April 6, 2022
- Start: Rabbit Canyon on the Old AZT (mile 625.5)
- End: Russell Tank (mile 651.3)
- Distance: 25.8 miles (+ another 0.8 miles due to a missed turn)
The wind speed dropped significantly overnight, which was a genuine blessing. I doubt my dried lips and chafed skin would have withstood with another arid, blustery day. My face already felt like it was cracking whenever I smiled or laughed at Clothesline’s stories.
I might have been happy over the improvement in the weather conditions, but Volt was on the opposite end of the spectrum. He was still completely exasperated over two bitter discoveries that occurred when we set up camp last night.
The first one had to do with his toothpaste. While we were in Flagstaff doing our resupply, he’d made the mistake of purchasing a full-size tube of toothpaste (instead of a trial size tube). The large tube didn’t fit inside the small ziplock bag where he stored his toiletry items, so he resorted to just chucking it inside his food bag.
Unfortunately, the flip-top cap opened inside his pack sometime between lunch and when we stopped to make camp. And this blunder ended with every single food item being coated with sticky toothpaste. Nearly one-third of a tube of paste appeared to be gone! It an absolutely was a horrid mess, and he didn’t have enough water or baby wipes to even begin to deal with the mayhem.
The second discovery that put him in a caustic mood had to do with some chafing. While we were post-holing on Humphreys Peak, Volt developed some bad chafing from the wet material on his pants clinging to his thighs.
He attempted to clean off the effected area with our first night when we camping in the snow night only to discover that he’d accidentally picked up Lysol disinfecting cleaning wipes in Flagstaff instead of soothing baby wipes! So now the raw, chafed skin on his thighs looked and felt like he has chemical burns on them. That’s not a mistake anybody wants to make!!
I can’t say I blame Volt for being in a sour mood over it. Even one of these two mishaps would be enough to push the average hiker to a pretty dark place.
KEEP OFF!
Consequently, Volt and I decided to hike begin the day by separately this morning. He needed the space to be angry at himself, at his resupply choices, and at the world.
We wove our way through the remainder of Rabbit Canyon and back over to the “new” AZT route where the two routes merged once again. The sun was out and it was another clear, blue day, yet it was much cooler this morning. I assume yesterday’s wind was caused by this sudden cold front moving west.
Up ahead, I could see a series of high voltage power lines stretching out into the desert, and the trail seemed to be headed straight toward them. It was only a matter of time before I’d intersect with them.
As I stopped to take some photos underneath the massive metal towers, I was taken aback by a signs posted on the metal rails warning people not to climb them. You know these signs were posted because some daredevil disregarded common sense and probably got shocked or lost his balance and fell. One would think simple logic would deter people from such nonsense, and these signs were ridiculously unnecessary. But sadly, you’d be wrong.
I chuckled at the absurd signs. Then I started down the dirt road I’d just intersected following it northwest. Just as I disappeared out of sight for the powerlines, the trail seemed to turn south. Uh oh. This wasn’t right. Why was the trail turning back toward Flagstaff???
I pulled out my phone and discovered my mistake. I wasn’t supposed to follow the dirt road at the high voltage towers. I’d missed my turn for the trail back there! And now I was 0.4 miles off track. Damn it! I’d been so busy making fun of people for being foolish, that now I was the dumbass!
I made an about face and turning back toward the power lines once again, walking past some random cows and then watching a horse and rider kicking up dust as they galloped across the desert.
When I finally made it back to the metal towers, Volt was there. He was feeling a little better, having worked through some of his frustration and ire over the past 90 minutes. So we joined forces again and set off north to find the real AZT.
GAME TANK
Our next stop this morning was a game tank about a quarter mile off-trail. This was the morning’s only water source and I was in desperate need of water. The dry wind yesterday made me so much more parched than normal, and I drank more than I should have through the night.
As we approached, I notice this tank was radically different that any of the earthen or metal tanks I’d encountered thus far on trail. It had an outer perimeter of metal rails designed to keep cattle out while simultaneously allowing wild game (like pronghorn) to enter by nimbly jumping over the rails.
Inside the fencing, a taller perimeter of chain link fence protected some sort of rainwater catchment system with a cistern underneath it. This tank then fed a concrete and metal basin sitting in the space between the rails and the fence.
Green algae and other detritus floated atop the water’s surface inside the basin, but the water was cold and there was plenty of it. Moreover, there was no wild game around to compete with.
As I waited for my water to filter, I began to notice how sore my upper back seemed to be today. This was a new pain I hadn’t experienced during the first 600 miles on trail. Maybe I just slept wrong. Or maybe it’s a side effect of our snow escapades the last two days.
Either way, the soreness was significant enough that I found myself digging an 800 mg. ibuprofen pill out of my first aid kit to alleviate the muscle aches. That was the first time I’d felt bad enough to take any medicine out here on this trail, so I knew I’d have to keep an eye on this problem for sure!
WOULD YOU RATHER….???
Volt and I drifted apart after the game tank, but I promised to stop around noon for lunch and told him I’d wait for him. I needed to walk at my own pace to let my back loosen up, and I could see his chafe was beginning to bother him too.
This was just one of this days where our own personal aches and pains seemed to dominate our thoughts and distract us from the trail itself. Ordinarily, I would have felt guilty about zoning out while I walked, but the scenery was just more of the same flat, dry conditions we’d seen for the past 20 mile out heres.
I stopped for lunch near a junction for the old AZT and new AZT again. The two trails seemed to parallel each other and break apart, then come back together over and over – just like a DNA model.
Volt had fallen a full half hour behind me again and was no longer in sight, even on this flat terrain where if felt like you could see for miles and miles. So I sought out some juniper where I could bury myself deep in its boughs to wait for him to appear. I even took my shoes off and pulled my legging up above my knees to rest in the sunshine as I leaned my sore back on my pack.
After lunch, I felt obligate to motivate Volt and pull him out of his funk. It was evident that he wasn’t his normal, jovial self. This was one of those bad days where he needed a more experienced thru-hiker to jump in to help out. I knew his hike would turn around again in another day or two, and I didn’t want him to make he mistake of thinking he should quit just because he was having a ‘terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.’ We’ve all been there.
I decided we’d hike together at his pace because my back hurt. And I would amuse and distract him with some of the games we played back when the mud was driving us both nuts. I asked him questions about his favorite sibling. Then we turned to hypotheticals about what the perfect house floor plan would include. And finally, we landed on to lots of “would you rather” questions.
Would you rather eat a tray of 12 frosted cupcakes or 40 tacos? Would you rather walk the rest of the trail in shorts or without sun gloves? Would you rather wear a uniform to work or pick out your own clothes?
This diversion seemed to add some spring to his step as he was momentarily distracted from his chafe. And we walked and talked together until we reached the Moqui Stage Station – and the trailhead where the Coconino Rim stage of the AZT began.
COCONINO RIM
At Moqui Stage, we returned to our own paces with the plan to hike another 6.7 miles to Russell Tank and camp there for the night. It wouldn’t be our longest day our here on trail, but it would push us to nearly 26 miles and allow us to camp with the luxury of water tonight. And after that, it was just two more days until the Grand Canyon.
I set off on my own ahead of Volt, and barely five minutes later I nearly stepped directly onto a horned toad that was resting on trail. I came so close to squashing on it, that I literally had to stop my foot in mid-air to prevent the casualty. But it didn’t even bother this little mini-dragon. H e stayed completely still awaiting his fate instead of scampering off in a fit of self-preservation like most lizards.
The junipers beside the trail soon gave way to tall ponderosa pines again, and this seemed to completely change the complexion of the trail. I was back in a shady forest rather than the exposed desert, even though the ground was the same red dust and rocks.
I’d entered the edge of the Kaibab National Forest, which would ran north along the Coconino Rim all the way to the Grand Canyon. This was where we would gradually gain elevation all the way until we got to 7,200 feet on the canyon’s south rim.
Two and a half miles before Russell Tank, I came upon a rusty metal cistern with “Russell” written in white paint. A tall, 6-rung metal ladder was propped against the tank’s side, but it didn’t seem quite high enough for anyone to successfully retrieve water from it – unless the water was spilling over the edge.
I didn’t bother even checking if there was water here, since I knew I would be camping by the upcoming tank and returned my attention to the shade pine forest ahead of me.
Soon thereafter, I noticed blood on my left glove and realized the seam from my new sun gloves (which I’d purchased in Flagstaff) had rubbed a blister on my thumb. Now the skin was cracked open and bleeding. Sigh! It was just one of those days…
But with our early start and the easy terrain, I was on pace to finish the day by 5:15 pm. I hadn’t had such an early day in a long time. And that would give me ample time to bandage up my blister, stretch out my aching upper back, and tend to any other nagging injuries.
About a half hour later, I rolled up to Russell Tank and discovered that it was a nice flat spot with lots of places to set up our tents. This tank was just another earthen mud pit filled with water, but it was larger than more. There was even a dam set on one end of it to trap the winter snow melt and the heavy rain during the summer monsoon season.
I dropped my pack on a flat grassy spot and went down to grab some water for night. And when I was done filtering what I needed, I returned back to the muddy looking tank to grab another two liters for Volt. Just as a small kindness to surprise him when he arrived. Perhaps it would make him feel better.
Then I set about scouting for a good spot to pitch my tent. There were so many choices it wasn’t hard. There wasn’t a soul around and the ground seemed to be covered with grass or pine duff wherever I looked. But there was one extra element here that I needed to consider…
Russell Tank was a trailhead with an empty parking area and with a pit toilet! A friggin’ pit toilet!!! No digging a cathole for me tomorrow morning. I’d get to sit on a real toilet seat! What a morale booster. I was so damn happy that I was still smiling about it when Volt showed up and dropped his pack on the flat patch of grass beside me.
Highlights
- Although the scenery was a bit dull today, it made for easy walking most of the day and I had a marathon’s distance under my belt by 5:15 pm!
- Spotting another horned toad on trail this afternoon
- Getting to camp early and discovered the luxury of a pit toilet nearby!
Challenges
- Waking up with upper back pain was a bummer. The ibuprofen helped take the edge off, but the niggling pain between my shoulders lasted the entire day.
- Taking a wrong turn near the high-voltage power line towers resulted in me wasting 0.8 miles of precious energy.