I flew from Miami to Tucson just in time to welcome the rain and cold sweeping in on a front. The forecast called for a 60% chance of rain on Wednesday, plus snow up to an inch on nearby Mt Lemmon. As is typical, this left me scrambling to change my plans. But I wasn’t at all put-off by such weather, in fact I welcomed it as a positive sign. Hopefully it was the beginnings of the usual winter precipitation patterns returning to the SW. The region had been hit by a very bad drought since the previous spring. The summer monsoons had been weak to non-existent and the winter storms had failed to appear…until now.
Yet still, the most recent report from the US Drought Monitor painted a dire situation for the entire area I planned to hike through. Climate change had been wreaking havoc for the past 30 years but also a La Nina year meant even less precipitation. What a contrast to my experiences in the spring of 2023 and 2024. I’d hiked the Hayduke during a record snow year in 2023, dealing with flooded canyons and major snow detours around the Henries, Bryce and the North Rim. Then I was visiting Tucson after my Grand Canyon rafting trip in 2024, when I was witness to very heavy rainfall in early March. I couldn’t believe how green and beautiful the desert looked at that time, which strongly influenced my decision to hike the DWTH this year.
Perhaps it’s a terrible year to attempt this route, but there’s still some hope the winter rains will come. I was very close to cancelling just weeks beforehand. There were 2 factors that tipped the scales just enough to persuade me to follow through. One was the recent water reports from another DWTH hiker, Nate Ventura. He found decent water in most of the cow troughs and wildlife guzzlers in section 1, indicating that someone was tending these sources, most likely by manually filling them.
The second factor was that my friends Cookie and Tictoc were starting just a week ahead of me. I met them on the GET in 2021 and also hiked with them for a day on the Florida Trail in 2022. It was a great motivator that they’d be just ahead of me at the start and that I’d likely catch up to them after just a few weeks. They could provide water and other condition updates, as well as likely become collaborators in town stays and caching efforts.
Unfortunately bad news came the day before my flight and less than a week into their hike. Tictoc’s foot began hurting him severely, prompting them to get off trail. Later, an xray revealed a bone spur that was irritating the tendon and causing plantar fasciitis. The only option was rest, so just like that, their hike was over. This was a big blow for them and for me. I’d been so looking forward to seeing them. Just to have some company and others looking out for me along the way was a great comfort.
I tried hard to find a hiking partner for this journey but had come up short…not surprising given the time of year and difficulty of the route. All the friends I asked either had to work or just didn’t feel up to such a challenge. I can’t blame them…what I’m doing is pretty crazy and perhaps all the more crazier going it alone. But several others have done this route solo, so why not me? I’m not going to let the lack of another person keep me from doing the things I want to accomplish. Besides, hiking partners can’t always be trusted to have your back… I’d learned that the hard way on another hike. What I did know is that I could trust and depend on myself.
By the way, Cookie and Tictoc are very experienced thru hikers, which just goes to show you, injuries can and will happen at any time to anyone. I knew exactly how hard an injury this was to overcome because I’d been dealing with a small bone spur on my right heel myself. It had been causing mild Achilles tendonitis…in fact I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hike on it but was determined to at least try. It seemed to be mostly irritated by running, so I’d given that up for awhile and just been walking. My injury was more of a mild discomfort, reminding me it was there but not seeming to get worse or keep me down. Time and miles would tell I guess.
The more I thought about it, there were a whole bunch of things that could go wrong on this hike…but isn’t that the case with any hike? Having failed or been forced to postpone several hikes up to this point, I was at least more open to and accepting of the likelihood. I’d learned that the point of all this was in the ‘getting out there’ and not in the ‘finishing.’
My flights both went smoothly, though I was minutes away from almost missing my connection. The lady sitting next to me on the second flight, Julie, knew about the CDT because her family was from Montana and they rented a cabin in Benchmark every summer. So she was very interested in my journey and it was a pleasure to have someone to talk to. She even gave me some snacks to add to my food stash.
I made it to Tucson by 2 pm. Originally I was thinking that if my travels went according to plan, I might try to get an Uber to Sabino Canyon, catching the last shuttle at 4 pm to jead up the canyon for an overnight. But the weather forecast calling for rain and snow gave me second thoughts. So I went with option B, which was to link up with my high school classmate Josh at the airport. He was a trail angel for me when I made it to Walker pass on the PCT. He lived in Ridgecrest at the time, so I took a zero to stay and catch up with him. He’d moved to Tucson 2 years ago, so I’d been looking forward to seeing him again when I started this hike. The timing was perfect because he was just flying in from a work trip only hours after I arrived. So at least he didn’t have to make an extra trip to pick me up. But because of my altered plans, he still ended up doing a ton of shuttling for me.
I stayed at his house that night, surprising his family with my unannounced arrival. Well, I’d been updating Josh on my plans for several months, he just never bothered to tell his wife Becky, or 2 kids Catalina and Brendon, that I was planning to visit. Luckily they are the chillest family ever and welcomed me with open arms. The last time I’d seen the kids was 6 years ago and oh how they had grown. Catalina was now in college and Brendan about to start high school. They were as sweet and smart as ever and Becky was a delight to see again too. I’m so proud of Josh. He had a rough start growing up and had turned things around tremendously to have a great career, a successful private business as a DJ, and a beautiful family. It warmed my heart to spend time with them.
See this blog post from the last time I visited the Addingtons, over 6 years ago. Thank you for everything guys!
Ps…if anyone in the Tucson area ever needs the best DJ and event planner, Josh is your man! Seriously, I have never met a more dedicated and passionate guy when it comes to this kind of thing. Trust me! See this link for all his contact and social media info: https://dot.cards/djape?e=ZGV2aWNlLW92c2xucnJsZmhsZnRwamNmOGs1ZWw4Z2ctYy1ibA