Last few weeks.

I haven't updated in a few weeks, but am still on track and training for the Appalachian Trail.  My weeks tend to be filled with school though, and am only hiking on weekends.  Unless the 3 or 4 miles I walk around campus every day with my school bag counts.

Two weekends ago I headed up to the Grand Canyon and did about 30 miles of hiking in it.  The first night, I started a night hike of the Kaibab, Tonto, Bright Angel Loop at 8 PM, Finishing about 2AM.

I planned on a second night in the canyon, but on the way up the Kaibab I was offered a ride back to Flagstaff, so I took the definite ride.  The next day I did a 12 mile hike up Mt. Elden by Flagstaff, then wrapped around the northwest side toward Buffalo Park.  Hiking in the dark I missed Buffalo park, but ended up in a neighborhood off 4th St, so I caught the last bus back to campus.

This weekend started off with a nice 12 mile hike from Campus to Fischer Point in Walnut Canyon National Monument.  Kristin and I hiked down Sinclair wash from campus, hooking up with the Arizona Trail at the impressive I-40 underpass.  Neither of us brought food, so we made a "run for the border" and did a one mile round trip to Taco Bell.  After a bunch of somewhat bad food, we headed back to the trail.  Near the I-40 underpass we met two other "hikers" heading into the woods with a large plastic container, that they were taking turns carrying that was big enough for a small body.  Kristin asked these two toothless guys who looked sketchy as heck what was in the box, and they said a tent and they were camping.  I said beautiful day for it, and have fun, then we passed.  My thoughts they were carrying their meth lab in to make some along the Arizona Trail.

After leaving these guys, we continued onto dirt again, splitting away from the road the AZT was using that led to a wastewater plant.  The trail led steeply up about 200 vertical feet before leveling out in the Ponderosa forests.  Soon though se were in fire damaged forest, and large bulldozers with chain saw type things on the front were working around us cutting down trees and caring 6 or 7 at a time to larger piles.

We hiked to Fischer Point then returned back to Flagstaff after dark.  The last two hours of hiking was under the nearly full moon, that was so bright out in the Ponderosa Pine forest, that we didn't use our headlamps.

The following day I left with NAU Outdoors, an outdoor school associated with the Univeristy for a trip to the Mazatzal Wilderness.  This 12 mile overnight trip was a course to receive a certification from the Leaven No Trace foundation, to educate others on LNT principles.   We parked at a Arizona Trail trailhead then headed into the Mazatzal Wilderness for the night.  Each of us had to previously have studied an aspect of Leave No Trace, and teach it to the other students.  I picked Dispose of Waste Properly.  Good times were had by all.

Next weekend I may go to the Grand Canyon Thursday night, or just possibly hike around Flagstaff for 60 miles or so.  I might even hike down to Sedona from here and back.  Sunday though I'm heading to the Flagstaff Eastereggstavaganza, an Easter Egg hunt sponsored by Flagstaff Parks and Rec.  My Parks and Rec instructor, Dr. Hammersley helps run the hunt, and will give extra credit for volunteering.  So it looks like I can still do a two nighter before the hunt.  Thus continuing on my training for the Appalachian Trail.

Spring Break Hike/ New Gear

My plans for a 187 mile hike fell through due to illness, but after sleeping for three days, I was still able to do some hiking.  The Guino ended up hiking three awesome nights in the Santa Catalina mountains, north of Tucson, Az.  The Pusch Ridge Wilderness is a special rugged place bordering a metropolitan area which holds over a million people.  Hiking in this wilderness though, the hiker does not feel the proximity of civilization.  Only on the ridges and mountains where the view of Tucson spreads out below the hiker for miles does one notice that he is near a city.  Otherwise, the only evidence of civilizations are the metates left behind in the granite by Native Americans grinding mesquite beans and other grains and nuts for flour.

The 48 miles that I ended up hiking took me from Saguaro lined desert floor, to the lands of 100 ft tall ponderosa pine trees.

Three very lovely natural pool areas were located along my route; Seven Falls, Hutch's Pool, and Romero Pools,  all carved from granite by crystal clear warm Arizona water.  Hutch's Pool is about 100 feet long 20 feet wide and deep enough to not see the bottom.  Overall Hutch's is an excellent swimming hole, and is a popular day hike destination for hikers who want to cool off from the desert heat.

Yesterday I put in my order for my 9.1 oz Hexamid tent from Zpacks, and well as my 4 oz 43 liter Blast Pack.  My goal is to have a base weight, for my pack, just around 5 lbs on the Appalachian trail this summer.

I also purchased a Western Mountaineering High-lite 35° down sleeping bag which weighs in at 16 ozs.  This is the one that looks like a blackberry, and is very popular amongst the hikers.  Babbit's Outdoors in Flagstaff gave me a little discount on one, since I asked, bringing the total with tax for the bag to a mere $265.

This weekend the plan is either to head to the Grand Canyon for a three nighter, or to hook up with the lovely WildChild and her husband Dash.   This awesome couple is on there way from Berkely to Georgia, where they will begin the Appalachian Trail next week.  Hopefully the three of us can all go to the Canyon to do some pre Appalachian Trail training, and some much needed socializing. (Turns out they showed up and we had a great time, we even went out for a stroll on the Arizona Trail.)

Spring Break Hiking the Arizona Trail

Spring Break officially begins for me at 2:45PM today.  I will have 10 days to hike 189 miles on the Arizona trail.  The weather should be perfect for this stretch from Flagstaff south to the crossing of AZ87 between Payson and Phoenix.  I'm dealing with a little cold and a bad sore throat, but this is a training shakedown hike for a much bigger one on the Appalachian Trail this summer.  I have been having a lot of trouble uploading the GPS tracks from the Arizona Trail Associations website to Garmin Basecamp on my wacky macky.  This resulted in me just staying up super late last night making a track Basecamp, correlating it to the maps in the Arizona Trail guidebook.  Hopefully changes since they wrote the book to the trail won't very to much from the actual route.  This should be fun!

Anticipation building!

Two months and a week to go till I fly to Atlanta to start the 2,181 mile Appalachian Trail.  My plan is to hike the Appalachian Trail in about 106 days.  That's a fast hike!  It has been done before by fast hikers like Andrew Skurka and Krudmeister.  They are fast, I move at a Penguins pace though.

The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine through the backbone of the east, the Appalachian Mountains.  Home of Southern accents, moonshine, dreams and ambitions, yet still plagued by stereotypes and the misconceptions.   Here's a highly detailed map of my route.

The only conceivable way to make a 106 day hike of the Appalachian trail feasible for me is to cut every spare ounce I can from my gear.  Zpacks offers several ultra light tarps and a line of packs that weigh mere ounces.  My current pack weighs just under 2 pounds, and tent is also 2 pounds.  The 3.2 oz Hexamid shelter combined with a 7.4 oz pack slips by at a mere 10.6 ounces, a weight savings of 3 pounds after adding a 4 oz Tyvek ground sheet.

The old stove that I have become accustomed to, a MSR Pocket Rocket is finally ready to retire.  This lightweight champ of a stove served me well and will always receive praises from me.   However a cat food can also functions nicely as a stove and is nearly weightless.  Here's a picture of one I made following the plans on Andrew Skurka's website.

I will whittle down my gear more as I approach the start of my hike, but till then I must strive to juggle 17 credit hours at Northern Arizona University, a job at Starbuck's, and some training to get in hiker shape.

Cheers,

Guino

Ooh a blog!

Gee Golly,  am I finally cool, or what?  I have my very own bloodspot blog!