Day 303

Day 303 (AZT 8): 41 miles

I will say Arizona probably has the best gates of the year. They have a nice rustic and rusty feel to them. New Mexico’s gates were also nice but too clean and too new. Most other states need to work on their gate game.

I started the day off with a real breakfast of eggs, sausage, and toast, better then my usual Oreos or chips ahoy to start off the day. I got back on trail and it was a chilly morning.

I found out today that lake means something different in Arizona, I don’t think there’s a water requirement. I passed by several “lakes” today that had no water (pic 3 for example). They were just big open fields of grass and dirt. I also don’t understand why maps still shows these as blue lakes when they don’t have water. I also talked to a local that said they don’t even usually fill up with water after the snowmelt, are just a generally marshy area. #NotMyLakes


I saw a group of 8-10 deer this morning. They were staring at me for a bit then all of a sudden one of them must’ve said the code word cause they all took off in different directions. It was like some kids getting caught doing something they weren’t supposed to and taking off.

I saw a few chunky desert spiders today. Normally they don’t bother me too much but they had me wanting to set up my tent and not even think about cowboy camping.

When I was in town I finally threw away my cold soak jar. After using the same one for 6 months now the smell was too bad. I couldn’t open it up without wanting to gag cause of the lingering smell of over-soaked ramen noodles. I’m done cold soaking for now.

Not super scenic hiking today. This northern part of the AZT has been so much more forested then I ever expected. I’m excited to keep heading south where hopefully things will open up a little bit more.

Song of the day: Dragula-rob zombie