Introducing the Desert Winter Thru Hike

From the Hike Invention website: “The Desert Winter Thru-Hike (WTH!) is an adventurous 800-mile hiking route highlighting 20 Wilderness Areas, 7 National Parks and Monuments, and remote protected lands of the Sonoran, Colorado, and Mojave deserts. Featuring mainly low to mid elevation (2000′) desert valleys and mountain ranges occurring at lower latitudes of the American Southwest (the highest point is Harquahala Mountain (5,691ft/1735m), the Desert WTH offers a true winter season thru-hiking option for very experienced walkers looking to extend the US hiking season into the December – February timeframe. And yet despite the aridity and remoteness of this warmer region, the route has been carefully crafted to greatly reduce or eliminate the need for caching water in advance, while also providing easy access at its termini both to begin and end the long hike.

The Desert Winter Thru-Hike connects the Arizona National Scenic Trail on the east with the Pacific Crest Trail to the west, along the way touring such diverse treasures as Saguaro National Park, Ironwood Forest National Monument, Sonoran Desert National Monument, Mojave National Preserve, and Joshua Tree National Park, all while showcasing the hallmark plants, animals, and distinctive landscapes endemic to each.”

Starting in just a few days, the Desert Winter Thru Hike will be the 3rd Brett Tucker route I’ve attempted. To even be eligible to receive the mapset and data for this hike, one must be a veteran BTR hiker, having demonstrated responsibility in contributing to the knowledge base surrounding the hike (water reports), being a good steward of the land while traversing fragile desert ecosystems, and demonstrating sufficient skills in route-finding, navigation, and water management. So it’s fortunate I’ve already successfully hiked the GET and MRT.

Further, I’ve amassed quite a bit of experience in desert travel since 2018. This will be my 4th long hike across Arizona (previous: AZT, GET, MRT, HDT) and 3rd across a long swath of California (previous: PCT, PCBCRT). In total, I’ve already walked over 1,600 miles through AZ (entire length plus half the width x2) and 2,900 miles through CA. Perhaps most significantly, this will be the last segment in completing the nearly 7,000 mile Great Western Loop, as invented and named by Andrew Skurka, Ryan Jordan, and Demetri Coupounas in 2006.

Only a handful have completed the GWL as a continuous thru-hike, as it’s truly one of the most ambitions and arduous routes ever conceived. I met one of these hikers, Chezwick, while hiking the PNT. Seeing him in person and noting just how haggard he looked (though he was ultimately successfully, yay Chezwick!), I concluded that I would never attempt the GWL as a continuous thru. I just couldn’t imagine putting my body through such punishment. After all, Chezwick broke his foot after 4,500 miles in his first attempt and needed 2 knee surgeries after his second attempt! No thank you.

But what about section hiking the GWL? Sure, it doesn’t have the same WOW-factor in making one Insta-Famous (the only reason to hike, right?), but the simple and pertinent matter is, I’ve almost already done it! The lightbulb went off when Buck30 did just this in completing the WTH in 2022. Brett made it easy by mapping connector routes from the WTH to both the AZT and PCT. Buck30 pointed out that in already having hiked the PCT, PNT, CDT, GET, and AZT, he’d completed the GWL as a series of section hikes. How about that? I already have the same collection of trails to my name, so all that’s needed is this one last piece in southern AZ. Thanks to Brett’s unending commitment to inventing new routes, a viable, enjoyable, and information-rich route now exists.

If I make it through CA to the PCT, I also hope to do a bonus hike to connect from the desert to the coast. Although my footpath wouldn’t be continuous, I’d be hiking an established route called the San Diego Trans County Trail (SDTCT). The route goes from the Salton Sea to the pacific coast, ending in Torrey Pines Beach. It would add 155 miles to my journey…but what’s another couple hundred miles at this point? Saying I walked from Tucson to San Diego just sounds cool and I liken it to my PNT hike, where I finished hiking along the Pacific Ocean. As such, this hike shares a nice symmetry to the PNT, just at opposite borders of the country.

There’s one major caveat to my journey, and that is the exceptionally dry conditions (as highlighted by the recent and devastating LA fires). I’ve dealt with both droughts and floods in the desert, so at least this is a familiar hurdle. But if the region doesn’t get some winter precipitation soon, I’ll be facing some really long water carries and/or mandatory caches. Perhaps I’ll even postpone the rest of the hike for another year when conditions are more favorable. My strategy is to not cache water or food through AZ, as there seems to be enough water in the cow troughs and guzzlers that the route takes advantage of in these areas. But the small quail guzzlers in southern CA, on which the route mostly relies on in that area, are severely depleted and even dry right now. Once (if) I get to Parker AZ, the roughly halfway point on the border of AZ and CA, I’ll assess the situation more closely. My plan was to rent a car from Lake Havasu anyway, so that I could set some food and water caches. There are many logistics associated with this hike, given the sparse resupply options, which I’ll go into more detail about as the time comes. I think my half & half strategy is a good one for now.

As always, I’ll be trying to keep up to date with daily blogs from the trail. Given the short days and longs nights of winter hiking, plus the fact that I’ll probably be flying solo most of the way, blog writing seems like an easy task. Though every year I grow more and more weary of it, so we’ll see how I do this time around. I took a break from the daily updates on the GDT and through the rest of my crazy 2024 summer, enjoying the simple freedom of just focusing on the trail. I was able to catch up once I got back to my laptop, but even this delayed effort was taxing. Yet here I am, writing about another thru-hike. sigh. I guess I just can’t give it up.

Here are few other WTH blogs folks can check out for more information:

LarryBoy’s Summary: https://www.lbhikes.com/2024/02/desert-winter-thru-hike-advice-to.html?m=1

Buck30’s Journal: https://www.postholer.com/journal/Other-Trail/2022/buck30/2022-12-13/WTH-Summary-and-Planning-Notes/67352

Recon’s 2023 Journal: https://ramblinrecon.com/hikes/desert-winter-thru-hike-2023/

Nate Ventura’s Journal (current season hiker): https://longwalksanddirtysocks.wordpress.com

NOTE: The maps, water, data, etc on this route are not public. The route traverses sensitive areas, can potentially be dangerous, and is still in its infancy. For the foreseeable future, Brett is only sharing his resources with people who have successfully hiked one or more of his other routes over 400 miles. Please don’t inquire with me about sharing any maps/data/files. I’d highly recommend the MRT to anyone looking to try their first “BTR”.