AZT 2019 Day 14: campsite near Antelope Tank (mile 228.4) to campsite near water tank (mile 251.5)

23.1 miles

The afternoon heat of yesterday really had an effect on me. I wanted to learn from yesterday's mistakes and get up early to do as much hiking as I could while the temperature was pleasant. Unfortunately, the temperature was very pleasant lying on my sleeping pad as well, which is how I spent most of those early hours in which I was supposed to be hiking.

I only hiked in the dark for a little while before the sunrise. And, it was a spectacular sunrise with the clouds turning red followed by golden rays poking out over the mountain.

Red clouds in the morning. 

Sunrise.

Scenery in the morning. 

When the sun got high enough, I went to switch from my headlamp to my sun hat and realized I didn't know where my sunglasses were. I unpacked my whole bag and didn't find them. Then, I realized they were sitting on top of my hat last night. When I switched from hat to headlamp, I simply pushed the hat back so it was hanging off my neck. My sunglasses were probably in the sand of that wash I was walking through.

I checked on the app to see how far away that was. It was close to 4 miles, meaning about 8 miles round trip. I barely had enough water to get to the next water cache as it was. If it was 2-3 miles total, I would have gone for it, but it was too far back to retrieve. I would have to pick new ones up in town. Unfortunately, the next town was still several days away.

I continued hiking up and down the rolling hills, seeing a jackrabbit along the way, until I got to the water cache. I knew Marney and Jim from Chalet Village had just replenished the cache when they went to pick up an injured hiker. Before that it had been empty.

Jackrabbit. 

When I got there, there was another hiker hanging out. I wish I got his name (Mark, maybe) because he was super nice. He was being picked up from that trailhead and offered to take trash with him. I was able to give him the empty gallon jug I had been carrying with me from a previous cache, as well as 2 others from this cache that had been partially used. I noticed at the caches that people have been using up most of a gallon, leaving some water in the bottom, then opening up a new bottle so there were technically no empties that they had to carry with them. This hiker also lent me his external battery charger to charge my phone, since he was just going to recharge it when he got off trail.

While I was refilling my water supply, two hikers doing the Enchantment Trail (which shares this section with the AZT) walked up. Soon after, Anna (from the Summerhaven snowstorm) walked up as well. I spent way too much time there chatting with everyone before finally moving on.

The next section of trail was still rolling over hills and in/out of washes. However, these hills were much flatter. It was a fairly monotonous section despite the yucca blooms and wildflowers along the way.

The trail in this section.

Yucca and wildflower blooms.

I kept getting passed by mountain bikers. There was an AZT mountain bike race going on at the moment, with the first ones passing me yesterday. I saw quite a few more today, as well has people biking the whole trail outside of the race. Bikes are allowed on the majority of the AZT, so some people bike it instead of hike it.

In the afternoon, it started to get hot again. My goal was to make it to my next water source, and rest there, hydrating in the shade. When I got to the wildlife tank (full of green water and dead bugs), there was no shade to be found. The tank itself was a small basin with a game camera to see what animals were using the pool. This game camera catches hiker trash as well as game animals. I bet it is fun being the person reviewing those images.

Wildlife tank.

Game cam.

After I got water, I went in search of shade. The best I could find was the small shade provided by a yucca plant. I sat there listening to the wind howl and decided that the wind would probably be blowing the hot air away enough to make hiking bearable.

I got up and started hiking as the sun got lower and lower in the sky. I was starting to move through saguaros again. I was also quietly laughing to myself about how I hadn't seen a single rattlesnake in this area that was supposed to be thick with them.

The trail towards the end of the day.

Then, I saw one. I actually heard it first. I'm usually good at spotting them before they feel the need to rattle, but this one saw me first. The trail was following a dirt road in this section and it was laying near one of the edges.

First rattlesnake of the trail.

It did something I have never seen a rattlesnake do before. I have only seen them do two things before: politely slither off the trail into the bushes, or stand its ground in a coil. This one made an s-curve with its body and did a form of undulation to move backwards into the bushes/grasses. Weird, but at least it moved for me.

I finished the day going through a series of washes. I was headed towards a trough with water that was recommended to me by the hikers I talked to at the trailhead party this morning.

The scenery close to sunset.

The trough was surrounded by bees, but I had seen a really nice campsite nearby. Since I still had plenty of water for dinner, I decided to set up camp and get water in the morning instead, when the bees were less active.

Spring fed trough popular with bees.