Rule #1: Do not start the trail without any training. The Arizona Trail thru-hike will test you in ways you never anticipated, so your physical condition should be the least of your worries. Without proper training, you will succumb to injuries, as well as the possibility of not reaching water sources or food quickly enough. It’s important to get that …

Now that I’ve finally finished adding photos from the Arizona Trail to my website, I can now focus on other tasks. One such task is this blog post, a list of gear that I found invaluable and/or highly useful on the trail. Note that some links may be affiliate links, but I was not approached by any company to write …

The Arizona Trail (AZT) is a rugged, challenging 800+ mile thru-hike that stretches from the border of Mexico to the border of Utah, and is riddled with challenges such as extreme heat, freezing temperatures, snow, blowing sand, lack of water, consistent elevation change, and many stinging and poisonous critters. It also traverses through some of Arizona’s most spectacular landscapes that …

The plan (which as we’ve learned means nothing) was to head out from Jacob Lake, then find a scenic spot to camp several miles before the Stateline Campground to get some final views before completing the Arizona Trail. I woke up and was excited to see sunlight coming in through the window. All the weather looked like it had at …

I thought I was ready for today, but the weather once again threw me a major curveball that would require some pretty amazing trail magic to overcome. I knew today would be rough. The forecast had called for a lot of rain pretty much all day, so when I woke up to snow showers, I wasn’t terribly surprised. I assumed …

The plan was to hitchhike back to where I left the trail and pick up where I left off. This wound up being much more difficult than I expected it to be, or even than it needed to be. I was up early and well rested and so I said farewell to Josh before heading out on the closed highway …

My plan for this last remaining stretch of the Arizona Trail was to take it slow and easy. There was one 20 mile day in there, but with hardly any elevation gain anywhere for the remainder of the trail, it would be pretty easy. Except I forgot to account for weather, so today went way off plan. I was up …

I slept better last night than I’ve slept in a long time, and that includes the motel stay in Tusayan which was quite comfortable. I was going to need the rest too. I underestimated the climb out of the canyon (the Grand Canyon, no less), and got completely lost once on top about permits and where to camp. With my …

Though putting last night’s plan into action this morning was technically successful, there were a few glitches. First, the only reason getting up at 4am was a better option than sleeping in was because the hole(s) in my sleeping pad are still eluding me. As a result, getting up seemed like it’d be better than waking up on a hard …

On paper, it doesn’t look like much of a day, but in actuality, I didn’t have much of a chance to sit down and relax at all. I had the idea of relaxing in my head as soon as I got up, so I was slow to get moving in my motel room, and it felt great. I didn’t want …

My feet were beginning to complain again, particularly the left, which has had trouble adjusting to life on the trail. It’s about a half size smaller than my right foot, the latter of which is doing quite well. Lefty however, has been getting too cooped up lately in two socks, which worked great to distribute the comfort more evenly, but …

The Coconino Rim was just over 20 miles away. I had visions of this area being ripe with campsites all along the rim overlooking the eastern edge of the Kaibab Plateau below, as well as the Grand Canyon carving its way toward the area. Surely there had to be one good campsite like that within the first few miles of …

There’s a section of the Arizona Trail that’s become infamous for its lengthy dirt road walking. It’s through this stretch that water is scarce and interesting features even less so. Having not looked much into that particular area, and with few photos of it, I didn’t really know what to expect when I got there. Would it be 50 miles …

Every now and then, I feel as though a thru-hiker deserves to feel a little sluggish and grumpy, the former causing the latter. Such was the case this morning after Gizmo and I had a fantastic breakfast by trail angel Hannah. I suppose though that this was just the culmination of the last few days of not really being all …

There’s definitely been a different mood about the trail that I’ve been feeling, and I don’t like it. I can’t tell if I’ve just grown tired of the monotony of the forest, or if I’ve just let myself become preoccupied with overly distracting thoughts, but I’m simply not feeling the enthusiasm of the more mountainous sections, and I want that …