Section of the Arizona Trail where the path is a jumble of rocks.I hated almost every second of today’s hike because it was 99.9 percent on rocks. Who in the world thinks walking on rocks several days in a row is enjoyable?! 

It kills your feet, obviously, and can be treacherous. And you can’t even enjoy the scenery because you’re always looking down to see where to place your feet. 

Bright Spots Amid the Rocks

One bright spot was that I suddenly had cell service, so I got to chat with Ed. Yay! I also could download email to read in my tent.

But I lost the trail while talking to Ed (turned out the app map was off), so that was stressful on top of the rocks, and caused a few tears.

There’s Always Tomorrow 

I’ve transitioned from the Mazatzal Divide (Passage 23) to the Red Hills (Passage 24) today. Tomorrow I will segue into Passage 25, Whiterock Mesa, which doesn’t seem like a Mesa at all from the elevation chart. Rats. 

But Ed is coming, and that’s all that matters. Especially if I can also get off of these darn rocks!

Tonight’s campsite was in a pretty lovely spot near a flowing creek. There was an actual tent pad for once, also nice. I met a thru-hiker named Golden in the morning. He’d run into my son, Tim, a few days earlier. He was low on food, so I offered him some of my energy bars. He was so excited to find one of his favorites in my stash. I just go to our grocery store’s discount section, which always has energy bars nearing their expiration date, and grab whatever they have. It doesn’t matter to me what they taste like for the most part. I just prefer food that’s cheap!

Snowshoe

18.3 miles today
394.9 miles to date
405.1 miles to go

©2018 Melanie McManus – All Rights Reserved

Show Buttons
Hide Buttons