Arizona Trail Announcement

I'm happy to announce here, that I'll be hiking the Arizona Trail starting on Wednesday 9/22!

Acording to the National Park Service:

"Intended to showcase our country’s spectacular natural resources and beauty, National Scenic Trails are routes of outstanding recreation opportunity. These routes are primarily non-motorized continuous trail and extend for 100 miles or more. The routes traverse beautiful terrain, and connect communities, significant landmarks and public lands."

The Arizona Trail is one of 11 of these federally recognized trails, and the 2nd alphabetically after the Appalachian Trail. It goes 800 miles from Utah to Mexico through the state of Arizona. I'll go through the Grand Canyon, the Superstition mountains, Saguaro national park, and more! Unlike the AT, the AZT is dry, sunny, open to bikes and horses, and best hiked in the spring and fall. 

I've been saying all along, that I'll hike until I don't want to hike any more, and I still want to hike! I picked the AZT for a few reasons. I heard about other AT hikers that had done the AZT as a followup to the AT, and it was recommended by them. As I was hiking, a common conversation was other long trails that could be thru-hiked. I met several people who had done the AZT, and I started feeling drawn to it. I began planning in my head while hiking, and it seemed like more and more of a good idea. 

The timing worked out well, as the best time to start is late september to early october. It has been a wetter than usual monsoon in Arizona, so water conditions were looking good. I wanted to get out of the green tunnel, and explore different types of terrain. The AZT is known for passing through a wide variety of ecosystems from Mountain forest to open Desert and everything in between. I was also just over the humidity, mud, and rain of the east coast. I wanted to go somewhere dry, where I could sleep beneath the stars. 

The AZT is significantly less travelled than the AT. Especially with a southbound fall start, there will probably only be around 50-150 people thru-hiking (or thru-biking). I'm ambivalent about this. It definitely helps with some of the crowding problems the AT had, and gives more of a wilderness feel to it. On the other hand, it will be more lonely and the trail towns less used to hikers. It also means a higher risk of not encountering another hiker if I need help. I'm looking forward to the challenge of it, and I see it a way of seeking out a way to cover some of what I had expected but not found on the AT. Before starting the AT, I had expected it to be more psychologically challenging. The many support networks, frequent towns, and amazing trail culture kept everything flowing so smoothly that at times it felt like an extended party rather than a wilderness experience. I knew some of that going in, but the scale of it still surprised me. After adjusting my expectations, and enjoying the AT for what it was, rather than what I wanted it to be, I had a great time. I see the AZT as a way of capturing some of what I was looking for and didn't find. I'm embracing the more challenging aspects of Arizona, and picked the trail because of them. 

I'm going to be starting just north of the Arizona border by hiking in Buckskin Gulch, one of the longest slot canyons in the world! I'll continue to update here with pictures, storys, and my progress. I put my updated packing list up on the sidebar. Thanks for reading