Daily miles 28
Total miles 800
Big day! We made it to the border at 4pm today. Our friends Purple and Carnivore were there to celebrate with us. Great day.
The original plan had been to hike with Purple and Carnivore for the last 28 miles, but some car issues came up when they were driving in on a forest road to set a water cache for us all. Since they needed to take care of the car, it made sense to slack pack the last section and complete it in one day rather than two. (slack pack means that we took only the gear and food that we needed during the day)
Opening the window curtain at the Jacob Lake Inn motel this morning, we saw a couple inches of snow on the ground. We started out on the trail around 6:40 wearing all of the clothes that we had with us, but within 20 minutes, we were pulling off layers. It was much warmer than the previous days, and by lunch time most of the snowfall was nowhere to be seen.
SweetPea kept a fierce pace and we were making miles quickly. The hiking was largely flat and slightly downhill for the day, and quite comfortable walking. We saw 5 other backpackers during the day, all of them headed to the Grand Canyon or a bit beyond…. Among them, Dan and Sara, whom Purple and Carnivore had shuttled to the Utah border the previous day, we’re walking to Flagstaff.
The final decent to the Utah border was beautiful and unexpected. Red mountains full of color were right there in front of us to enjoy as we walked our final couple miles. Purple and Carnivore were at the border to great us with champagne and food.
After some photos we began the 6 + hour drive back to Phoenix.
Hey! Really enjoyed reading about your adventure. Planning to hike the AZT in 2017. One question–did you guys hang your food at night? Or how did you keep it away from creatures at night?
Thanks Mando!
We use Loksaks. These are a oder proof bag that has zip lock top. We have used these for nearly 4000 miles and havent had anything get on our food. We leave them on the ground and usually a few feet from us. This past year on the PCT, we camped with friends that had mice mingling holes through their tents trying to get to food, even with our Loksaks out in the open.
We keep the Loksaks in good shape by only putting food in them at night and not cramming them into our packs full of food. We keep our food in regular zip locks in our packs and then just move them to the Loksaks at night.
Thanks! I have tried them in the past but gotten frustrated with them because I couldn’t get them to close/seal after a few days. I guess you found a way around that by putting your food in another sack during the day. Thanks for the idea. Not sure I won’t feel nervous about leaving my food on the ground though.