February 28, 2022

• Start: Eugene, OR
• End: Hereford, AZ
• Miles traveled: 1,400+ miles by air and car

My alarm woke me from my warm, comfy bed in Eugene while it was still pitch black outside. I’d booked the earliest flight possible to Arizona. This meant a 6:20 am departure from the Pacific Northwest, plus an even earlier ride to the airport.

Despite the super early hour, my flight was more than three-quarters full. When I finally made it to my seat near the back of the plane, things were definitely not off to a good start. 

My seat-mate sitting comfortably in her window seat. Meanwhile, my seat had an insulated water bottle resting upside down on it. And the bottle was currently submerged in about three inches of water!

I stared at the woman in wonder. Did she really not notice the seat right beside her looked like a swimming pool?!?

She shrugged nonchalantly at me and commented it wasn’t her bottle. Then the college-age kid sitting on the other side of the aisle looked over. And realized it was his water bottle pouring out into my seat. The bottle must have fallen out of his backpack (which he’d shoved into the overhead bin above my seat instead of in the empty bin over his side of the aisle).

OK… What now? 

I waved the flight attendant over to ask for something to sop the mess up, knowing full well that: (1) there was more than a liter of water pooling in my seat and a handful of paper towels wasn’t going to do the trick; (2) even if she had something super absorbent on hand, I wasn’t planning to sit on drenched fabric for the next two hours!

While the flight attendant inspected the waterlogged situation, I gave her some breathing room. I went to wait in an empty row while the rest of the passengers boarded. And that’s the story of how I got the entire exit row (with extra legroom) all to myself on my 2.5-hour flight to Phoenix.

My second short flight to Tucson was far less memorable. Before I knew it, I was picking up my duffel bag full of hiking gear from the baggage claim and heading to the rental car counter. 

My pre-trail plan tonight was to stay the night with some trail angels – Mike and Angi – who live down near the border. But I still needed to get myself down to Sierra Vista to link up with them first. For that, I’d need a one-way rental car from Tucson to Sierra Vista. So I spent the next 65 minutes impatiently fidgeting as the one lone rental clerk working the airport counter worked his way through the patrons waiting in line ahead of me.

ISOPRO WOES

With car keys finally in hand, I had one more errand to run before heading south toward the border. I needed to pick up some items that couldn’t fly with me on the airplane, including a fuel canister for my stove.

I had been exchanging emails and texts with Angi the past few weeks leading up to my flight. And she texted me yesterday morning (Sunday) with some bad news. She’d gone to the REI in Tucson this weekend and they were all sold out of fuel canisters! 

This was not good news!

In a panic, I immediately called Summit Hut (a local outfitter in Tucson), and the guy on the phone told me not to worry. They had plenty of canisters left. Whew! What a relief! 

When texted this update to Angi, she responded by asking me if I wouldn’t mind picking up two small and two large canisters for her too. She was hiking the AZT this spring – beginning three weeks after me. So she wanted a few extra canisters on hand for herself and any other hikers they hosted in their home over the next few weeks.

Given my conversation on the phone with Summit Hut yesterday, I figured my fuel canister errand would be a super quick stop. I’d be on my way south to Sierra Vista with plenty of time to spare. 

No such luck! When I showed up at the Summit Hut location on East Speedway Blvd., they only had one small fuel canister left on the shelf!! 

Holy heck. Was finding fuel canisters going to be this difficult on the entire AZT? If Tucson didn’t have fuel canisters in stock, would would the situation look like in the small trail towns? 

I’d planned to cook on this thru-hike, and it was far too late to change my food resupply plan now. I already paid a king’s ransom to mail six food drops along the trail. Hopefully, this fuel shortage wasn’t going to be my Achilles heel.

After sweet-talking the clerk up at the register, he graciously checked the inventory at the Summit Hut on Oracle Road (read: the complete opposite side of town). The other store had canisters in stock, and he said he could put several large and small ones on hold for me, but only as long I could make it over there in the next hour.

So that’s how I spent my afternoon. Not relaxing and making sure I was mentally ready for the trail. But galloping around Tucson trying to find fuel canisters before speeding the 85 miles down to Sierra Vista to return my one-way rental car before the local Enterprise rental agency closed at 5:30 pm.

MIKE & ANGI

Once in Sierra Vista, I met up with Mike where they hosted me in their gorgeous Southwest-style adobe house with view of the mountains in their backyard.

I immediately felt at ease with Mike, not just because he’d hiked the AZT himself back in 2018. But because he was a retired Army veteran, like me. I won’t tell his story here. Suffice it to say, he’s also a big advocate for how nature therapy dramatically helps heal the wounds of war.

Angi is an Army veteran too, and she’s planning to hike the AZT this year with Warrior Expeditions, a non-profit outdoor therapy program that helps servicemembers transition from their combat experiences to civilian life with thru-hikes, long bike tours, and river paddling adventures. 

Angi, Mike, and I spent the next few hours chatting about the AZT and swapping military stories while we ate dinner. In addition to hosting me that night, they also had a college friend named Judy visiting. She was planning to head to the trailhead with us in the morning to see what all the thru-hiking hubbub was about.

Finally, at 9 pm, I bid goodnight to my generous hosts. I still needed to organize my gear for tomorrow’s start, and we planned to depart early to get to the southern terminus before the weather turned too hot. Tomorrow is supposed to get up to the mid-to upper-70s. A lot warmer than the 40-degree temps I’ve trained in these past two months!

HIGHLIGHTS

• Watching the gorgeous sunrise as my plane lifted off from Eugene.
• I’m finally in Arizona! Tomorrow I finally begin my AZT thru-hike!
• Mike & Angi – what great hosts. Not only are they taking me to the southern terminus tomorrow, but they also made me dinner and gave me a comfy place to stay the night before the trail begins.

CHALLENGES

• Discovering I was assigned to sit in a soaking wet airplane seat. What a way to start this journey!
• The mysterious fuel canister shortage in Tucson. I’m now carrying a large (8 oz.) fuel canister, despite it being double the extra weight, just in case fuel is equally scarce ahead on the trail.