The Arizona Trail: Part 20

Wednesday, April 10th, 2019

We wouldn’t sleep so well overnight. Gusts of wind pulled out our tent stakes on more than one occasion. The loose soil next to the creek made it hard to securely fasten them in the ground.

Once we finished our early morning climb, it was mostly ridge walking through the Four Peaks Wilderness.

During the hike, we met a hiker who used to go by the trail name Nobo Lobo when he hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, but now preferred to go by his given name, Klaus. He was born in Mexico with a German father, and spent part of his youth in Germany during the War. He came to the US, Michigan to be specific, to learn English and that’s where he met his wife and settled down. He is not an ultralight hiker, and may be older than most of the hikers out here, but the guy is fast!

It was another windy day, but the views were abundant. We stopped at Shake Spring for lunch. Klaus would join us shortly after we settled down, followed by Rosey, and then Gerber. The water was clear, flowing and sourced from snow melt, so I decided to take a break from filtering.

After lunch, we left the wilderness and went through another area that reminded me of Vedauwoo in Wyoming.

Then the dirt road walk began. There was initially some SUV traffic that we managed to dodge, then we traveled through some exposed areas where it felt like we were in a wind tunnel. I put my buff over my face on a number of occasions to bloke the dust, and one gust was so strong, that all of us were pelted by gravel.

Once we got to Little Pine Flat, we briefly met hiking couple, Geronimo and Puns. They filled up on water, then went on their way. We ate an early dinner there, and did so very quickly. The temperature had dropped dramatically.

Klaus caught up with us, but decided to keep moving. Rosey and Gerber followed suit. Gerber and Rosey has planned on staying there for the night, but once we all witnessed snow flurries, they decided to keep hiking. They stayed back there to eat as we worked our way down the steep gravel road.

We were still fighting the wind when the trail left the road for single track. The following section would mostly be downhill with stream crossings, and the briar bushes would be overgrown. My Frogg Togg jacket was pretty shredded by the time we bushwhacked through it all. But hey, that’s what duct tape is for, right?

We’d escaped the wind, passed Puns and Geronimo who were set up by a water source, passed a hiker named Rebecca (still no trail name), and we’d eventually catch up to Klaus who was flying!