Part 3 Preparing for the Arizona Trail

Travel to the Trail, Resupply Plan Along the Trail

Travel to the Trail

I won’t be able to hike the trail if I don’t have a way to get there, a rather important detail. This trail isn’t the easiest nor the most difficult to access. Just somewhere in between. The trail starts at the Mexican border south of Montezuma Pass. There are a few small towns in the vicinity, but nothing with a major airport. This is where Tucson comes in. Tucson is a pretty big city and is about a 2 hour drive from the airport to Montezuma Pass, which is the closest point a car can get to the terminus. Since it’s a well known and established trail, there are services that cater to it. I’ll be using one of those services to shuttle me down. It’s not cheap, $70, but not overly expensive either for that long of a drive. They’ll be picking me up bright and early from my hotel and drop me off at the pass. Once I’m dropped off, I’ll have a 1.8 mile walk downhill to the terminus and the start of the trail.

Backing up a bit, there are a few things I’ll need to do ahead of time with my gear and pack for my flight from the east coast to Tucson. Traveling with my gear is always mildly stressful. Some of the items cannot be brought in the cabin and some I really don’t want to check. For past hikes, I usually use a cardboard box as my checked bag when heading to a hike. I’ll fill it with the items I can’t bring on, trekking poles, tent stakes, knife, pepper spray, and umbrella plus my food bag so I don’t have to carry the extra weight around the airport. Everything else, I will carry on. A lot of my gear is too expensive and delicate to trust to the underbelly of a plane and careless baggage handlers. This time around, I’ll probably use an ikea zipper bag as my checked bag. They’re only $5 so it’s not much of a loss to give it away after my flight. I’m hoping the shuttle service can gift it to a hiker headed home so they don’t have to stress about their pack going along all those conveyor belts.

Resupply Plan

A lot of people wonder about what I do for food on trail and if I carry everything. The easiest way to explain this thru hike is that I’m basically doing ten 4-5 day backpacking trips back to back. I’ll be headed into a town to buy food or a location where I can pick up a pre-mailed box of food every 3-5 days. If there are other amenities in town, I will definitely partake. I won’t say no to a burger or pizza and milkshake and I’m always craving a salad. If there is shower and laundry, I’ll sometimes use those too depending on how gross I am (my longest streak without either is 3 weeks). 

I was going to describe a typical town day, but I realized I don’t actually have a set routine. Each time is just different enough to make it difficult to generalize. If I were to try though it would start with get ready to hitch into town (see part 2 post) then get a hitch in, call a shuttle, walk, or take a bus. Once I’m in town, if I’m staying and my overnight place is centralized, I will check into my accommodations, if it’s not, either grocery shop or eat depending on when I ate last. Usually I’m eating first. If I’m staying in town for a bit, I’ll head to a laundromat and put on my rain gear, throwing my dirty clothes into a washer and doing my grocery shopping while my clothes wash or work on a post to my instagram. The details and schedule are dependent on my current needs, so I don’t tend to plan those out more than a day out. But, I do plan, at least roughly, where I want to stop. 

For the AZT, I have 9 town/resupply stops I’d like to go to. 

1. Patagonia, AZ, mile 53-

   I debated on whether this town was necessary. It isn’t, but it will help me slow down and drop pack weight early. I’ll only need to carry 2.5 days of food for my first leg. Also, I read an article recently that this town is amongst the top 10 coolest small towns in the US. I’m sure that list is highly subjective, but I’m interested to see why it was on there. I’ll be making that 4 mile trek (or hitch) into town for a resupply and a meal.

2. Colossal Caves Mountain Park, mile 119-

   I’ll be going here in lieu of actual town. It’s a sightseeing location, but they hold boxes for hikers. I’m definitely committed to going here. I already mailed off my box of food to the park to hold onto. When I get there, I’ll replenish my supplies from my box, supplementing with fun snacks from the gift shop and interesting finds in the hiker box. If the timing works out, I also plan to go on the cave tour, this is one of those items in my side quests tab (see part 2 post). I might also try to go on a horseback riding tour. I was able to do this on the PCT while in Kennedy Meadows North and it’ll be fun to do it here too. I’ve also heard their margarita stand has great prickly pear margaritas and I’ve heard tell of a prickly pear ice cream. I will be partaking. Lot of options for such a small stop.

3. Mount Lemmon, mile 184-

   This is the last stop I’m fully committing to. After here, I’ll be able to make changes more easily on the fly. This ‘town’ is one street and the trail goes right down the center of it. There’s a small gift shop/general store, 2 restaurants, and a post office. I’ll be mailing a box of food to that post office. Like at the caves, I’ll buy extra snacks at the store in town and eat a meal at one, or both, restaurants. 

4. Kearny, mile 265-

   Kearny is marketed as “The Friendliest Town on the AZT” so I fully plan to explore what it has to offer. This will likely be my first zero day (a day with zero trail miles, a rest day). Once I get farther up the trail, I’ll have a better idea of when exactly I’ll get into town and when I do, I’ll be booking some accommodations for 1 or 2 nights. The town isn’t big, but it has everything a hiker needs, markets, Dollar General, motel, and some restaurants.

5. Phoenix, mile 387-

   This one is up in the air a bit. On a trip to Costa Rica, my spouse and I met some pretty cool people who live in Phoenix. We were on the same tour group for a week and got to know them. When I mentioned I’ll be in their area for much of this spring, they said I’m more than welcome to stay at their place and have a day off in Phoenix! This is pretty awesome and I hope the offer still stands by the time I get there. I’d like to visit them. 

6. Pine, mile 459-

   I don’t know much about this town, other than it has everything I need, grocery store, cafe, ice cream, and a brewery. It’s also only 1 mile off trail with the brewery breaking up the walk into town. 

7. Flagstaff, mile 568-

   I’m really looking forward to this stop. It looks super cool and is pretty big. Iconic Route 66 runs through downtown. There are a bunch of gear stores including an REI, lots of restaurants and hotels. As of now, I’m planning on this being another zero day stop so I can explore a little. This may even be double zero worthy if I don’t have one in phoenix, or even if I do. 

8. Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim, mile 697-

   This is the last stop before the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon. My plans get fuzzy after here. I definitely will be resupplying here, but I don’t know for how long of a stretch (see part 1 post). I may need 3.5 days of food, I may need 8, I may need something in between. I’ll find out when I get there. I do know, the GC Village is lying when it says village. It’s borderline a city based on what I see on the maps. It’s definitely as big as or bigger than some of the small towns I plan to go to. There’s camping available, a grocery store, a post office, laundry, and showers. A day relaxing or exploring will be on the agenda.

9. Jacob’s Lake, mile 770-

   This is the last stop before the end. I plan to stock up from the gas station store here for the last day and a half on trail. I’m hoping I’ll be coming here from walking the GC and not a shuttle service around, but time will tell.  

Outside of the stops I mentioned above, there are a few other places along the way that are very close to the trail (within half a mile) that I would like to check out. And by check out, I mean stop at the restaurant. A few of those places are Roosevelt Lake Marina, Mormon Lake, a cafe and gas station 0.1M off trail, Snow Bowl Lodge (if I’m desperate or an planning to summit Humphreys Peak; it’s all uphill), Tusayan (tourist drag before the GC), North Rim GC (if open), and Kaibab Lodge (if open, all you can eat breakfast and dinner).

Post Trail Travel

I don’t have any solid plans for after I hit the border. If they can, my brother and/or sister may join me after for a little road trip around the canyons. My spouse also may come out and do a small trip with me. My dad lives not too far away in UT so I may be able to have him pick me up. I think the most likely thing that will happen is I hitch in Kanab, UT and figure it out from there. I need to do a little more research here, but that can wait. I have a few weeks.

I’ve gone over a lot of preparation already, but there are a few more topics to cover. Keep an eye out for part 4!