April 24
Mileage: 21
559 miles hiked

The Arizona trail as it relates to the Kaibab plateau. Ah, what a gentle, ponderosa-shaded dream. Tidy single track through the forest, AZT signage overkill at every dirt road crossing, bonus cairns along the perfectly visible trail for no reason at all. So relax. Such guided, gentle walking. I put one foot in front of the other and otherwise turn off my brain. No navigation, no objects to step over. Nothing to climb up or down. The temperature is perfect, sunny and cool. The forest envelopes me in its chill vibe.

We reach the highway in the afternoon- from here we’ll hitch into Kanab, where we’ll meet up with Dan’s parents. Then we’ll set our caches for the rest of the trail (the buckets are in Dan’s car, which is in storage in Kanab) and finally, a few days of hiking after that, we’ll drop into the most epic canyon of them all- the Grand Canyon. The Hayduke spends ten days, I think, In the Grand Canyon, and it does not fuck around. Our hardest, slowest days of the entire trail will be in that otherwordly inverted mountain range. I can’t wait!

Also- I haven’t had to drink alkaline water in a week (the sources have gotten much better, I think the stretch from Escalante to Tropic was the worst of it) and I have had ZERO digestive issues. Yay!!!

Photos on instagram