AZT 2019 Day 9: Campsite near Saguaro National Park northern border (mile 144.2) to Sabino Canyon (mile 169.6)

25.4 miles

I packed up and headed down the trail at first light this morning. I had decided that this was going to be a “big mile” day. At the current pace, I was going, I would probably end in Summerhaven tomorrow evening, at 6 or 7 pm.  Summerhaven is a tourist mountain town, and the few services it has have limited hours. It didn't make sense to me to roll through town when everything was closed, so I decided to try to get there by tomorrow afternoon.

I left my campsite and continued down the mountain. I had to go down this mountain,  cross the valley and go up the next set of mountains across the way. I was immediately glad I didn't try to go further yesterday. The trail was unnecessarily steep with lots of loose rocks, causing my to skid every so often. It would have been hell to try and do it last night on tired legs.

Morning views.

Once I got part way down, I stopped at a creek to fill up with water, then made it down to the valley. The valley consisted of rolling, grassy hills, and I spent the rest of the morning walking this terrain among the wildflowers.

Morning water stop. 

Walking the hills.

There weren't a lot of water sources in the valley. I was going to fill up at a seasonal water source whose last notes left by hikers in the AZT app were that there were still some pools of clear water left. When I got there, all I saw was sand. It was bone dry.

The next water source was an algae filled puddle. There was a creek 2 miles beyond that, but I was completely out of water at that point and had to filter enough to get me to the creek. Ick.

The "lake."

I finally made it to Agua Caliente Drainage, which had beautiful, flowing water and trees shading the sand. This was definitely going to be my lunch spot. While I was eating lunch, several cows came to join me. When I packed up and left, I saw a roadrunner just past the creek.

Lunch at Agua Caliente. 

Thirsty cows.

Roadrunner. 

A little past the creek, the rolling hills stopped and transitioned into mini mountains,  much steeper than I had been hiking earlier. It was also afternoon and I started to get hot. My pace in the section slowed down a lot.

Descending into Molino Campground. 

I made it to Molino Campground, which also had a creek. I happily filtered more water since I had used so much in the afternoon heat. The campground also had toilets and trash cans. I dumped my trash and my bag immediately felt much lighter.

As the sun started getting low in the sky, the temperatures got much cooler. The hiking got a little more comfortable as I started to hit the canyon areas.

Sunset on Sycamore Canyon. 

I made it through Sycamore Canyon without much issue, but when I headed into Sabino Canyon, my destination for the night as the sun set. I had to hike the last portion in the dark, which was an adventure. This was the longest distance I had hiked in a while and my feet were really painful. To add to the fun, the trail was narrow with loose rocks, the canyon slopes on the side of the trail were steep, and the tread on my shoes was worn. I took things probably much slower than I needed and eventually reached the bottom, setting my tent up near the creek.