Twig Adventures

Saturday Apr 30th, 2022, 0610-2030Government Mesa/Horse Mountain Trail to near Charlie Moore Mountain, EABO mm 471.5, Segment 7 mm 5618.5 miles. I felt like this entire day was a reward for nearly finishing the MRT. I usually have at least one day or moment during a long trail that I recall as my most stunning experience, my Signature Day, and this day was definitely it for the MRT. It wasn’t the easiest hiking I guess (mostly entirely cross country down canyons), but so much fun that I barely noticed any effort all day. It began with another big descent, officially our final from the “Rim”. We left the ponderosa, rejoining the juniper prairie and big round lava rocks that are so[…]

Friday Apr 29th, 2022, 0600-1920Grant Creek to Horse Mountain Trail, EABO mm 454, Segment 7 mm 3825.5 miles. It was another very tough day. The morning was at least pretty chill. We walked the rest of Grant Creek to the confluence of the Blue River (all creeks in this area flow into the Blue). Based on our previous crossing of the Blue a year prior (GET 2021), I expected a decent-sized river and to get wet feet. But the crossing was tiny and bridged with some logs. 20 or so miles to the north of our GET crossing, the Blue River here was a small creek. I suspect in other years it can be quite a bit more, but the drought[…]

Thursday Apr 28th, 2022, 1400-1840Hannagan Meadow to Grant Creek, EABO mm 428, Segment 7 mm 12.512.5 miles. This being the last “town” stop before officially finishing the route, we took full advantage of it. We were granted late check out until noon, so I lounged in bed for a long time. Another shower was in order too. There was no laundry, so I sink washed some items to dry overnight (I’d end up going from Show Low all the way to Silver City without doing laundry in a machine). It was really cold outside again, so I cranked the heater in the room. It felt amazing to have the power to do simple things like that. The wilderness is a lesson[…]

Wednesday Apr 27th, 2022, 0600-1700CR 25 to Hannagan Meadow, EABO mm 415.6, End Segment 6 mm 7021.5 miles. I managed to get some sleep after the nighttime raid but was glad to wake early and get away from the road. I paused to inspect how far the tire tracks came into the forest…pretty far actually. They stopped about 50 yards from my tent, which was still a decent buffer. I noticed a crushed log that they’d driven over in their wrecklessness. Good, maybe it did some damage to their vehicle. We resumed our remote hiking, going cross-country down a steep hill and then up a ridge that had mostly been burned. We followed a series of old logging roads, most that[…]

Tuesday Apr 26th, 2022, 0700-1800Fork Tank Drainage to CR 25, EABO mm 394, Segment 6 mm 48.521 miles. What a great day it was! For starters, I wasn’t too cold for the first time in 4 nights. My thermometer read 27 degrees when I woke, but it was more like 24 outside. I never thought such temps would feel comfortable! We still decided to wait until 7 am to start walking. This proved to be a lucky thing because while we lounging in our tents, we heard a wolf howl. A real wolf! It was unmistakable from the common coyotes that we heard nearly every day. The howl was deep and long and awe-inspiring. There are only around 100 Mexican gray[…]

Monday Apr 25th, 2022, 0715-1800Coldest place in AZ to Fork Tank Drainage, EABO mm 373.3, Segment 6 mm 27.726 miles. It was a rough night…not my worst ever but definitely my coldest. I didn’t understand it. The temperature was not too bad as I was setting up camp but by the time I’d finished dinner, the steam on my pot lid had frozen. Uh oh. Somehow the cold had crept in and it was insidious. It would invade nearly every space overnight, including my sleeping bag. I cracked a hand warmer but it seemed to take forever to get sufficiently warm. On top of this, the air felt very damp. The moisture settled on everything, combined with my breaths. I kept[…]