My Section Hike Journals on AZT

Ever done something so wild and uncommon that it’s hard to explain the experience unless they have done something similar? That’s how I feel about this trip. But, I’ve decided that even if I don’t do a great job explaining how beautiful of an experience this was I at least can do my best to share how it went, in order to hopefully inspire others to challenge themselves to do things they’ve never done.

*Part 2 of this blog I go into detail about why I picked this trail, exactly how I planned it in two weeks and where my life was when I started this trip*

Day 1, December 7th: Start of the trail.

We had stayed at MJ our Trail Angel home the night before we started the trail. That Monday morning she made a huge breakfast and shuttled us to Roosevelt Lake where we would start our trek by 9:30am. The first day was nothing but excitement and energy. The trail wasn’t difficult and was mostly on an old dirt road with rolling desert hills filled with huge cacti.

The first day blew by. Our first water source was a cement cow tough that was surrounded by cow pies and even had some cow pies on the rim however, It didn’t smell bad and was relatively clear. We filtered it with our katadyn filter and filled our bottles up. This experience set the tone for the rest of the journey. We had no idea of what the water was like on the trail but we didn’t expect it to be this wild. We got to our planned campsite by 1pm and decided to just take a lunch and then add a few miles into the day and hike til 3pm. This put us at the base of a 3k elevation gain for the next day.

Water source day #1 You’ll notice that pretty cowpie in the corner…

Night #1

9.1 miles in

Unfortunately this place did not have any water sources nearby. It was in an open farm field with just a few trees for shade. Tired from the first day thrills we fell asleep instantly.

Day #2

Started hiking at 9:15am

Heading into the Superstition Wilderness full of hope and excitement. The only problem was, we only had 3liters of water to start our long day of hiking.

Since we were waking up at a campsite that didn’t have a water source, we were really hoping our lunch location would have some. We also drank all of our water right before arriving here. Which was a big mistake. Unfortunately when we got here we saw the water source, a murky dark water. Checking *Guthook comments we read that someone pulled a rat out of it… so we skipped over this place even though we were completely out of water and still had 4 miles till the next water source and a lot of elevation gain to go.

Day #2 This day was full of incredible views. Definitely gave the feeling of mountain lions watching your every move but we got through it.

Finally after 4 miles of hard work and no water in our bottles we came up on a fresh stream. This was just a short walk from our campsite that evening. We both drank over a gallon of water that evening before bed and added a hydration pack to it.

Campsite #2 mile number 21.6

12.5 mile day

3830 ft of elevation gain

Day #3

Started by 9:30am

One of the most unique days so far because of the change of landscape throughout the day. We went from desert to tall pine trees to grassland. This was a pretty easy day compared to the day before and was full of different streams and water sources.

When we got to our campsite we went for a little .25 mile hike to our water source, a small Rocky stream bed tasted cold and fresh. That evening we heard some nasty mountain lion screams during the night, which made for a rough night of sleep.

Night #3 mile number 29.6

8 mile day

Day #4

Woke up to a tent covered in rain and water on the sides of the tent and with a slow drip coming inside the zipper. Without any hope for the sun to come out, we reluctantly packed up and didn’t get started on the trail till 11am.

The stream that morning when we went to fill up was no longer clear, but full of murky sand water. I attempted to filter anyways, which was an error on my part because I broke the filter. I then decided to find the cleanest water possible and use iodine tablets in our water that day.

Full day of hiking in the rain, at mile 7 we came up to a gate and found a dozen gallons Marked AZT, full of water! Neither of us had drank much of our iodine water, since secretly we both hated the taste and didn’t believe it killed the bacteria that was in the water from the morning.

This is a common thing for long trails like this. Locals know about the thru hikers and how little water there is in some areas so they’ll come by a drop off a bunch of these gallons!

Night #4 mile 40

The whole day was rainy, cold, and foggy. But ended with the most perfect sunset at our campsite.

11.9 mile day

Day #5

Day 5 was a chill day. We had just over 6 miles to get to our mid point and resupply location. We got to the trailhead by 1pm and got picked up by our awesome trail angel, MJ. We got to her house, did laundry, resupplied our food bag, ate steak and all the sweets possible. We needed to do a few things in town and fix our filter so we decided to take the night off the trail and stay at MJs.

Night #5 mile 46

6 mile day

Day #6

We didn’t get started at the trailhead till 3pm. We had some complications with our friend that was planning on joining the last part of the trail. We decided to hike in till sunset and set up.

Night #6 mile 52

5.5 mile day

Day #7

The campsite we slept at was on an open ridge and had whipping winds. We both thought we might have gotten 3-4hours of sleep if we were lucky. It was a tough start to a long day. We decided to skip cooking that morning to start hiking by 8am.

Today’s water source was a huge metal rain catcher that was at mile 8 of hiking for the day. We got there at 11am and took a nice long break.

One of my favorite sections of the hike so far. Extremely beautiful.

Night #7 Mile 68.5

No water source for the night. We got to our site as the sun was setting. Feet covered in blisters and very sore after a long day.

16.5 mile day

Day #8
Todays start was similar to the previous day. No cooking just a quick break down of camp and some snacks and bars for breakfast.

This was a long day just like the day before but this day was a lot less elevation gain. We followed a stream bed most of the day which made for some unique views that we hadn’t had yet. Funny how Arizona doesn’t have their fall until mid December.

Night #8

mile 85.8

17 mile day

We got into town by 4pm to meet our friend that would join us for the last few days. First thing we did was get a huge burrito and filled our water. We camped at an RV park so that we could make sure she was set and resupplied a few items for the last leg.

Day #9

Heading out to the trail again now it’s the three of us, and one of us is full of energy and excitement to backpack for the first time.

We only had a 5.5 mile day today

Camped at mile 90.5

Day #10

Yes we all have the same shoes! What can we say we are a big fan of the new Columbia boots. Haha.

Today’s water supplies were hard to find and very scarce. We came up to one right before this that smelled like pee and poop. We couldn’t get past the smell and decided to skip… even though Guthook didn’t show another water source for 3-4 more miles. Thankfully we spotted this old trough! Probably not meant to be a water supply since it had a huge crack in the bottom on one side. But we assumed the rain had pooled here. It was cold and delicious. We were very grateful for it!

Night #10

Mile 104

13 mile day

First night on the trail with a third person and we were quickly finding we enjoyed having an extra person around when it got dark. Haha.

Day #11

Again with not having a water source when we went to bed, our first planter the day was to get to a water supply.
When we got to the location that our Gut Hook GPS map said there would be water, there was nothing in sight. We walked around for at least 30 minutes, not seeing anything nearby. When we say God had a big hand with us being able to find water on this trail it’s not a joke. Randomly after standing around and deciding what to do, a farmer on a four wheeler drove by! I asked him if he knew where the cow trough was and if it had water. He had us hop right in and took us about .5 miles away to a huge bin down the side of a hill.

Surrounded by trees and down a slope we would have never seen this without the man helping us! We were some grateful gals. For our friend that had never been backpacking she was definitely less than thrilled to be seeing all the cows surrounding us as we drank green water thinking it was the best water we’ve ever had. These times made for some of the best memories.

One thing we always got pumped about was what we had planned for dinner. Thai Curry is definitely a trail favorite.

Night #11

Mile 112

8 mile day

We got to our campsite early that day and got to do some laying in the sunshine and eating all the snacks knowing tomorrow we would be back in civilization.

Day #12

Mile 115

Bittersweet saying goodbye to the place that felt like our home to roam and get to know and be truly free.