actually see a trail to the left and assumed it was pointing to the trail
on the left rather than a trail to the left.

Poppies!

The Red Bank Well is apparently powered by both solar power and wind power!

The Red Bank Well had water just pouring out of the tank, so I rinsed
my dirty socks in them. =)

There wasn't a lot of shade along this section of trail, so when I found
this, I stopped for an hour-long rest break!

Sunset approaches....

Ants hiking the Arizona Trail!