March 17: I had an amazing night of sleep in that nice hotel room bed in Kearny. I was going to get a ride back out to the trailhead at 10 but I had woken up at around 7. Not knowing what to do for that time I went for a walk around town. Kearny seems like a very nice town, just small enough to have that small town feel and just large enough to feel like you're not in the middle of nowhere. I was told there was a breakfast place but couldn't find it anywhere, on my way back to my hotel I ran into Jim, from Alaska (aka Santa), and we started talking. He pointed me in the direction of the place with good breakfast burritos and we headed over there. It was a little video store that doubled as a convince store. Santa and I both got burritos and even as someone who doesn't like eggs they were really good. We sat on a curb eating our burritos and talked for a while, boy, could Santa swear. He didn't seem to be doing too well on his trip either and was not handling the Arizona heat well at all. It got to around 9:45 so I had to leave Santa alone, I grabbed my bag and met my pickup from the Kearny inn. Turns out he was the owner, which I thought was very cool. He was also a rancher and told me I had and would be going through his ranch. He owned the area before I got into kelvin and just after it. I learned about how the ranchers and the Arizona Trail Association have worked together to plan out the trail on BLM land. He dropped me off at the Gila river, where the next portion started and I started back up. The Gila was flowing big time and for anyone reading this who's never been to the Gila before, it's about 40 feet wide, deep and fast flowing. I didn't dare go for a swim like I was imagining I would get to. I walked along railroad tracks for a few miles, because I'm lazy, and had to bushwhack to get back on the trail. The trail sort of followed the river, but would sway between 100 yards and a mile of it. The cows in the area had cow bells, which I've never seen before and think it the cutest thing I've ever seen in my whole life. I realized I had overpacked and my back was killing me, I decided to ditch some of my food and hang it on a fence along the trail. I put it in a bag labeled "overpacked feel free to take". The desert was pretty beautiful, tall saguaros and hills covered my wildflowers, with a larger river and cottonwoods cutting the desert in two. Distracted by the beautiful scene I nearly stepped on a rattlesnake, which gave me a pretty big fright. I thank god they have that rattle because I wouldn't have seen it at all if I hadn't heard it. My heart was pounding and I stepped around it, what only seemed like a few minutes later I heard an awful hissing noise and a Gila monster ran off into a bush. He looked at me and kept hissing like a cat that had its tail pulled by a toddler. I stepped around again and prayed I didn't see anything else that day. I made it to camp pretty soon after that and it was the nicest camp I had yet. It was a beach right along the bank of the Gila, the sand felt great between my toes and I got to camp pretty early. It was incredibly peaceful as I made camp and took some time to put my feet in the water. The Gila is polluted by heavy metals but it was the only water in the area so I drank plenty, after I filtered it with my Sawyer squeeze. The night was turning out to be a great one, and then night fell and hell was let loose. If god has angels then Satan has mosquitos. I was getting a bit over my whole body and had to put on long sleeves. Right as the bug started calming down a couple large trucks pulled up across the river and I knew I wasn't going to sleep that night. A gang of college boys all piled out and turned on some wonderfully loud trap music. They said hello like a frat boy would "oh what's up dude? You wanna party?" They asked me. Maybe I would have if there wasn't a river in between us, but I had to say no. I ate dinner and went to bed, with my headphones in and drowned out my neighbor's music with a white noise app I had downloaded for school. It took me a very long time to get to sleep either way and didn't sleep well that night at all
March 18: I got a very early start that morning, I was planning on going over 23 miles that day. The day started out hot and uphill, the mountains were beautiful though. After a few miles I took a break and laid on my bag, it made a nice backrest. Once I got back up I realized my back had pressed against my reservoir and spilled my water....almost all of it. So for the next few miles, I was without water. I had to hike 7 miles uphill, in the heat of midday. At times I thought I might genuinely faint from heat and lack of water. I called my mom and told her my situation and she, of course, told everyone, which was pretty embarrassing. I struggled to make it to the top of a ridge and once I got to the top there was some nice deep shade, and a biker from Tucson. He was waiting for a couple of his buddies and we got to talking, nice guy. He didn't have any water to spare but we gave me some oranges which helped my dry dry mouth. The other 2 guys with him took a while and as they came walking up on their bikes up the hill because one of them had a flat. I gave him some tape to patch up his bike tube and he gave me a small water bottle. It was the best water I had ever tasted, he froze the bottle so what had melted was nice and cold, and forced me not to drink the whole thing at once. I left the nice shade and made my way through the mountains and crossed into Tonto National Forest boundary for the first time. I called my mom and she told me she had somehow managed to have me stay the night at Boyce Thomson Arboretum, a world famous arboretum that was a few miles off the trail. I was told they had a bed and a shower so I was more than happy with this news. I was planning on staying by some old windmill that night but a mini hotel sounded a lot nicer. I was given the number of the hosts there, apparently, the arboretum has visitors pretty often. I came down to a tank and was saved, there was water. I filled up my reservoir and myself, snacking and drinking. It was while I was relaxing in the shade when I realized I still had over 10 miles till I could get picked up by the camp hosts and I had already hiked over 10 miles that day. It was getting late, it was probably already around 5 and the sun went down around 6:30. 10 miles in an hour and a half, in the mountains, with 40 lbs on my back? Sounds doable. I raced off, I don't think I've ever hiked so fast in my life. I hate running but what I was doing probably qualified as that awful activity. Soon, I was able to see a large mountain that I knew to be called Picket Post, and I knew the arboretum and highway 60 was at the base. An hour passed by and I had already made it 5 miles, which was about twice my usual speed. I wasn't able to make it to the road by nightfall so I had to hike with my flashlight for a while. I got to the Picket Post Trailhead and started walking down the road. I had talked with the hosts and they had said they would pick me up along that road. I'd like to say I remember their names, I feel like the man's name was Ken. But, as you may or may not have already figured out, I'm awful with names. I can remember faces really well but names slip out of my memory 30 seconds after I hear them. Anyway, I was walking along a road but there was no sign of a man who's name might have been Ken. There was no service so I just had to keep walking. I was incredibly tired and my legs were sore for the first time my entire trip. I didn't want to keep moving. I got to the highway and still didn't see Ken, I started walking towards the arboretum and after a while, a blue Honda pulled off. It was Ken and he told me to hop in, we went back the the Arboretum and went to Ken's and his wife's trailer. They were both wonderful people and I chatted with them for a bit but I wanted a shower and a bed. They gave me some food, which was very nice of them. Ken showed me to a small apartment that my room was in, it was like a hotel room, complete with a mini kitchen. I was directed to the shower room and went to take a shower, it felt amazing. The cold water after that hot day was the best. I then washed all my clothes, ate and went to bed. Even though my day was insanely long I couldn't sleep.
March 18: I had a short hike that day. So I knew I could sleep in and look around the Arboretum for a bit. I wanted to thank Paul, the man who had been in charge of getting me the room the night before. I waited in the gift shop for a while and bought a bag of chips, a Gatorade and sandwich. I met Paul and he was incredibly nice and loved what I was doing and helped me get some good pictures of the Arboretum. He was a very energetic guy and was really likable. I thanked him for the night's stay and ate my sandwich out front of the Arboretum. It was probably around 11 by the time I left but I didn't care. It wasn't too bad of a day by any means but my legs were sore from the day before and it made it brutal. The small hills felt worse than the mountains and the heat made it feel like I was on a stair master in a boiling room. I went into a small canyon and the trail followed it for a few miles so I just walked right up the creek. The trail would cross it and go up and down so I just decided to walk up the creek. I was in a small slot canyon, traversing the creek and doubling back on myself every now and then. It was incredibly peaceful and very calming and easy. I was along that creek for the rest of the day and got to camp at around 4. This was super super early but the next water was another 10 miles from me so I made camp there. It was an old water trough with quite a few bugs in it, it tasted pretty good though. I made another one of those vegetarian meals I hated, all I had left for the next few days was 3 cheese lasagna. It tastes way worse than it sounds. I got ready for bed by 6....the sun was still up. I didn't have anything else to do and my phone had no service to talk to anyone so I just went to bed, even before the sun went down. I even had no reason to get to bed early because I had another short day then next day.
March 19: I woke up and went back to bed, and back to bed again. I had no reason to get up because I only had around 12 miles to my next camp. I wanted to camp at a place called "Reeves Ranch" because I remembered my grandpa had talked about it before and said how nice it was. To get there I had to walk up a small mountain, about 1500 feet up, then a few miles after that. By this time I was pretty used to nasty, steep climbs. This little hill gave me a run for my money, most steep inclines have switchbacks, windy bits, in order to make the incline more gradual over a longer distance. It was obvious whoever made this Trail wanted to watch the world burn, there were very few switchbacks and it practically went straight up the mountain. As I went up the mountain I got service again and I called my dad to talk about my data usage, I had reached my cap for the month. Then I had to call Verizon and try to figure out my plan because I needed more data. After talking to Verizon tech help in the absolute middle of nowhere, I got everything sorted it and kept hiking up the mountain. I took a break there and stopped for a snack. I then walked along a few ridges in the superstitions, before coming to a point called Rodgers Trough. This is the only portion of the Arizona Trail I had ever hiked before my trip. I went with my family over thanksgiving the year before so the area was very familiar, but it had a lot more water this time around. It was like a trip down memory lane, I could figure out where we had taken breaks before, breezed over hills that had been difficult for me the last time. It was good to think about because it showed that my hiking skills and endurance were improving. As I hiked to an area called Reavis Ranch I came across a small herd of deer, which I had seen plenty of but these deer seemed to have no fear of people, which I found strange. I'm not sure whether it was from the lack of contact with people or from too much if it, but either way it was very cool. Pretty soon I heard a bunch of clunking pots come around a bend and a ginger-haired hiker came speeding behind me, we stopped and talked for a bit. We decided to hike together for a while, the first time I had found a hiking buddy. He was from Portland and was really nice and a joy to talk to. We hiked for a few miles together before I got to my camp, he decided to call it a day so he could have dinner with another person, I wasn't complaining. I stayed at the ranch because my grandpa had talked it up a lot so my expectations were pretty high, I was let down. It was beautiful but there was no ranch like I had been told, only ruins. I guess it was a long time since my grandpa had been there. There were some other people camping near there who had rode their horses in, we went to say hello but they didn't seem like the talking type, so we made camp elsewhere. Matt was hiking on the dollar so he did not have all the fancy food I did. So when dinner came around and he told me how he had eaten kraft mac n cheese the last 2 nights for dinner, I told him I had eaten lasagna for the past 3 meals. What happened next was the best thing to happen to either of us that week, a food swap. Matt made me mac n cheese with a slim Jim in it and he got my lasagna. We were some very happy campers that night. I made us both hot cocoa and we stayed up talking for a bit, it was nice to have someone to talk to for more than a few minutes. Matt was packing ultra-light, which means he didn't have all the fancy gear I did and was keeping his base weight really low, probably half of what I was. He had a small sleeping bag and a tarp to sleep in, I felt sort of bad going to bed in my Taj Mahal of a backpackers set up.
March 20: Matt was hiking longer days than I was so was already gone by the time I got up. I packed up and on my way out of camp I talked to a couple of guys who had ridden in, they turned out to be very friendly, despite what I thought at first. They were a pig farmers from Iowa or Ohio, I can't remember. We talked for a while and they even offered me breakfast, I declined because I had a 19-mile day so I could get into the little town of Roosevelt by that night. Looking back I should have eaten with them, I had the time. I told them my story and they took some pictures with me, saying they needed to show their wives they were actually out here and not gambling the weekend away. I hiked for a few miles and somehow I drank all my water very quickly, I had to stop and fill up. I ran into another beehive, of course. It scared the crap out of me, more than the snakes or Gila Monsters ever could. I took my headphones off after I heard some buzzing and a hive was about 10 feet from my head, I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me. Which must have looked ridiculous with my gigantic pack on. I got my first view of Roosevelt lake, which was stunning. I was planning on meeting an old friend of my grandpa in Roosevelt, he and his wife owned a house there and had kindly offered to put me up for a day so I could rest my feet. I made it in a bit late and there was some confusion with where I would get picked up but Gene got to me sure enough, and better yet with Dr. Pepper. I gulped at least 2 down on the car ride home, maybe more. Gene, I and his wife Sharron all had dinner. It was great to get another night without lasagna. I spent time talking to them, they are an awfully nice couple, showered and went to bed early
March 21: I slept over 13 hours that night. It was awesome. I mostly rested, washed up my gear and drank lots of Dr. Pepper. Gene go me and Eegees from a local store, and boy did it taste amazing. Eegees is a local sandwich shop in Tucson that you can't not absolutely love. Their specialty "The Eegee" is sort of like a snow cone created by a collaboration of the gods. Some grocery stores outside of Tucson sell the ice drink. Anyway back to my trip, I took a day of R and R and slept a lot. I visited a local restaurant and the food was good but It was only me and my waitress/cook and halfway through my burger she left the restaurant...she came back after a few minutes but it was pretty weird. I was left alone in a restaurant, by my waitress. It was very nice to stay with the Carters.
