Des Hikes Thru

With well over 9,000 miles of cumulative long distance hiking and backpacking experience under my belt, I decided I wanted to hike the Arizona Trail this spring. I sort of did it on a whim, jumping at a convenient opportunity to check a thru hike off of my ever growing to-do list of mountains toContinue reading "AZT in Summary (With Statistics)"

Miles Hiked: 27.8 AZT Progress: 766.8Last night I could hear coyotes howling and when I popped my head up to look around I could see them running across the snow field on the other side of the road. It was so cool to see! I've only ever heard the coyotes or seen them but neverContinue reading "AZT Day 29- Jacob Lake"

Miles Hiked: 33.5Last night I woke up around 3am and could see head lamps descending from the South Rim. These were from some runners and hikers doing a double crossing of the canyon and hiking Rim to Rim to Rim in one day. Many of them start in the middle of the night since it'sContinue reading "AZT Day 28- North Rim"

Miles Hiked: 10AZT Progress: 703.7I could barely sleeping for some reason last night but my alarm went off at 4:45am so I could get up and go see the Grand Canyon for sunrise. Honestly I was so tired and had such a bad headache that I didn't want to get up at all. I knewContinue reading "AZT Day 27- South Kaibab"

Miles Hiked: 30AZT Progress: 694.6 I woke up pretty cold in my sleeping bag this morning so I made some protein hot chocolate for breakfast before hitting the trail around 6am. I was originally planning on camping outside of Tusayan today but the miles went so fast I ended up making it all the wayContinue reading "AZT Day 26- “Grandview” of the Gand Canyon"

Miles Hiked: 41.4AZT progress: 660.4I woke up to a blue sky this morning after the first night of good sleep I've had on trail for a while. I thought it was 7am but my clock said 5:15. It's great to see the sun up so early! I slowly got ready. It surprisingly wasn't too coldContinue reading "AZT Day 25- Flat Forever!"

Miles Hiked: 33.5AZT progress: 619 milesToday I woke up a bit groggy at 6am. I started packing up all of my things and I heard Tim yell that breakfast was ready. I walked out of the cabin in my sun hoodie and joined everyone at the breakfast table. I had a coffee while Tim cookedContinue reading "AZT Day 24- San Francisco Hills"

Miles Hiked: 22 AZT Progress: 570 I woke up completely exhausted this morning. Last night was cold once again and I didn't sleepy very well. I wanted to get moving relatively early since I was so looking forward to getting to town but it was 6am by the time I started hiking. I made itContinue reading "AZT Day 22: Flagstaff Finally"

Miles Hiked: 34.6 AZT Progress: 547.5 I was freezing cold once again overnight at wild Horse Tank. I made coffee and crawled out of my tarp to get everything packed up. It was a cold morning and I hiked with all my warm layers on until about noon. I filled up water from a flowContinue reading "AZT Day 21: Snow Drifts"

Miles Hikes: 32 AZT Progress: 512.9General Springs Cabin to Wild Horse Tank I didn't get moving until after 6am today. I think last night was the coldest night on the whole trail and I could hardly sleep. Plus my body was really sore from hiking non stop from 2pm to 10pm yesterday to get aContinue reading "AZT Day 20- Ponderosa Pine Highway"

Miles Hiked: 24.5Total AZT Progress: 480.7Pine AZ to General Springs Cabin This morning I slept in until 7:30am since I accidentally stayed up way too late last night just not able to sleep and doing town chores in my room. The first thing I did was walk to the market to see if they hadContinue reading "AZT Day 19- Mogollon Rim"

Miles Hiked: 19.7 AZT progress: 456.3Even though I was the last to get to camp last night, I was still packed up and hiking before any of the other hikers were awake. This is a pretty common experience for me. I often enjoy hiking all day long from before sunrise to just after sunset. It'sContinue reading "AZT Day 18- Pine AZ"

Miles Hiked: 32.3AZT progress: 436.6 I took a little extra time in camp this morning to make myself a hot beverage of chocolate breakfast essentials before starting my hike. I was absolutely freezing again last night and had a hard time getting any sleep at. By 6am I was on the trail continuing through theContinue reading "AZT Day 17- Solar Eclipse"