Twig Adventures

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[…]

Sunday Apr 24th, 2022, 0620-1820HWY 260 crossing to edge of Little Colorado River Canyon, EABO mm 347, Segment 6 mm 1.5.17 miles. It was again cold overnight but without as much condensation, so it didn’t feel as bad. I think my thermometer reached 22 degrees. Again, I had a hand warmer radiating a little heat all night…a nice little hack. Around 5 am, a truck rattle by on the nearby dirt road and stopped about 50 yards away. I got up to pee and heard a strange, artificial sound. At first I thought it was a coyote but then realized it was a fake turkey call. The guy in the truck had posted up nearby, trying to call in some gobblers.[…]

Saturday Apr 23rd, 2022, 0600-1840Country Club & Chipmunk to just N of HWY 260 crossing, EABO mm 336, Segment 5 mm 49.33 miles. The wind died completely overnight, which was a great relief, but it was still very cold. Frost lined my tent in the morning and the thermometer read 25 degrees. My chemical hand warmers did the trick, keeping my footsies warm all night. We were camped at around 7,200′ this night, one of our higher camps yet, but would end the day at over 9000′. More cold was in store. It was a beautiful morning, with sun filtering through the forest. Logging activity had removed a lot of the trees but most areas hadn’t been clear-cut, just thinned. It[…]

Friday Apr 22nd, 2022, 0830-1800Hwy 60 to Country Club & Chipmunk, EABO mm 304, Segment 5 mm 17.24 miles. There was a wind and dust advisory for this day, plus warnings about extreme fire danger. The Flagstaff fire was raging to the west and the overnight low was forecasted to be 29. So naturally, I left a safe, warm hotel room to set out for a night in the woods. I was definitely dragging my feet to leave town, though. There were 2 access points to this ‘metropolis’ along the route, the 2nd going right past a shopping center in Pinetop. Originally I’d hoped to walk the 7 miles between access points before stopping in town, negating the 3 mile side[…]

Wednesday Apr 20th, 2022, 0550-1900Cottonwood wash to Hwy 60, then Show Low, EABO mm 280.8, Segment 4 mm 71 5. 31 miles. I passed the halfway mark at only 11 days in, setting a blistering pace. I’d earned an overnight town stop, maybe even a zero. I was sure ready for one. Today’s landscape certainly didn’t leave me wanting for more right away. It was another hot, windy, exposed day in even more scorched lands. The morning started off nice, finishing our walk through the wash with tall pines and a lone elk sighting. But soon we were winding through a lot of scrub and some pretty relentless ups and downs through a number of ridges. We began the first of[…]

Tuesday Apr 19th 2022, 0610-1900Lower Black Canyon to Cottonwood wash, EABO mm 250, Segment 4 mm 41. 30 miles. Oh boy, what a day. There was more big hiking, Big Sun and Big Wind. The morning started off so very pleasant and peaceful. I wasn’t too cold overnight for the first time in a week. A few random wind gusts did take out my centerpole stake… nothing like your house crashing down on you in the middle of the night. So I had to get up to re-adjust. We had a chipper start in the morning. I made a comment about not seeing much sign of bears and minutes later, spotted fresh bear tracks in the sand. We came upon a[…]