Wednesday, Feb 5th 2025, 0700-1900
Arizona City to Sonoran Desert National Monument Boundary, section 2 mm21.5
21.5 miles.
And not a drop to drink. This describes my day walking along the Santa Rosa canal, which is part of the CAP (Central Arizona Project). The route followed the canal for something like 14 miles, keeping hikers off the busy roads as a way to escape the urban and agricultural sprawl. It wasn’t the most exciting hiking, but served as a decent connector. It reminded me of the walk out of Safford on the GET.
I tried to leave early to get the benefit of a cool morning, but 9 am was the best I could manage. I had to make another stop at the Dollar General, and then the IGA. The small grocery store was pretty pathetic. The 2 Dollar Generals and one Family Dollar in this small town probably contributed to this. On the upside, the DGs were the best I’ve seen in a long time.
I walked the busy highway for about a mile out of town, then began walking past some fields and along the canal. This comprised most of my day. Brett had to lead the route through AZ City because of the large Native American territory of the Tohono O’Odham Nation to the west. It’s 4,350 square miles, thus the route must deviate quite a ways to the east and north before cutting over to the Table Top Wilderness.
The Florida Trail has tons of levee walking, which I’m told can be kind of interesting because there’s lots of birds, reptiles and amphibians along the canals. But this canal was basically lifeless. I saw a few gulls and small birds coming for a drink. That was about it. The cement walls are too steep for most other animals to be able to drink. Even I couldn’t have managed to climb out if I’d accidentally taken a tumble in. Occasionally there were rebar rungs creating an escape ladder, but they were pretty few and far between. This canal was more like a death trap. In fact, a local that I passed confirmed that people had died in it.
It was also one long trash dump. In addition to tons of garbage lining the canal, I could see all sorts of artifacts laying at the bottom or floating on the surface. Tires were the predominant filler but there were refrigerators and other large appliances and furniture scattered about. Anywhere where there was a control gate blocking or diverting the flow, there was a pile of scum and floating plastic caught behind the gate. I wondered how often the caretakers had to clean out the debris…if they ever did? It looked like it hadn’t been done in awhile in some places. It was unconscionable that we treat such an important resource this way, especially as limited as water is in the desert. I know better than anyone just how precious it is, a factor that drives all my actions every day. Wars will be fought over this water someday, they’re already beginning on paper. The story of the Colorado River is quite the saga.
The water was surprisingly clear with an appealing but suspicious bluish tinge…like how swimming pool water looks so nice because it’s loaded with chemicals, plus pee. I also saw places where the water was being returned to the canal from some distant factory or farm. Some of these outflows had a really odd bluish tinge. Yikes! Several locals warned me not to drink the water and to definitely not swim in it…the canal itself is private property and is illegal to enter. Not to worry, I had made other plans by caching water at the 20 mile mark, my goal for the day. I just carried a few liters from town to get me through.
I know other DWTH’s have drank the canal water in the past, but I wasn’t desperate enough. I’m actually pretty picky when it comes to water. I’m sure I’ve drank my share of bad water too, but I’ll go out of my way to avoid it. I also hate carrying a lot of water and had no more than a 5 or 6 liter capacity. But again, I don’t need as much as others, even in the heat. With my umbrella up, I can strip down to just my Purplerain hiking dress and not sweat at all, which means less water loss and less water needed.
The excitement for the day was when I failed to read a warning about dogs ahead, urging hikers to switch to the north side of the canal. I marched on past the junction and suddenly noted that I was passing what seemed like an animal rescue farm. I would have loved to visit and get some pettings with all the sheep, horses, pigs and what not. But the place was also full of barking dogs and signs posted along the fence “Beware of dogs!” Oh good, at least there’s a tall fence I thought. Then I watched as 2 small dogs went straight under the fence and were running towards me. Then to my horror, I saw a great Pyrenees running towards the fence. Ok I reasoned, hopefully he’s too big to go under the fence. Nope, he went right under too, like as if he does it everyday. This was going to be fun because in case you don’t know, that breed of dog is gigantic and are bred to aggressively defend livestock against predators like wolves…and hikers.
I faced the 3 dogs with my poles, regretting once again that I didn’t have pepper spray. Luckily a lady was out in the yard and started calling them back. They hesitated for a second but then obeyed. I also think my waving poles helped dissuade them. Dogs are usually all bluff but there’s always those few tense seconds where I wonder if they’re going to stop. If you’ve seen video of trained police dogs, they don’t stop for nothing.
I continued on at a fast pace to get away from the place but then started worrying that I was going to get trapped on the wrong side of the canal. I considered going back but then I’d have to deal with the dogs again. So I kept moving forward and hoping that I wouldn’t come to a dead end. Luckily I didn’t. There were quite a few places where one could cross, as the canal went underground, but all the control gates had fencing barring the way.
I found the perfect spot for a lunch break, sitting in the shade of a tank. A small irrigation ditch ran by which was lined with plastic. It made for the perfect kiddie pool for a dunking before I got back on the road. This kept me nice and cool for about an hour and was probably the only dunking I’d get along the route, save for the Bill Williams River in section 5.
Towards the end of the day, I finally saw some fish. They were hanging out around some tires… an artificial reef in an otherwise sterile bottom. I have no idea what kind of fish they were. Maybe catfish? People did fish the canal, but that seemed like a futile cause. Still, these fish were pretty big, whatever they were. Maybe some kind of mutant fish given their environment.
I finally left the canal around 3 pm and began a couple mile, very hot stretch through creosote to Stanfield rd…and my water cache. Funny thing, when Gary was trying to find a place to stash the water, he was spotted by a border patrol agent and questioned. The agent was actually very helpful and suggested he put it behind some trailers that were powering a license plate camera at the entry to the reservation. I was a little leery of coming onto the property, even if it was just the entrance. But the trailers provided some much-needed relief from the sun and no one seemed to mind that I was taking a break there. In fact, I don’t think anyone even noticed me.
I made my dinner and transferred all the water into my bottles. I also drank several liters, just to camel up. I walked several miles more to a camp in a small wash in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, lugging all the extra water I’d need for the next day. My plan was to avoid the two upcoming guzzlers, which were reported to not be that good, causing gastrointestinal distress.
With a little over 5 liters, I hoped to make it 35 miles to I-8, where Gary was going to meet me with more water. If I was off with my calculations, I could still pull some bad water from the 2nd guzzler and at least not die. But I was pretty sure about my water needs, having practiced and recorded these details for over 19,000 miles… that’s a pretty good data set. I kind of know what I’m doing, even if it doesn’t seem like it sometimes.
