AZT 11 – Into Oracle

Daily Miles: 21
Total Miles: 208

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.