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You are here: Home / Arizona Trail / AZT 12 – A Cactus is Not a Toy

AZT 12 – A Cactus is Not a Toy

March 16, 2015 by SweetPea

Daily Miles: 24

Total Miles: 132

Camp Elevation: 4,000 ft

Had a good zero day yesterday.  Beardoh and Qball shuttled our trail angel friends, Purple and Carnivore, to Summerhaven for an overnight hike.  SweetPea spent time at the library getting some work done on their computers.  Once we were all back at the motel, we took naps, went out for dinner and then got ourselves ready to head back on the trail today.  It was nice to have a day off from the trail and Oracle was a good town.  The Chalet motel was a great place. Marney and Jim took great care of us. 



Qball with his evening snacks


Today we got ourselves back out to the trail before 7:00.  The trail was mostly rolling hills with lots of nice switchbacks.  There was a strong breeze all morning which kept us cool even though we were on exposed trail.



Exposed walking in the desert


We ran into a CCC group working on the trail.  There were about 16 of them working on an 8 mile stretch of the trail for about a week.  They warned us that they had just seen a rattlesnake, but they must have scared it off and we still haven’t seen one on the AZT.  Hopefully it will stay that way!

Beardoh had a bad day with the cactuses. He kicked one on the trail pushing big thorns into his foot. He got a little thorn caught in his finger trying to remove a larger one stuck to his pole. Cacti are not toys. 



Not a tree in sight


We started today all carrying at least 3 liters of water each.  We got to our first water after about 12 miles and stopped for lunch.  We were able to get some shade to sit in on one side of the water tank.  Beardoh climbed up the ladder for the water and even noticed some fish living in the tank.

Once we headed back on the trail, it was noticeably hotter with no breeze.  Luckily, the trail remained pretty easy with gentle ups and downs.

Our next water came 8 miles later and was rather unpleasant to see.  The tank was lined with some kind of crud which made the water in the tank look green.  And it seemed that all the bees in a 50 miles area were swarming around the tank.  All that being said, the water was fine. We just put an extra drop of bleach in our water and headed on our way.

This afternoon we saw two roadrunners crossing the trail.  Needeless to say, they look nothing like the cartoon.  They ran away too quickly for us to take a photo.

We finally made it to our camp around 6:30.  We were all really beat after the long day of walking.  We’re planning for an early wake up tomorrow to make the most of the cool morning hours before it starts to warm up.

Filed Under: Arizona Trail

« AZT 11 – Into Oracle
AZT 13 – Dream campsite »

Comments

  1. Pat Purple's sis says

    March 21, 2015 at 12:55 am

    the fish in the water tank keeps the algae at bay 🙂 have fun, and stay away from those thorns !

    Reply
    • SweetPea says

      March 21, 2015 at 12:59 am

      Hi Pat. Thanks for following our journal! Purple has been treating us so well, it will be hard to head back out on the trail tomorrow!

    • Beardoh says

      March 23, 2015 at 9:26 pm

      Thanks for following Pat!

  2. Greg says

    March 21, 2015 at 3:48 am

    To a non-hiker, this seems like such an amazing experience. So free with nothing but a wide open world ahead of you. All the best on your adventure. Greg

    Reply
    • Beardoh says

      March 23, 2015 at 9:21 pm

      Thanks for following Greg. Pretty similar to mexico out here!

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