Formerly Susanne's PCT Journal. This is a simple trail journal of my long distance thru-hiking adventures/misadventures. Family, friends, and total strangers are welcome to come along for the journey!
-Susanne aka "Snapper"
AZT 2019 Day 9: Campsite near Saguaro National Park northern border (mile 144.2) to Sabino Canyon (mile 169.6)
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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.
26.6 FT miles I had meant to get up really early this morning. There were only two places in the St Marks National Wildlife Refuge where you could camp, and there was one that was supposedly one of the best, if not the best, campsite on the trail. However, it was over 26 miles away. Some of those miles were going to be road walks, so those parts would go quickly. On the other hand, if we encountered swampy areas, it might be a very long day. A little before dawn I yelled over at Sugar Rush to see if she was awake, which she was. We packed up in the dark and, just like last night, went crashing through the brush trying to stay on trail. There were some parts that were clear and other parts that were not so clear. When the sun came up, things didn't necessarily get better. We started to realize why we were having so much trouble last night. Even with daylight we couldn't always track the path on the ground and had to search as a team for hidden blazes. The river made
20.3 miles Just like the past few mornings, it was difficult to get up again. Unlike the past few mornings, I could actually see snow on top of my tent. It was supposed to rain or snow on and off the majority of the day again. That was not a motivating thought to get me out of my sleeping bag. I had also finally used the hand warmers that I had purchased back in Flagstaff, and they were still warm inside my bag. Somehow, I emerged from that bag and packed everything up one last time. I was only about 20 miles from the Utah border and on schedule to finish the trail today. Most of the items I had on me were damp or wet. It didn’t bother me packing them up as I knew I would be warm and dry tonight. What did bother me was having to put on my wet, cold, dirty shoes. After I did that, I had wet, cold, dirty socks as well. In Flagstaff I had also picked up toe warmers, so I stuck those inside my shoes and hoped that they would help. The view looking out of my tent. My camps
22.4 FT miles Soon after I started hiking this morning, I passed Holton Spring. It was what made Holton Creek, which gave the name to the campground I stayed at last night. It is not a very big creek. The spring formed a circular pond that emptied out of one side to form the creek. The creek then dumped out into the Suwannee River after only a short distance. Holton Spring in the early morning. Around the area of Holton Spring you could really see the karst (formed by limestone) landscapes. It was fairly bumpy and dominated by large holes formed by water cutting through the soft limestone. After about 5 miles, I hit Gibson Park for breakfast. It appears to be a campground, but is available for day use. I used the picnic table out front, then used the bathroom and refilled my water supply. The bathhouse had “Way down upon the Suwannee River” painted on it, which are the lyrics to the song by Stephen Foster. It seems like everything in the areas uses it for advertisement
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