Friday November 10, 34.6km/21.5mi

Wasson Peak Saddle (3.5/3860ft) to Near Indio Tank (25.0/2410ft) (AZ)

We left camp at 6:15am with headlamps, and after 5 minutes I was able to turn it off and get a photo of the orange glow in the eastern sky.

I finished climbing up to the top of the pass, and then the sun rose over the Santa Catalina mountains.

I traversed the ridge just below Wasson Peak, where I had an excellent view of the entire valley below. It was a nice preview of the rest of the day!

It was a little chilly in the shade, but I could see that the sunlight was coming soon.

It was really cool to watch the shadows recede from the mountaintops in front of me.

We descended off the ridge, and then began a short cross-country (xc) section. It was a simple route, with easy navigation aided by some well-located washes. This Saguaro had fallen over like a tree, and we gently stepped over it to avoid any remaining spines.

Easy wash walking.

We walked a paved road for a mile, which led us to the Saguaro National park visitor center. I was surprised to see this license plate…from Minnesota.

We took a break and refilled our water bottles, watched all the tourists dressed in jeans and other inappropriate clothing for the desert. We left the busy visitor center, and had a nice quiet couple of hours walking on a wide paved road. There were almost no cars!

Eventually the road ended, and we turned into the Ironwood Forest National Monument. Lunchtime!

We sat and ate lunch in the minimal shade cast by two signs near the entrance. It wasn’t that hot, but being in the sun all day is tiring. After lunch we followed an old disused dirt road for the rest of the afternoon.

I expected this water source to be dry, but it was full! And it barely even tasted like cows.

As we walked down the road, we noticed all the ants around here have piles of grass seed husks surrounding their anthills. Neat!

As the afternoon wore on, the road became smaller and smaller.

It was fascinating to see Saguaro cacti growing right next to Ironwood trees. It happened so frequently that I began to suspect some sort of symbiotic relationship.

Our last water source for the day was a guzzler, which collects rainwater during the wetter monsoon seasons and stores it. It was great!

At the very end of the day, we came across a random cellphone on the ground. It had clearly been there for at least a year. Weird.

A few minutes later, we came across more stuff on the ground, like backpacks, waterbottles, and chargers. And then I realized, these are all things discarded or lost by migrants. Hmm…

We walked a few more minutes, and then it started getting dark so we setup camp.