Friday, Feb 7th 2025, 0700-1800
Vekol Valley Rd. to just past Maricopa AZ238 rd., section 2 mm74
24 miles.
My water supply would be refreshed this day no matter what, so that was a comforting thought as I set out in the morning. But I woke with a sore throat, so I realized my body was probably fighting off a virus. I hoped I wouldn’t get sick in the next few days, before I could make it to town for some rest. I’ve been fortunate to never have gotten a cold while hiking. I think it’s all the vitamin D I get from the sun. So I felt pretty confident I’d be ok. On the other hand, it sure would suck to be running a fever and have congestion out in this heat, with limited water, far from anywhere.
The wide valley was perfect for 360 views of the sunrise.
Gary was planning to meet me where I crossed under I-8, only problem was, he was not able to make it until 10:30 am. My fast pace the day before meant I’d covered more miles than anticipated. I got to the crossing around 8:30 am and didn’t want to wait around for several hours. But I could also use a little extra water, given that what I was carrying was from mile marker 20 and I had to go to mile marker 73 for the next cache. I was down to just one liter. But the trail provides. I went past a guy who was tent camping from his car and started chatting with him. Lawrence graciously offered me water, so I filled up with 2 additional liters. Now I could definitely make it to the next cache.
I also found some goodies in the BLM Trail registry box. I picked up some toilet paper, wet wipes and a tuna packet. I also found a cute sticker with a cartoon carrot figure that said “keep calm and carrot on.” For some reason it really resonated with me, so I decided to make it my mascot for the trip, and my mantra.
The trail registry was like a mini hiker box! If I’d only had the patience to wait for Gary, I could have also had a burrito and frozen snickers bar. I felt bad about not getting to meet him in person, after all he done for me with the 2 water caches. I know he was looking forward to bringing me some trail magic. But it was also a little out of his way, so at least I saved him a trip.
I saw another guy tent camping right along the freeway exit. He had a bicycle with a trailer parked next to his tent. He was just waking up, but I asked him where he was heading. Florida. Opposite direction as me. He lived on the road he said. In that moment, we were each pondering the other’s nomadic lifestyle. Riding and camping next to freeways certainly didn’t appeal to me. But obviously we had a few things in common.
The route north of I-8 was a very fun cross country experience for the rest of the day. I entered the Southern Maricopa Wilderness area, which despite the proximity of I-8 felt very remote. I made it to a guzzler for lunch. Unfortunately the water in the guzzler was quite foul looking so I didn’t even try to wash my face or wet my clothes with it.
But it was a good place to have some snacks. I decided to eat the bonus tuna packet for lunch and noticed that it tasted a little off…like stale. Then the thought occurred to me that I should have checked the expiration date BEFORE eating all of it. I shouldn’t have even looked at that point. It was better not to know. But to my horror, the best by date read August 2021!
I immediately tried to purge my stomach but I couldn’t get it to come up. I tried for awhile, but with my throat already being sore and not wanting to lose the water I just drank, I finally gave up. I cursed myself for being so stupid! What a way to ruin a hike by getting sick from eating bad tuna. On the other hand, I might not get sick. If the tuna really was that bad, it would have smelled and tasted rotten, wouldn’t it? I have a pretty iron stomach so I just hoped for the best. My new mantra came to mind “Keep calm and carrot on.” That’s all I could do.
I walked more washes, old roads and cross country passes…the details of the day to day turns and events all tend to meld together. Recon’s blog does a much better job of outlining these things in order. But suffice it to say, it was a nice afternoon in the desert hills, if a bit hot. I had my umbrella up for most of the day, making my own shade. Eventually I ended up on a graded road leading to the highway. I crossed a train track, lucky that there weren’t any trains coming at the time. It was a heavily used track and the trains were very long and very slow. I could have been stuck waiting on one for awhile, desperate to get to the other side and my water cache.
I found the cache with ease and settled in to cook dinner and transfer the water to my containers. The mileage worked out perfectly for the end of the day and a camp nearby. But it made for a terrible location, given the noise of the train tracks and highway. At least I found a nice small wash out of view. Earplugs did the trick in drowning out the noise.