We picked out 3 options for hiking today, chose one and then did the other 2.
It also included a weather forecast of scattered thunderstorms by 3 PM. Since the first choice hike was higher on the mountain we switched to a lower elevation option. That was to go back to where we hiked yesterday but at a different road to finish the section of trail leading to the next road. We are just connecting various sections of AZT to make a continuous string of completed trail. No real intent to hike it all, it’s 790 miles. We’re just doing pieces and making bigger pieces out of smaller pieces.
So we drove over to the road on the map (we mostly use Topo + for a map app) and found a closed gate. Well… get out and check. It is dummy closed, just a ring on a peg to keep it closed. Many gates in this country are closed to contain the cattle but not to keep out humans. Another guy came in behind us, he was going shooting. Another favorite activity in the Nat. Forest. We had a good hike, less than 2 miles to the road I mentioned. We found what I thought was a bear box, a large brown shell box for storing food so bears cannot get to it. But this one had a cache of water jugs! Commercial 1 gallon water jugs with a note to take what you needed. Someone had left a $20 bill in there too. We met two women hiking the whole AZTrail, or as far as they can get with 2 months off work.
That wasn’t enough so we went back to the truck and drove down to the Madeira Canyon Road and found the next section of AZT. We had done a piece last month in which we turned around before hitting the next road. So we were back to finish another small piece of unfinished business. That was only 0.7 miles. Just right for the time of day and the building gray clouds.
As we got back to the truck there were four young ladies hiking north who had been at another water supply just yards down the trail. I had heard them and seen their colors through the trees when we arrived. Each one caught sight of Skye as they crossed the road and broke into a trot with arms out to greet her. And of course Skye was her usual exuberant self to greet them too. They took a good 10 minutes to talk to Skye, and us too. Laycette (sp) was the first to greet, then Maddie. We have forgotten the other two names but this is pretty good for me! As we were leaving the storm caught up to us, blowing and a little rain and a little hail for good measure. They scrambled for their rain gear. Two had ponchos and the other two had plastic bag ponchos. The kind of cheap thing you get when you don’t believe it will rain but want a little something anyway. The rain only lasted a few minutes so that was probably OK for the time.
On that same theme, I was writing this at 8 PM when a thunderstorm cell came over us. Strong gusts of wind and driving rain. Carlene worried about the camper flipping over. This is a 10,000 pound trailer. It wasn’t that much wind! It shook us but no big deal and was over in 30 minutes. However we both thought of those girls and wondered what they had for tents etc. that wind was plenty to take down a cheap tent. Hope they’re OK. No way to know. They each had good sized packs indicating they they should be well equipped.
A little metal box, even if it weighs 10,000 pounds seems like little comfort in a gusty thunderstorm.
ReplyDeleteDakota
There is definitely a wind speed sufficient to flip this. We weren’t close to that force. The water jug was showing about an inch of slosh. That’s not much, compared to pushing us over the center of gravity. I know, this is AZ where tractor trailers are flipped on I-10 so that they close the interstate. That is also much more open ground.
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