{"id":5126,"date":"2019-03-11T01:41:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T01:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/?p=5126"},"modified":"2020-01-19T20:25:45","modified_gmt":"2020-01-19T20:25:45","slug":"arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Trail Day 7: Sahuarita Road to Saguaro National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;3.22&#8243; custom_margin=&#8221;0px|0px|0px|0px&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;0px|0px|0px|0px&#8221;][et_pb_row use_custom_gutter=&#8221;on&#8221; make_equal=&#8221;on&#8221; disabled_on=&#8221;off|off|off&#8221; module_class=&#8221; et_pb_row_fullwidth&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;3.25&#8243; width=&#8221;89%&#8221; width_tablet=&#8221;80%&#8221; width_phone=&#8221;&#8221; width_last_edited=&#8221;on|desktop&#8221; max_width=&#8221;89%&#8221; max_width_tablet=&#8221;80%&#8221; max_width_phone=&#8221;&#8221; max_width_last_edited=&#8221;on|desktop&#8221; module_alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;0px|0px|0px|0px&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;0px|0px|0px|0px&#8221; make_fullwidth=&#8221;on&#8221; custom_width_px=&#8221;500px&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;3.25&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;|||&#8221; custom_padding__hover=&#8221;|||&#8221;][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Content&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.0.11&#8243; link_option_url=&#8221;5&#8243; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5127 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_487d-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Large cactus plant on the Arizona Trail near Saguaro National Park\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/>Today I was so excited to be headed toward Saguaro National Park. The day had such promise! Sigh.<\/p>\n<p>Sandy made me oatmeal with blueberries, plus coffee with heavy whipping cream. Pure bliss! Then she got me on the trail around 8:15. The day looked to be a good one: 19.9 miles, but mostly flat. Yes!<\/p>\n<p>The morning passed pleasantly, as I meandered among lots of prickly pear cactus. Around 11 a.m. I hit the Gabe Zimmermann Trailhead, renamed for the man who died in this spot during the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in 2011.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It got hot from about 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. At this point the trail was rather unpleasant, with lots of rocks and scruffy vegetation. Things picked up a little when I passed through\/near La Posta Quemada Ranch, which has CCC ties, and <a href=\"https:\/\/colossalcave.com\/camp-picnic\/\">La Selvilla picnic area<\/a>, where I was able to use a pit toilet and dump some trash.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Nearing Saguaro National Park: The Good, the Bad and &#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>All morning I was in contact with Matt, another thru-hiker who had found my vest. Lance, the trail angel <a href=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/shuttles-between-trailheads-whats-most-efficient\/\">picking him up today<\/a>, will get it to Sandy. She, in turn, will pass it off to the two friends flying into Tucson Wednesday to join me on the trail for a week. All good!<\/p>\n<p>But while making these arrangements, Lance told me a storm was coming overnight. I\u2019d just get rain at my camp, but Mica Mountain \u2013 which I\u2019m supposed to climb up and over tomorrow \u2013 could get a foot of snow, as it\u2019s at 8,000 feet.<\/p>\n<p>He suggested I wait it out a day, but what does that mean? Sit in my tent all day? There is not supposed to be lots of rain and snow in <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-5128 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_4888-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"Tunnel on the Arizona Trail painted like a rattlesnake's mouth.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>Arizona at this time of year!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So here I am in my tent, writing this while perched on the edge of Mica and the eastern entrance to Saguaro National Park. And I&#8217;m worrying about tomorrow. And wondering why, oh why, I decided to camp!<\/p>\n<h2>The Ugly<\/h2>\n<p>Oh \u2013 as to the \u201cugly,\u201d I fell once again today, this time ripping my brand-new sun sleeves and bloodying both elbows. Something had to be up. Sure enough, the bottoms of my shoes are shredded from the trail. No wonder I keep slipping! I have new shoes in my suitcase, but I won\u2019t see that until Wednesday night.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One positive end to the day \u2013 I found my headlamp! It was stuck in with my filter gear.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Snowshoe (Wish I had my pair for tomorrow!)<\/p>\n<p>19.9 miles today<br \/>129.5 miles to date<br \/>670.5 miles to go<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today I was so excited to be headed toward Saguaro National Park. The day had such promise! Sigh. Sandy made me oatmeal with blueberries, plus coffee with heavy whipping cream. Pure bliss! Then she got me on the trail around 8:15. The day looked to be a good one: 19.9 miles, but mostly flat. Yes!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,74,55,2,62],"tags":[1755,1952,1941],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Arizona Trail Day 7: Sahuarita Road to Saguaro National Park - The Thousand Miler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today started out wonderfully, The trail was relatively flat and easy. But in the afternoon, I learned the weather was supposed to turn bad.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arizona Trail Day 7: Sahuarita Road to Saguaro National Park - The Thousand Miler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today started out wonderfully, The trail was relatively flat and easy. But in the afternoon, I learned the weather was supposed to turn bad.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Thousand Miler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-11T01:41:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-19T20:25:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_487d-225x300.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Melanie McManus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Melanie McManus\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/\",\"name\":\"Arizona Trail Day 7: Sahuarita Road to Saguaro National Park - The Thousand Miler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_487d-225x300.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-11T01:41:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-19T20:25:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/40a02f1d7ef2f7200b83dc75cdacc1ea\"},\"description\":\"Today started out wonderfully, The trail was relatively flat and easy. But in the afternoon, I learned the weather was supposed to turn bad.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_487d-225x300.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_487d-225x300.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Arizona Trail Day 7: Sahuarita Road to Saguaro National Park\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Thousand Miler\",\"description\":\"Traveling The Country, One Trail at a Time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/40a02f1d7ef2f7200b83dc75cdacc1ea\",\"name\":\"Melanie McManus\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcc48e1d27ce775f9a299714a461a9c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcc48e1d27ce775f9a299714a461a9c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Melanie McManus\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/author\/melanie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Arizona Trail Day 7: Sahuarita Road to Saguaro National Park - The Thousand Miler","description":"Today started out wonderfully, The trail was relatively flat and easy. But in the afternoon, I learned the weather was supposed to turn bad.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Arizona Trail Day 7: Sahuarita Road to Saguaro National Park - The Thousand Miler","og_description":"Today started out wonderfully, The trail was relatively flat and easy. But in the afternoon, I learned the weather was supposed to turn bad.","og_url":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/","og_site_name":"The Thousand Miler","article_published_time":"2019-03-11T01:41:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-01-19T20:25:45+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_487d-225x300.jpeg"}],"author":"Melanie McManus","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Melanie McManus","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/","url":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/","name":"Arizona Trail Day 7: Sahuarita Road to Saguaro National Park - The Thousand Miler","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_487d-225x300.jpeg","datePublished":"2019-03-11T01:41:12+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-19T20:25:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/40a02f1d7ef2f7200b83dc75cdacc1ea"},"description":"Today started out wonderfully, The trail was relatively flat and easy. But in the afternoon, I learned the weather was supposed to turn bad.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_487d-225x300.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/fullsizeoutput_487d-225x300.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/arizona-trail-day-7-sahuarita-road-to-saguaro-national-park\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Arizona Trail Day 7: Sahuarita Road to Saguaro National Park"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/","name":"The Thousand Miler","description":"Traveling The Country, One Trail at a Time","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/40a02f1d7ef2f7200b83dc75cdacc1ea","name":"Melanie McManus","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcc48e1d27ce775f9a299714a461a9c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcc48e1d27ce775f9a299714a461a9c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Melanie McManus"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com"],"url":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/author\/melanie\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thethousandmiler.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}