Day 20. March 20. Mile 2. To Mile 262.8 (Gila River Trailhead and access to town of Kearny)

Day 20. March 20. Mile 243.4, elev. 3525, to Mile 262.8 (Gila River Trailhead and access to town of Kearny), elev. 1775. Walked 19.4 miles, 1693 up, 3360 down. 

Dear Trail Friends,

I get an odd satisfaction from the numbers  (miles, elevation) but I am keenly aware of how different they can be from my actual experience. Today for example did not feel like a flat trail. It felt like a big climb from the low desert up into a high one and down again. But the numbers suggest I climbed less today than the days I experienced as flat. 

I got up very early hoping to walk along behind Bruce and Cynthia who see better than I in the dark. I have two ultralight headlamps - together they make one moderately bright light. But one has "died" so in addition to my non-optimal night vision I had non-optimal lighting. But I thought the trail tread has been so smooth that if I followed them and did not lose the trail I would be fine. Cynthia had also mentioned the light in my iPhone - I didn't think much of that idea, recalling that I had difficulty getting from my office in our guesthouse/garage to the main house with that light (on a route I knew well with a very clear driveway-"trail.") But she seemed to think the more recent iPhones had stronger lights. 

When I had packed up completely and taken down my tent I realized they had changed their minds and were not hiking early. So - there I was. I certainly was not going to unpack my tent and go back to bed. I put the iPhone in my shirt's front right pocket and it seemed to shine just right. Between that and my headlamp I did great. I got lost briefly twice today but neither of those times was in the dark. 

Photo 1 shows the sun coming up. I had been walking a long while by this time. 

 

Once again I was walking on morning cool and light and finding the desert beautiful (photos 2 and 3). 

 

 

I hiked a little over 7 miles to a water source which was disappointing. The water level in the trough is was low, and mostly mud.  Bees buzzed around. There was a hose or a pipe slowly dripping ( the fact that a hiker had left it on the ground outside the tank was partly responsible for the low level). I let the pipe drop into a ziplock bag - it took about 20 minutes to collect a liter and I needed 4, but it was water and by about 10:30am I had enough water for the rest of the day, and had eaten my meal and rested)

I hiked up a small mountain (photo 4 is looking back at the switchbacks I just hiked) and was grateful for the gentle switchbacks rather than near-vertical rocky trails (like climbing Mt. Lemmon just a few days ago). 

 

Every day of this hike we seem to enter a little more into spring. But today the presence of wildflowers really gave a sense that spring had arrived. Too bad Chris, born on what is often the first day of spring March 21) was not with me to see how the desert went all out to celebrate her birth. There were yellow and orange and gold and purple wild flowers. One photo can't do it justice. But here is photo 5, the desert and I honoring Chris on the day before her birthday (and my longtime friend Suzanne, on the day after her birthday. )

 

 I am now in bed in General Kearny Inn. A trail angel named picked us up and brought us to town and will arrange rides back to the trail. We ate a simple supper at the local pizza place owned by trail angels Gary and Lorraine, and Gerry joined us to photograph us signing a big trail banner posted in Old Time Pizza. Gary, when he learned I was hiking solo, said "You've got balls!" All very lovely people. 

There was a bit of drama when the resupply box Chris had sent was not at the inn. But Chris had miraculously kept the tracking number and it became gradually clear that it had arrived at the post office but not been picked up. 

A little more drama tonight when I could not upload my blogs - gradually the message came through that I needed to reauthenticate my account and hours later I had figured out how to do so and uploaded the week's blogs. Tomorrow is a rest day, though with a lot of jobs to do. I hope I rest too. The heat spell should end by Thursday. Bruce's thermometer said 96 when we were hiking down from the little mountain. It was too hot for me. 

Thank you for walking with me. Time to go to sleep.