Hello Everyone!
Welcome to the first instalment of the Arizona Trial, our attempt to keep you up to date with our misadventures. Yes, we are wandering again and this time it is a thru hike of the Arizona Trail (AZT). This will be the longest hike we’ve ever done. It stretches 800 miles ( 45-50 days hiking) through the middle of the state from the border with Mexico to the border with Utah. It passes through several mountain ranges on its way up north and then a big down and up through the Grand Canyon in the last week of the hike.
Since my teens I have been enamoured with the purposeful, lengthy journeys that random people set themselves to. I read the books, watched the movies and imagined the doings of these events. What keeps them going? Where do they get their strength and perseverance from? Jobie has been prepping all of our technical needs for the trip and preparing the navigational details while I have been arranging the menu and gathering and repairing the materials goods. It has been a messy business dehydrating, measuring, buying, bagging and boxing the food we will need for the trail (Jy can attest to the chaos but her cats have loved it!). For the record it took me a week of solid work to prep a month of trail food but I can see how to do this more efficiently next time.
So, are we ready? Well, Jobie and I have been consciously hiking during the past years in the Rockies and Coastal Mountains assessing our limits and identifying our approach to being hikers. This has helped us lighten our packs down to reasonable base weights (17lbs and 22lbs) but we have miles to go to be super lightweight. Yes, we need those eBooks and all of those band aids! Also, we are people that like tents and hot suppers! Discussing the trail and what we are getting into is motivating…. unlike the current weather!! Only a few days ago in the plateau of Nevada we were snowed in! Lots of the white, wet flakes looking moth-like in their descent. Today in Flagstaff, the sky’s droppings have ranged from rain to hail to snow ALL DAY LONG! We never prepared for this weather as the norm on this trail is dealing with heat and dryness. I guess it would be ideal right now to have some positive perspective kick in. Right? So, are we really ready??
Well, physically I have been in better shape, mentally I am focused on not being cold (which is living in the present), and spiritually I have a lot of work to do. So why not go for a long walk and get yourself together??!! If it is on wild land that wild thoughts can flourish then bring it on! This trail is going to teach me something. We mailed off all our resupply food boxes today which makes me feel on track. Tomorrow our van and all of its comforts will be parked and we will bus south to Tucson. Monday, March 11th, after being shuttled to the start of the AZT, we will begin….
Signing off for now,
Zip and Jobie
Zip and Jobie Go Hiking 