Here’s where I sit as I write this – lots of sharp stuff

Straight up desert.

As I descended fro 6-7000 feet to 3000 feet, it became spring

Many cacti, too, like this fishhook barrel

And others

My favorites

Now I’m headed toward the Rincon Mountains and some big climbing

Best Life Ever,

Junco

Leaving the Santa Rita mountains behind

Met a very cool fellow named Ron Parry yesterday. He’s an academic guy who studies moths in SW New Mexico. He’s identified 500 species in his area and hopes to live to get 1000.

Also learned a lot about the Santa Rita Mining and Water Company that searched for gold in the Santa Rita Mountains in the early 1900. They used a technique called hydraulic mining (which required lots of water). They went to great extent to move water to dry canyons to blast the soil and separate the gold. Alas, not much gold was found..

There are still lots of posted mining claims along the trail.

A few more shots from yesterday

Heading north

Climbed up from Patagonia into an oak chaparral

Lots of mining around here and the trail is rerouted around a mine reclamation project by the National Forest Service

But the reroute was stunning

Later in the day started climbing further into the Santa Catalina mountain range and its pinnacle Mount Wrightson.

Camped high last night and I’m descending today

Haven’t see a single person in the past 24 hours.

All for now….

Arrived in the first town of the trip at mile 50 yesterday evening.

I’ve got a great cell signal here so I’ll share a few photos

Met a couple bikers, Dan and Liz

These guys make better time than me but work hard pushing their bikes up the steep hills. Liz is participating in a 750 mile bike race that goes the length of the AZ trail on April 18.

I’m solo at this point. Maureen and Kim went back to work and Jim is taking off today. Here’s to them!!

Back on the trail this am

After a climb back to Montezuma Pass we started to climb Miller Peak in the Huachuca mountains (part of southern Arizona’s “sky islands”)

We went from the desert to an alpine setting pretty quickly

We had about 8 miles in packed slippery snow and finally started to descend to a warmer area where we could camp.

Met this cool fellow who is an Apache from Cibeque out on the trail because it was on his bucket list. He was not hiking with traditional equipment, but he was determined and enthusiastic

So happy to see a Native American fellow on one of our national scenic trails!!!

I’m going to date all my posts by day of the week since the cell service here is weak.

Stayed in Sierra Vista Friday night and force to Montezuma Pass Saturday morning

Then hiked two miles south to the Mexican border. Traveling with friends Jim, Maureen, and Kim.

Then turned around at mile 0 and started our northbound 800 mile trek.

Photos from day 1 in the morning!!

My Flagstaff friend, trail name Lotus, headed for the southern terminus of the AZT today. She ran into snow on the approach road and had to be dropped off 7 miles short of the starting point. Yikes!!!

She’ll be climbing 4000 feet from there on her first day.

Good news is water, water everywhere!!!

The Blog Revival

Hi!!!! I’m back!

After using this blog to record my 2016 Appalachian Trail thru hike (trail name Junco), I returned to my home in Flagstaff, AZ.

Now I have the opportunity to begin another long backpacking trip in Arizona and hope to share some of the adventure again through this blog.

At the moment, my plan is to hike the Arizona Trail (one of the eleven National Scenic Trails in the US) from south to north (NOBO), leaving from the Mexican border in mid – March.

A very different hike in many ways. Looking forward to exploring more of the southwest. Lots of planning ahead….

Check out Arizona Trail

Junco