Friday April 11, 4.8mi/7.7km

Mexican Border (0.0/2810ft) to Interstate 8 Underpass (4.8/2720ft) (CA)

After all the shenanigans of this week, I was ready to start hiking. After a few minor chores I was driving south and excited to get my legs exercised. I stopped at a couple little RV resorts to confirm they were still open and had snacks and drinks, since they are along the trail. I arrived at the car storage place at 2pm and got everything packed up. I talked to the owner on the phone and squared away payment, and then walked over to the caretaker to get a ride to the trailhead. James is a really friendly guy and happy to give me a ride, and said “sure let me put my belt on first”. He comes back with a set of tools… and an alternator belt.

He needs to replace his alternator belt on his 1995 Mazda, and he’s only done this once before. I help him through the process and it takes us a couple hours, mostly him repeatedly going back to his shed and looking for the right tool. But we got it done!

Finally, at 5pm he drives me the 20 minutes to the start of the trail in Jacumba Hot Springs. It’s a pretty drive, with mostly nice scenery along the way, except for a monstrous iron wall.

He drives as close as we are allowed to get to the border, and then I get out and say goodbye and he takes some photos for me.

Since it’s now 5:45pm I immediately start walking north to get as far as I can before darkness at 7:30.

Jacumba is a tiny little town, but it has a couple cafes, an art studio and a cute little park.

The first 4 Miles are walking on a paved road.

Apparently Jacumba has a tiny airport. It looks like basically a gravel strip and nothing else.

It’s a peaceful drive with almost no traffic and I watched the sunset as I made progress northward.

I stopped just before 8pm and it’s now very dark. I found a little stealth camping spot next to some abandoned railroad tracks. I can’t continue further without committing to descending into Carrizo Gorge, and that will be tomorrow’s challenge.

Easy first day, but it feels good to be moving again!

Wednesday/Thursday April 9 & 10, 0mi/0km

Amboy CA to Anza-Borrego State Park (driving)

I drove most of the day again, this time only covering about 300 miles on paved roads, burying another 4 caches in the sand.

I didn’t see many cars or people out here all day, but definitely evidence that people have been here recently. It seems nowhere is safe from the current shitty state of events.

Once I got further west past the town of Mecca, there were noticeably more people highways and businesses as I approached Indio and the Coachella Valley. I stopped at a Big5 Sporting goods to get a fuel canister, and they only had this questionable-looking brand. I probably won’t die.

When I went to the cashier to check out, it was at this point I realized I must have dropped my credit card back at one of the caches. It was in my pocket along with a marker and pocketknife, and it must have fallen out when I was using those tools. I spent the rest of the day retracing my steps and searching but to no avail. So I called the card company and they’re sending me a new one next week. Good trail tip: Having Google pay and PayPal apps on your phone is an excellent backup plan.

Tuesday April 8, 0mi/0km

Death Valley CA to Amboy CA (driving)

I drove all day, covering about 400 miles on paved roads and another 20 miles of dirt roads, burying 4 caches in the sand. I started the day in Death Valley, and decided to play tourist for a few minutes, visiting the water fountain at Furnace Creek, and seeing how warm it was at the lowest place in the US.

I left the park and drove uphill 4,000 vertical feet and did some reconnaissance in the little town of Shoshone. I’m not planning on making it this far on my short section of trail this year, but I know we will be here next year.

Then I went a few minutes down the road to the little hamlet of Tecopa Hot Springs, which is basically just 3 different hot springs businesses competing on the same road. The first one had a spiritual vibe with a bunch of wiccans, the second one had a creepy feel with the owner slipping the word Jesus into every single sentence, and the third one felt just normal. Plus the town had a post office, a surprisingly great cafe, and a brand new microbrewery.

I drove 30 minutes down the highway and attempted my first cache, but the dirt road had a few deep-ish ruts and I didn’t want to get high-centered. The next spot I had better luck at Halloran summit off the I-15 freeway. Step 1 dig the hole:

Step 2 fill the hole with water and delicious snacks:

Step 3 return the dirt and hide everything:

The whole process only took about 30 minutes, and after taking a bunch of photos and saving the location on my GPS, I was on my way to the next spot. I got to drive across the beautiful Mojave Preserve on semi-famous Kelbaker Road.

I drove by the Kelso Depot visitor Center which is still closed for construction but at least the bathrooms and water fountains are open. I buried two more water caches in the preserve, and then the fourth one down on old route 66 near Amboy. When I was digging the last hole it was starting to get dark and somebody drove by and asked me what I was doing. After explaining I was caching water, she offered to help but also said that it looked creepy digging a deep hole in the encroaching darkness. Good point.

I picked a random spot in the desert to camp in my van tonight, and tomorrow I have four more water caches to bury, and then I will put my car in storage and begin hiking a 300-mile section the Desert Trail!

Saturday-Monday April 5-7, 0mi/0km

Vancouver WA to Death Valley CA (driving)

After spending all winter making plans for the Desert Trail, the universe threw us a curveball. So when plans fall through….you make new plans! Toppy and I will hike the trail in 2026. In the meantime I will just do a short 3-week section of it, and then jump over to the Hot Springs Trail, which starts in Santa Barbara and then goes 2,420 miles to northern Idaho (more details on that trail later).

For any hikers interested in doing the Desert Trail in the future, know that the planning process is quite a bit more involved than other trails. Basically the only way to get the information is through the Desert Trail guidebooks which are published by Steve Tabor. There is no website or online presence. Basically you give him a phone call, write him a paper check(!), and then he mails you a series of 18 guidebooks. After spending dozens of hours scanning the guidebooks into digital PDFs to store on my phone, and also transcribing his maps into my caltopo app, we had all the resources we needed to start the trail.

I had also spent a bunch of time over the winter focusing on my fitness and injury prevention. I saw an online PT (Blaze Physio), paid a visit to” shoe Jesus” in Mt Shasta to get fitted for new insoles/supports, and also went on many short training hikes. I never did any of this in the past, but my left ankle has been bothering me and I’m getting older. Training hike in Tryon Creek park:

I also replaced a few pieces of worn gear, and bought a couple new things, including an ultralight 5.5oz bivy from Borah gear. Testing it out in a local town park:

With all the gear in place, and my fitness at a reasonable level, the only thing left was to start planning resupplies for these 2 remote trails. For my short section of the Desert Trail, I will basically be able to buy food in the little towns. It won’t be anywhere near ideal, but it’s a much simpler solution than mailing a box to the local post office and then having to arrive on certain days. However, the severe lack of water on the Desert Trail means I bought an obscene amount of gallon jugs at Costco and will be caching (burying) them in the desert along the trail at certain points.

In the first 400 miles of the Desert Trail, there are basically two natural water sources, both of which are often dry. Even with cached water, the dry stretches will be between 25 and 40 miles long. So I’ll be carrying anywhere between 5 and 10 liters of water (I consume about 4 liters per day including dinners). I spent a couple of days making the drive from Vancouver, WA to Death Valley CA, and stopped at Costco in Reno along the way. So many delicious calories:

I also visited some good friends in Lake Tahoe and then continued my drive down the Eastern Sierra Valley to Lone Pine & Death Valley.

Tomorrow – caching water!

Saturday June 1, 18.6mi/29.9km

W Fork Gila River (54.4/6560ft) to Highway 15 (70.0/5660ft) (NM) +3.0mi to Doc Campbell’s

I packed up my tent and departed my cozy little Grove of pines. Today I will be following the West Fork Gila River pretty much all day. There seemed to be less poison oak and a little bit of a trail which was nice. My first stream crossing came pretty early at 7:30 when it was still cold in the canyon.

As I continued to hike downstream the trail improved a little bit.

And it was a pretty open forest with little underbrush.

I passed a group of guys who cheerfully complained about the deteriorating trail as they hiked upstream, but hiking in my direction it was dramatically better than yesterday!

I passed by a cool looking cliff feature that reminded me of the hoodoos in Bryce canyon, although on a much larger scale. I’m not sure if this feature has an official name.

As the morning wore on, the day started to get pretty hot and all these little stream crossings were pretty enticing for a swim.

I stopped keeping track of the number of stream crossings. Wading through the cool water felt really good, it felt like the temperatures were now in the mid 80s.

The shady riparian areas were also quite cool and welcoming.

Hi new friend!

I had a short lunch break in the shade and then continued on to exit the wilderness.

I passed through the Gila Cliff dwellings National Monument which I had visited on the CDT in 2016, and it was really cool but I had no desire to do it again. I was looking forward to town food!

After leaving the trailhead and all the tourists behind, I walked on the paved road for a couple miles which is part of the official GET.

Then I reached a junction where I had to decide if I was continuing on the get or exiting. It was nearly 90F now, and is forecasted to be the same all week so it was an easy decision. Exit the heat! I hiked another 3 miles down a different paved road to Doc Campbell’s Outpost, which is a popular resupply point for both this trail and the CDT.

A while ago I had shipped myself new shoes and a box of food here, with the understanding I would be continuing on the GET. I’ll have to come back in the cooler months of fall to continue this hike, so I collected my boxes.

I set up my tent in the designated spot for hikers, got a shower, and then checked out the hiker box. It was pretty impressive, the CDT has really grown since 8 years ago when I hiked it.

I took a stroll around the campground, see the sights and met some friendly cows.

I also met some friendly people who had traveled from Texas and were willing to share their fancy meal with me. They had bought a ton of fresh ingredients at H-E-B, basically the Wegmans of Texas.

They were a fun group, and it was their last night in civilization before they set out on a 7-Day backpacking loop in the Gila wilderness. Pretty amazing meal and a great way to celebrate the end of this segment of the GET! Even better, One of them wasn’t joining the backpacking trip and she offered to drive me down to Silver City, almost an hour away. From there, I can get public transit back to Arizona and Flagstaff where my car is stored.

These four days on the GET have been pretty amazing. I can’t wait to come back and finish the rest of it in cooler weather!

Friday May 31, 20.4mi/32.8km

Hummingbird Saddle (34.0/10,380ft) to W Fork Gila River (54.4/6560ft) (NM)

There was no wind last night, and it was surprisingly warmer than I thought it would be. I hiked out of camp in shorts in the warm sunny weather.

The trail was still great, and no blowdowns either. I was able to move along pretty quickly though I did pause to watch this snake slither across.

I could see the ridgeline up ahead that I would be hiking, leading to the summit of Mogollon Baldy peak.

As the peak got closer, I could see a little bit of snow still left on its Northern slopes.

Once I was at the top, I took a pretty long break to explore the buildings and chat with the caretakers.

Sandy invited me up to the tower (which is also their living quarters) to see some of the views.

It was pretty windy up there so they invited me in to chat, and we talked for awhile about all the local trails, mountains, and history of the area.

By now it was almost 1pm so I said goodbye and headed down the mountain.

I descended pretty much the rest of the day, all the way down to the west Fork Gila River. The terrain alternated between burned forest and meadow and regular forest. I think this area was called Snow Park.

Cool little stand of trees in a meadow.

At one point I heard a bunch of crashing in the brush, so I stopped and listened…and two Elk came running by!

Once I was further down, I entered the unburned forest which was also full of Lupine flowers.

It was nice to be hiking in the shade and out of the hot Sun.

I came to a trail junction and I noticed the strange names, Rawmeat Creek… Who named these things?

I finally finished my descent off the mountain and crossed White Creek, where I refilled my empty water bottles.

And for the last hour of the day I followed the West Fork Gila River, which I will be following all day tomorrow as well.

It also had a couple strange names at its trail junctions. Hell’s Hole?!

If you see a fork in the road, take it!

I thought it would be easy to find a camp spot in the pine forest that surrounds the river, but much of it was either slanty, or had poison ivy. Eventually I settled for a little spot amongst a copse of pine trees that seemed fine.

Thursday May 30, 18.5mi/29.8km

Mineral Creek TH (15.5/5440ft) to Hummingbird Saddle (34.0/10,380ft) (NM)

I started off the morning hiking up Mineral Creek for a few hours. It had a decent trail most of the way, though it did involve crossing the stream a few dozen times.

The rock there was very interesting, it was some volcanic tuff that eroded into canyons and slickrock areas.

It was highly enjoyable walking alongside that stream for a while.

I even passed by an old mining site, with lots of interesting old-timey things.

Given the flooding and devastation that happened here about 10 years ago, I was surprised to see such a well-traveled trail.

Someone had taken some boards from the mining site, and made some benches which looked like a perfect spot to take a break.

Sometimes the trail would squeeze between a boulder and a cliff…

… And other times it would just go straight up the creek.

After a few hours of that it was time to leave the canyon and hike steeply uphill.

It was a very nice trail, but it still climbed over a thousand feet in a mile. Pretty soon I had arrived at a trailhead along Bursum road, and I hiked the road the rest of the morning, and a few hours into the afternoon as well. It was a hot afternoon, so it took me awhile to climb the 2500ft up to Silver Creek Divide.

Up here at over 9,000 ft the forest was more burned, though I had pretty good views through the remaining trees.

The mountains around here are surprisingly big!

The road had a little scenic viewpoint called Sandy Point, where I stopped and had a nice break looking at all the landscapes I had hiked across the last few days. When I turned off onto a trail the first thing I noticed was a warning sign.

Fortunately, the trail must have undergone some maintenance because it was not difficult to find at all. And I was entering the Gila Wilderness!

Most of the pine trees had burned away in the fire, but this many years later, a bunch of Aspens had grown to take their place.

Once I got up to 10,000 feet elevation, I noticed the ground was still damp in some places and I even found a tiny patch of remaining snow!

I’m not sure what this plant is, but it seems to thrive in these conditions. I’ve seen it in other places, but it grows quite huge up here.

A lot of the burned dead trees had fallen over throughout the years, and the trail crews had done an amazing job at keeping the trail clear.

Eventually the trail stopped climbing, and I hiked along a ridge at like 10,500ft. Great views in all directions!

I noticed a significant part of this forest had been burned, which usually is quite limiting for camping opportunities. So, I decided to stop at one of the few unburned pockets of forest that I found. Hummingbird Saddle was flat and forested, and hopefully it doesn’t become windy later tonight. I did all my usual camp chores, and when I checked my inReach device, I noticed I had received quite a few new messages. Thanks to everyone who sent me a message sharing the good news!

Wednesday May 29, 15.5mi/24.9km

New Mexico State Line (0.0/5840ft) to Mineral Creek TH (15.5/5440ft) (NM)

I woke up to the sounds of mooing somewhere nearby. Yep, I must be in New Mexico. I had a nice easy 10-mile roadwalk into town, and pretty much all downhill too.

About halfway through the roadwalk, I passed by a junction that had a sign for “Sunflower Mesa”. It made me smile, for some reason the word sunflower is always coming up in random places.

I made it to the Alma store and grill just in time to catch breakfast, at 10:30am, or so I thought.

I had forgotten to change my watch to mountain time (Arizona is on Pacific time most of the year), so really it was 11:30am. So I ordered lunch, and then also milkshakes ensued. After lunch I went next door to the little market, and bought a few food items. I didn’t need to buy much, since I still had extra food from the previous section. Then I walked to the next building down the street, the Alma Guest House, which lets hikers shower and do laundry for a good price.

I was there for a couple of hours while the laundry machines worked their magic, and relaxed in the nice comfortable sitting room.

I met the owner and she was very nice, and I could tell from all the decor that she is also a rancher.

After the heat of the day had passed, I set off down the road at 4:30pm, and had a couple hours of roadwalking to get back into the mountains.

Fortunately it was mostly in the shade of some nearby hills, it’s quite warm down in this valley. I made it to the trailhead and decided to camp there, since camping prospects ahead were uncertain.

I felt like I had spent half the day eating and relaxing and getting cleaned up, and yet somehow I had still hiked 16 miles. Nice easy day!

My original plan was to connect the MRT to the GET (Grand Enchantment trail), and hike that to its end in Albuquerque, 400 miles away. But it’s getting very warm, so I will see how far I get before the season turns too hot. I’ll at least make it another 3 days, to Gila Hot Springs, which is on the CDT and an easy exit-point from the wilderness.

Tuesday May 28, 23.7mi/38.1km

Government Mesa (454.3/7080ft) (AZ) to New Mexico State Line (478.0/5840ft) (NM)

It seemed like an unusually warm night, given that I was camped at 7000 feet elevation. Which made leaving camp at 5:30am easier since it wasn’t very cold. My goal was to try and make up some miles from yesterday, and my first half of the morning was a nice downhill jaunt down a trail.

And then I followed Auger Canyon for a little while. It had some cool little mini slot canyons that I was able to easily hike around.

A few sections had deep pools of water where I had to scramble around the edge, since I didn’t want to wade through waist-deep water.

And then there were these interesting tracks in the sand, I’m guessing bear.

Some sections of the canyon had these little slickrock areas, which were easy to walk through since it was like a sidewalk.

I had to leave the canyon for a short distance to get around an impassible pour-off. I hiked up into the surrounding hills for a couple miles before dropping back down into the canyon. All the desert flora up there was blooming.

After I dropped back down into Auger Canyon, I took a break where it merged with another stream and I noticed a cabin nearby.

The inside of the cabin looked like an old-timey residence from a Western movie.

I was back in the canyon, following Little Blue Creek through a slot canyon system.

I walked through the shin-deep water for awhile and while it wasn’t fast progress, it was extremely enjoyable to walk through such a special area. Occasionally there was a gravel bar or sandbar and these all had animal tracks on them, which I suppose makes sense since it’s the only passage through this area.

The narrow section of the slot canyon was called Blue Box, and it was the coolest thing of this entire section, and maybe of the entire hike.

After a mile that slot canyon ended, and I was back in the normal wide stream corridor.

I followed Little Blue Creek all the way down to where it merges with the Blue River, which I had crossed two days ago. Once I was out of the canyon and on an open plain, all the desert vegetation had returned.

I had to wade across the Blue River a couple times, and then I stopped for lunch on the river bank in the shade of a cliff.

I had a little yard sale washing all the gravel out of my stuff and drying it out. It was very hot out, so I was in no hurry to leave my shaded spot, but the Sun was moving and my shade was disappearing. And now had to hike uphill 2500 feet, on an exposed and sunny trail.

The umbrella definitely came out for that!

As I got higher, I did have pretty amazing views to distract me from all the sweat.

It was a pretty decent trail and it switchbacked and weaved around a ridge system, and eventually I could look back down on the ridge that I had hiked up on.

Once I was back up higher again, I noticed that some of the greenery and trees had returned.

It was also cooler now, since the Sun was getting pretty low in the sky and everywhere was in shadow. Finally I hit the old road I had been anticipating for awhile, which meant that I was almost done.

It was getting pretty close to dark, but I didn’t mind as the temperatures were perfect and the road would be easy to follow in dim lighting. Finally at 7:30pm I made it to the gate which marks the border of Arizona and New Mexico.

Which meant that I had also finished the Mogollon Rim Trail! The guidebook says to “pass into New Mexico un-ceremoniously or otherwise”. I chose otherwise. There was a little bit of dancing and some singing of a Shakira song that I had stuck in my head all day. Ha! It was such a long day, but there were so many cool parts that I didn’t even mind how tired I was after hiking for 13 hours. Tomorrow I’ll still have to hike another 10 miles to get out to civilization, to Alma NM.

Monday May 27, 20.8mi/33.5km

Lanphier Canyon TH (434.3/5770ft) to Government Mesa (454.3/7080ft) (Arizona) +0.8mi to Devil’s Monument

I was packing up at my little camp spot at 6am and two guys walked by, they must have gotten an early start from somewhere! I was 5 minutes behind them, though I never saw them again. The trail started out really nice, as it gradually climbed through a lush green canyon.

With all the greenery, it also meant I had to be on the lookout for this plant.

The little canyon had the coolest little rock walls, it was like some sort of conglomerate rock.

After an hour of that, I climbed up more steeply and left the canyon. There was a little spring next to one of the switchbacks, and somebody had put a bucket underneath to catch the nice cold water.

I came to a junction where the Lanphier Canyon Trail ended, and I had to turn onto the Cow Flat trail.

The MRT turns left at that junction, and circumnavigates a big ridge system, using trails that don’t really exist on the ground. In hindsight, I should have turned right at that junction, and avoided all of the terrible and non-existent trails and also saved myself 8 miles of frustration. Anybody reading this who is thinking of doing the MRT in the future, this would be the one piece of advice to follow. I hiked on the Cow Flat trail for half an hour and it was quite nice.

Then I had to turn onto the Bonanza Bill trail, and it pretty quickly disappeared. Usually it’s worth the extra effort to try and stay on the GPS track, as the trail tread is the path of least resistance through the forest. But when there is no trail tread, it’s just easier to walk cross-country. I made it to Tige Spring and stopped there for lunch.

I refilled my water bottles and also cleaned up all the cow bones out of the stream. I think I had collected enough bones to build my own cow!

Next, I hiked through a burn area which was full of ferns and the occasional thorny plant.

In theory, there was a trail junction where I would have turned left to see the Devils Monument. In reality, because the trails didn’t really exist, the junction didn’t either, and I ended up hiking directly to the Devils monument. It was neat to see, but it added a mile to my already slow arduous day.

After seeing the monument, I backtracked to the theoretical junction, and I found this splinter nailed to a tree. Ha!

I spent the next hour hiking a very slow mile uphill, trying to follow switchbacks that didn’t exist. There was a view at the top, so that was nice.

I hiked along a ridgeline for a couple miles, following a fence, which allowed me to completely ignore any theoretical trail that was nearby.

I dropped off the ridgeline, and came to another trail junction, where I rejoined the Cow Flat trail.

Yup, should have just stayed on that trail! Once I was back on the Cow Flat trail, it was easy to follow and I was able to turn off my brain and just stroll through the nice Ponderosa forest.

And of course the occasional meadow too.

Near the end of the day, I hiked down a little canyon called Bear Valley.

It had more of those cool conglomerate rock cliff walls. After a mile I left that neat little canyon, and I saw this sign at the junction which reminded me that New Mexico was only 6.5 miles in the opposite direction.

I turned up a side drainage, which led to a little plateau where I was able to camp. It was after 7pm which is really late for me to stop hiking.