March 14, 2022
- Start: Junction for Wildlife Tank (Mile 242.1)
- End: Gila River Trailhead (Mile 257.8)
- Distance: 16.7 AZT miles + 1.2 miles of roadwalking to Hwy 177
I woke up this morning to the soundtrack of the nearby high power lines of buzzing and crackling. But I didn’t grow a third arm from sleeping near them, and I had no nighttime visits from the javelina I saw yesterday afternoon (thank goodness).
An urgent calling from my bowels forced me awake earlier than normal. Or maybe I was just excited because today’s a town day. I was headed into Kearny in another 16 or 17 miles, and then tomorrow would be a zero! It’s amazing how the draw of going to town could motivated me.
I ended up hitting the trail just before 7am, walking into a generally quiet morning. Fewer birds were serenading me than normal, yet the cottontail bunnies seemed to be out in force. They were constantly bolting across the sandy trail, darting toward safety as I approached their hidden resting spots.
BIGGEST CACTUS EVER
As I walked in the silence of the desert, my eyes seemed focused on the changes around me. Yesterday, I’d noted how things were much greener at this elevation. But that wasn’t the only difference. There were also other aspects of the landscape changing before my eyes.
Flowers seemed to be blooming on so many of the plants and desert shrubs. I couldn’t names them all, but I spent much of my time stopping to take photos as I documented the last bits of relative flat desert before I headed up into the Superstitions and the Four Peaks Wilderness in the days that lay ahead.
This section of trail was where I spotted the largest saguaro cactus I’ve ever seen. It was massive. I can’t even estimate how tall it was – though it easily topped 50 feet. But the truly impressive aspect of this cactus was how many arms it had growing off of it.
It takes more than 50 years for a saguaro cactus to grow its first arm, which is where it stores extra water. This was simply a massive cactus though, with such a thick cluster of arms that it absolutely amazed me! Several of the arms appeared to have holes in the top of them, probably made by Gila woodpeckers looking for nesting spots out of the sun.
SIX LITERS
I made my way past this massive cactus (and his shorter friends) and up some hills before accidentally startling some cattle hanging out deep in a narrow gulley on the hill’s opposite side. I don’t think they were expecting to see me coming around a the corner, and they took off at a good clip. Luckily, the trail was several dozen feet above the cows and I wasn’t at risk of being trampled.
My first goal this morning was Ripsey Wash, which sat about six miles into the day. The wash itself was nothing special. But a well-established natural spring flows there, just about one-third of a mile off the Arizona Trail, and I was currently down to about half a liter of water after cooking my dinner last night and my coffee this morning.
I hadn’t bothers to fill up at the Wildlife Tank that I camped near last night. So there was no way I could bypass this water source. Especially since it was destined to be another hot day again.
A group of AZT section hikers was already milling about in Ripsey Wash when I arrived just before 9 a.m. The men looked to be in their 60s, and they still had their large REI tents still set up amid the tall brush. They definitely weren’t getting an early start.
One of the men told me they weren’t walking very big miles each day, which made sense as I surveyed how much gear they brought out here. But then he surprised me by telling me he was planning to carry six liters (!!) of water out of the wash when they headed south this morning. He wanted to make sure he had enough to get to the next water source without running out.
I tried to tell him there was a tank in just six miles, but he wasn’t convinced. He was still carrying six liters just to be safe. That’s 13 extra pounds of water, folks! But since I wasn’t the one carrying it, I just let him be and I walked down to the spring to grab my water and eat my morning snack.
RAY MINE
The sun crept higher in the sky as I made my way back through Ripsey Wash. Even though it was barely 9 am, it was turning into another swelteringly hot day as I trucked up a two-mile climb with a heavy pack. I probably should just accept that I’ll always have a big hill to climb right after I replenish my water!
Near the top of the pass though, I could see the entire landscape unfolding ahead of me. Gold colored foothillswere dotted with shrubs to my north. And through the hazy sunshine, I could see something unusual in the distance.
At first I though it was a lake, as it seemed to have a whitish blue color. But as I continued walking north and got better views of it, the object in the distance seemed to be something else entirely. There were striated shade of color across a long gash in the earth.
Was it from erosion? Or some sort of mining operation?
I’d later learn what I was staring at was Ray Mine – an open pit mine that extracted copper near the town of Kearny. This was one of the largest copper reserves in the entire U.S., and it’s been in operation for more than 140 years (or 30 years before Arizona was admitted into the Union!).
The mine sat nestled up against the backdrop of the Pinal mountains to the north. But this bird’s eye view from the south was as good of a look as I’d get of the mine because the AZT wouldn’t go over the peaks behind it. The trail’s route took a sharp left at the Gila River before boxing around the mountains on its way toward Superior instead.
MORE GET HIKERS
This pass where I stopped to take pictures of the mine was my high point of the day at 3,500 feet. The remaining miles of the day would generally be heading downhill as I wove my way north toward the AZT’s lowest point — the Gila River — over then next eight miles.
More teddy bear cholla and prickly brush lined the dirt path, but there was little else to provide shade on this extremely exposed section of trail. Meanwhile the air temperature continued to get warmer and warmer as I gradually dropped in elevation toward the desert floor.
A little past noon, I my stomach was grumbling again and I knew I needed to stop to eat something and rest my feet for a spell. But without any obvious shade around, my options were limited. In the end, I ended up just dropping my pack beside the trail and curling up under the shade of my silver umbrella.
I was still eating when two more southbound hikers approached me. This duo of ladies, named Port and Starboard, were a couple of decades older that the rest of their GET counterparts, and one was wearing a Pacific Northwest Trail hat from a prior adventure.
They clearly didn’t mind rougher trails if they’d thru-hiked the 1,200-mile PNT through Montana, Idaho, and Washington. And now they were out here on the GET laying down even more miles on rough trail.
I told Starboard I wanted to be just like them someday, and she gave a hearty laugh in response. If I was out here on this trail, then I could definitely hike the PNT, she said. It felt good to hear that encouragement, but I still had a long, long way to go. And right now, I had just one focus…getting to Kearny.
DOWN TO THE GILA
The three of parted ways and I started hiking downhill under the shade of my hiking umbrella, while keeping an eye on a duo of horseback riders heading uphill in my direction.
As the horses got about 250 meters out, I slowly closed my silvery umbrella and put it next to my leg so it didn’t spook them. The trail wasn’t that wide here, and I knew we’d cross paths soon. An umbrella was just the type of thing to cause a horse to act a bit squirrely.
I stepped aside as the riders approached, expecting them to continue uphill past me. But they stopped instead, and lady on the lead horse asked me what the heck I’d been carrying. She could see it reflecting from their position lower on the trail and thought it might be some sort of solar panel to charge my batteries.
I told her it was a lightweight umbrella to help protect me from the overhead sun, and she marveled at the notion. She’d said never heard of people hiking in the desert with umbrellas. She was in a sleeveless tank top, while I was covered head to toe and using an umbrella.
The equestrians told me they were out in Arizona for the winter months, trying to avoid the winder back home in Iowa. They were just heading up the trail for a few hours. So there was a good chance I might see them when they returned to trailhead. If so, they offered to give me a ride into town if I still needed one.
I thanked them before continuing downhill through the scrub brush and sandy trail toward the Florence-Kelvin Road Trailhead where a bear box, trail register, and small ocotillo branch covered shade structure sat.
The shelter was almost identical to the one I had lunch at yesterday, with one notable exception. There was no bench here. So it hardly seemed worth waiting here for the two equestrians to return, especially since they might be gone for several more hours. After all, it was only another two miles to the Gila River trailhead, where I hoped to catch an easy hitch into town.
WAITING FOR A HITCH
Those final two miles on the desert floor were super warm. But, there were so many flowers in bloom that I found myself distracted as I walked on the trail toward the river.
Tall cactus dotted the hills, while yellow poppies carpeted the ground beneath them. Butterfies flitted about everywhere, and it was one of the prettiest afternoons I’ve had on the AZT yet. There was so much color around me. This was a far cry from the desolate sand-colored journey most my family though I was currently walking.
I finally crossed over the Gila River, which was so muddy that it looked like chocolate milk flowing under the bridge. Thank goodness I wouldn’t have to rely on this as a water source today.
Instead, I walked over to the Pinal County Maintenance building just off the trail, where there was a water spigot available for AZT hikers to use. And let me tell you, that cold, clear tap water was so damn refreshing! Now all I needed was a ride to town!
THE FRIENDLIEST TOWN ON THE AZT
I sat in the shade of the maintenance building hoping I might be able to hitch a ride into Kearny, but the traffic on this little road was negligible. Two pickup trucks passed by, but they were headed in the opposite direction. Then railway truck showed up, but it turned onto the tracks to do some maintenance. Nobody seemed to be heading toward town.
After 15 minutes, I decided my chances of getting a ride from the trailhead were fairly slim. I’d need to walk the 1.3 additional miles further up the road until I got to the junction with Highway 177. That was a major road with plenty of traffic running up and down it from Superior and Winkleman.
Once I got to Highway 177, I threw out my thumb, and had almost immediate success. The fourth vehicle I saw slowed to pull over to the road’s shoulder.
The guy asked me where I was headed, and when I said the Kearny post office, he told me to hop in. So I jumped in the rear bed of his silver pickup truck with my pack, elated to feel the wind racing though my hair, cooling me down from the blistering heat.
Less than ten minutes later, the truck pulled off the highway and into the tiny town of Kearny. I’d expected the driver to stop near the post office so I could hop out, but he kept going, then pulled across the street to a parking lot.
As I stood up and hoisted myself and my pack out of the truck’s bed, I looked up to see that the driver wasn’t in a random parking lot. He’d parked us in the police station parking lot. Oh crap. Was this dude turning me in to the local cops for hitchhiking?
Before I could say anything, he got out of the truck and announced that worked there. He was one of the police officers and was just getting ready to go on shift. And if I needed a ride back out to the trailhead, I should just come back to the station and he’d help me out.
What the heck?!? Was this cop really offering to take me back out to the trail? Seriously? I felt like I was in an alternate reality. I’d heard that Kearny has a reputation of being the friendliest town on the AZT, but this was just above and beyond my expectations!
I thanked him for the ride. I wouldn’t be coming back to the police station today. I had a resupply package to pick up, a shower to take, and then I was heading to Old Time Pizza, where I’d finally catch up to the two hikers ahead of me: Leah and Eagle.
HIGHLIGHTS
- All the wildflowers in bloom in the desert are gorgeous. March is a great time to visit Arizona!
- I still can’t believe I caught a ride into Kearny from local cop! All the hype about the people in Kearny being friendly must be true.
- Talking to the horseback riders this afternoon. It’s not every day I get to do that.
CHALLENGES
- Once again it was a hot, hot afternoon. Perhaps it’s just the lower elevation, but I was sweating bucket today.
- In that same vein, I’ve developed really bad chafe on my legs. I’ll need to find some baby powder while I’m in town because I suspect it isn’t going away in this heat.