Daily miles 16
Total miles 317
Camp elevation 5400 feet
Back out on the AZT after two zeroes in Phoenix. Purple and Carnivore continue to take extraordinary care of us on the trail. We had a great couple days off getting food drops ready and taking care of some errands for the rest of the trip. Our first day off was full of activity, shopping and jerky making… Our second day a bit more restful. We are all feeling rejuvenated, and are excited to be back out on the trail.
They dropped us off at the picket post trailhead around 9am and we were officially on our way. Today was sunny and warm, but not terribly hot. Our last few miles were spent climbing a couple thousand feet, up Mt Montana. It was a reasonably steep climb, but had some breeze and was well shaded towards the top.
The best water came from a trough that wasn’t listed in any of the trail data that we had. The water was surprisingly clean from this cattle trough.
Lots of cows on the trail today, some calves. We saw a snake early in, but we’re not sure if it was a rattle snake as we never saw a rattle. It was about an inch and a half in diameter. Very well camouflaged with the grass and sand.
We heard from some day hikers that we were about a half hour behind another thru hiker, named Sheriff Woody. We didn’t catch up to him though. They mentioned that he did a 30+ mile day the previous day, so if he is keeping that up, we probably won’t catch him.
At the saddle there was a good spot for Qball to pitch his tent and for us to hammock, so that is where we stopped for the day. As we ate our dinner, we watched the sunset over the Superstition Mtns and Phoenix and it was beautiful. Now as the darkness sets, we can see the freeway going through Phoenix as well as the rest of the city lights.
We met Sheriff Woody at Red Mtn seep. He is on a tight schedule, but mostly he was trying to catch you guys, haha!