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You are here: Home / Arizona Trail / AZT 11 – Into Oracle

AZT 11 – Into Oracle

March 14, 2015 by Beardoh

Daily Miles: 21
Total Miles: 208

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Morning views

Not a great night of sleep for either of us last night.   Could have been the wind,  could have been some snoring… At any rate,  we were awake far more than we prefer.

Rolled out of camp around 6:50am.  The other AZT hikers that we had camped with had left about an hour before us.  

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The morning walking was quite nice.   We walked along Oracle Ridge for many hours,  switching back and forth over the east and west sides. Saw some nice colors as the sun came up.  

Coming off the ridge,  we came to a ranch of Buffalo Bill Cody, called High Jinks Ranch.   The place was where Cody had bought land in speculation of gold.  The mine never made much money,  but it sucked up about half of his fortune. The current owner,  Dan,  gave us the history of the property and even gave us a tour of the house.  It was really interesting and fun to talk with Dan.

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Dan (owner of High Jinks ranch)
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Buffalo Bills car

We headed off after lunch towards Oracle.   We left Coronado National Forest and hiked through Oracle State Park.   The afternoon trail was fairly rolling and luckily there was some cloud cover to keep the temperatures nice.

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Made it to the 200 mile mark

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SweetPea in the rolling hills outside of Oracle

We had originally planned to hike until five miles before Oracle,  but as we got closer and the idea of a shower got in our minds,  we decided to push on and go all the way into Oracle and stay at the motel in town.  Once we made the decision,  we had just over six miles to go.   We all hunkered down and just hiked at a steady speed so we were able to finish just as it was getting dark.   We were even rewarded with a beautiful sunset for our last few miles.

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Qball and SweetPea and a great sunset

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We are now clean,  fed,  and warm in our motel room.   We are all beat from the long day and are looking forward to having a rest day tomorrow.

*Hammocking becoming tougher coming off the Oracle Ridge. Possible in some of the washes…. A bit limited, but possible.

Filed Under: Arizona Trail

« AZT 10 – Summerhaven
AZT 12 – A Cactus is Not a Toy »

Comments

  1. Wolfpack says

    March 14, 2015 at 11:02 am

    The AZT looks and sounds like a great adventure! Thanks for sharing, Beardoh and Sweet Pea! Say hey to Qball.

    Reply
    • Beardoh says

      March 14, 2015 at 2:31 pm

      Thanks for following Wolfpack! Thinking about you often out here.

  2. Mace says

    March 19, 2015 at 12:37 am

    Hey Gang!! Been following your adventure and have shared with some other folks as well . Very anxious to talk with you both about your trip. Definitely have added the AZT to my list. Tell Qball I said howdy. Great website. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy, my friends

    Reply
    • Beardoh says

      March 19, 2015 at 3:33 am

      Hey Mace! Thinking of you often out here. The AZT has been great and I am sure you’d love it. We will be touching base with you in the coming weeks for sure 🙂

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