Tuesday December 5, 17.9km/11.1mi

Parker Travelodge (445.0/400ft) (AZ) to Whipple Mountains Wilderness (456.1/1320ft) (CA)

I was awake at 7am, because my stomach was telling me it was hungry. Way past usual breakfast time! We walked next door to Stark Family Bakery and bought some sugary calories.

We spent the rest of the morning packing and listening to Christmas movies in the background. This is the longest section of trail yet, at 130 miles. I’m also mailing some food to the town of Amboy CA, so it took me awhile to sort it all out!

I went to the post office and mailed out the food, picked up my new shoes, and then stopped by the laundromat on the way back to do my laundry. By the time I got back to the motel, it was almost noon. Oops. TopShelf left for the post office, and we checked-out of the room, so I sat outside in the courtyard doing phone chores while I waited. Eventually we left town at 2pm, goodbye Parker!

We crossed the bridge over the Colorado River, which is also the state boundary.

Welcome to California!

And welcome to San Bernardino county, where we will be hiking for the rest of this trail. It’s a short but wide county!

Just before we departed the paved roads, I saw one more sign, which was rather hilarious.

After a couple miles of hiking, we joined a dirt road up into the mountains.

I spotted a new variety of prickly pear cactus, this one appears iridescent and doesn’t have spines.

We hiked into the sunset, as we watched the mountains get closer every minute.

Some of the cliffs even had little windows in them!

Now that we are in the Pacific time zone, the sun sets at 4:30, and it’s dark at 5pm. We hiked until 5:30 and camped next to an old road, where it was unfortunately a little windy.

Monday December 4, 20.1km/12.5mi

Gibraltar Wilderness Boundary (432.5/840ft) to Parker Travelodge (445.0/400ft) (AZ)

We left camp at 6:15am and hiked by headlamp for 30 minutes on dirt roads. We had one little ridge to climb up and over before we started our roadwalk into town.

Coming down the other side we could see the fringe of civilization.

TopShelf making the final push up over the ridge.

About a mile after we dropped off the ridge, we hit a residential area.

We were pretty close to the Colorado River and could see it ahead.

We last saw the Colorado River almost 2 months ago in the Grand Canyon, when we were on the Arizona Trail. Full circle! We walked on a street along the river for a few miles, and it felt very tropical with all the palm trees around.

At one point, we could even directly access the Colorado River and it felt quite warm.

We kept hiking and got into Parker at 11am, and our first stop was some fast food.

The McRib was back! I hadn’t eaten one in like 10 years and they were just as weird as I remember. After our meal, TopShelf went to a dentist appointment, and I walked the rest of the way through town to our motel. It was really funny to see a decorated Christmas tree next to some palm trees and a saguaro cactus.

When we leave this town tomorrow we will cross the Colorado River and enter California, it is very close!

I got to the hotel room at 3pm and had a few hours to relax, so I took a shower and watched some Christmas movies.

TopShelf arrived a couple hours later, and we were both starving, so we walked over to an amazingly good Indian restaurant. Naan and curry!

Each table at the restaurant had a cute little saying. Ours seemed quite appropriate to this hike.

On the walk back to the motel, we passed by a Pizza Hut, which surprisingly had a lunch and dinner buffet. I hadn’t seen these in years and I thought Pizza Hut had pretty much died.

Once we got back to the hotel we spent the rest of the evening watching some Christmas movies, and planning the end of our hike, which should be around Christmas Eve.

Sunday December 3, 35.7km/22.2mi

Planet Ranch (410.3/640ft) to Gibraltar Wilderness Boundary (432.5/840ft) (AZ)

We started at 6:15am in the dark as usual, and walked for awhile along the dirt road before heading up a wash into a canyon. By the time we had climbed part way up the canyon, the sun had risen to illuminate the valley below.

This little canyon was full of old mines, the opposite hillside was pockmarked with them.

After we climbed out of the canyon, we were up on a sort of plateau, where I could see mountains in all directions.

We walked right next to another old mine, this one was all boarded up to prevent entry.

We took a snack break near the old mine, since by now the temperature had warmed enough that we could sit down and relax. From there we headed down a wide gravely wash, which slowly became another canyon.

And a mile later, a very narrow canyon.

The route today was like a small roller coaster, since as soon as we hiked down that wash we climbed right out and back up another ridgeline.

We followed an old road along the ridge, and we could see for dozens of miles to the south, with no signs of civilization.

We took a lunch break on top of a high plateau, where we had distant views to the south, and also some high voltage power lines.

It was a very faint old road, but easy to visually follow nonetheless.

The final part of the day involved walking down a wide gravely wash for 5 miles, which was a nice relaxing break from having to constantly navigate.

It was a pretty chill couple of hours of hiking, even though we saw a couple furry creatures along the way.

We exited the wash and hiked another mile to camp, since we wanted to avoid camping in the wash, as they are usually a little colder than the surrounding area. We setup our tents at 5:45, just after sunset. A pretty view to the west!

We’re pretty excited about getting to town tomorrow, and getting showers and food!

Saturday December 2, 44.9km/27.9mi

Rawhide Mountains Wilderness (382.4/1760ft) to Planet Ranch (410.3/640ft) (AZ)

After such a tiring day yesterday, I slept hard and woke up refreshed, in our quiet and cozy little camp spot. We left at 6:15 and finished the climb to the top of the ridge, before dropping down the other side in a wash.

Eventually the wash grew larger, and we came to an impassable pouroff that needed to be circumvented.

After we got around the pouroff and back into the canyon, we were surrounded by redrock cliffs for a mile.

They grew to be pretty tall!

It was a nice little canyon, and the wash was compacted gravel so it was easy to walk.

We exited the canyon and traveled cross-country for a few miles, occasionally ducking under a barbed-wire fence.

The rest of the morning was easy xc or old roads, and it a nice change from yesterday.

After lunch, we began our descent down the the Bill Williams river.

We followed an ATV road all the way down to the river, entering the Swansea Wilderness along the way.

We followed the road / wide wash to the trailhead, where there was surprisingly a trail register.

This is the same river we hiked in yesterday, and this section is downstream and usually dry most years. But not this year!

We had to cross it several times as it meandered across the valley.

After a few miles, we were far enough downstream where the water had gone underground and the riverbed was dry and cracked.

By the time we left the river, it was just a dry wash.

It was close to getting dark, but we wanted to make up some of the miles that we didn’t get yesterday. We continued hiking for an hour after dark, and we were able to pick up the pace following some good burro trails.

According to the map, we would be following a very old abandoned road for four miles, but really the road had long ago been washed away by the nearby river.

We got to our planned camping area at 6:45pm, and went across the road to a place called Planet Ranch, where we filled our water bottles from a tap.

We set up our tents quickly since it was getting pretty cold, and we were pretty tired after a very long 28 mile day.

Friday December 1, 29.1km/18.1mi

Rawhide Mountains (365.6/2160ft) to Rawhide Mountains Wilderness (382.4/1760ft) (AZ) +1.3mi Ives Canyon shenanigans

We were hiking at 6:15am and spent most of the morning traveling thru washes and burro trails. It started off pretty cold (40F/4C), but warmed quickly once the sunlight hit the area.

The washes were wide and easy to follow.

The burro trails were the best I had seen so far!

We saw lots of evidence of burros, including poop, hoofprints, and even their noises. And finally today, we saw the actual burros themselves!

We followed Spenser wash all the way to Alamo Lake State Park. Towards the end, it started to get pretty narrow, which was fun.

And eventually, it ended at a road culvert, where I exited the wash.

We stopped at Lake Alamo State Park, where there was a campground, a store, and a boat launch.

I got some snacks and a pop from the store, and we had a nice break on a nearby picnic table while I dried out my tent.

After 30 minutes we left, knowing there was some slow terrain to cover this afternoon. First we climbed up a small hill, where there were great views of the lake.

From the highpoint, Lake Alamo reflected all the colors of the surrounding mountains. Cool.

From there we descended into Ives Canyon, which was a half-mile long slot canyon. It had a few scrambly obstacles and pools of water, so we expected it to take maybe 30 minutes.

After we scrambled around the first dryfall obstacle, there was a nice vegetated wash for a minute.

The lower obstacles were shorter, but also much wetter. There was some butt-sliding down slimy rock chutes, which was interesting.

Sometimes there were pools of water, most of which we walked thru.

One of the pools was neck-deep, so we skirted around it to the right on some rock ledges.

TopShelf coming down a small pouroff.

The final obstacle was a rock chute, which required climbing around it on rock. It should have been a simple downclimb with maybe a 3ft jump down to the ground. The only problem was the ground was now 5ft down, as the gravel streambed had been scoured away by spring floods. After 15 minutes of trying a bunch of ideas, we gave up and turned around, heading back up Ives Canyon. We cut over to the bypass route, using a shortcut I had devised, and we were happy to have our feet on a dry road. We had lost probably 90 minutes with the canyon shenanigans. The view from the road below the dam was impressive.

Our next section was hiking for in the Bill Williams river for two miles. It was fun at first, but it was slow and tedious having to wade across the knee-deep stream so many times to avoid thick brush on either bank.

TopShelf coming across the river, in the deepest crossing we had.

Eventually, we gave up on the brushy banks, and just walked in the water along the shallow edge.

We exited the river at 5:15pm, just a few minutes before sunset. It felt so good to be out of the water, and let our feet start to dry before it got cold tonight. We hiked another hour up to a pass, which generated some body heat and we dried quickly. After hiking by headlamps for 30 minutes, we setup camp at 6:30 in a nice sheltered spot near a pass. What a wild day!

Thursday November 30, 34.0km/21.1mi

McMullen Valley (344.5/2080ft) to Rawhide Mountains (365.6/2160ft) (AZ)

We were hiking at 6:15am as usual, and used our headlamps for 30 minutes before we saw this amazing sight.

It was getting lighter! We could see the mountains we were about to climb over.

It was a gradual uphill on an old mining road, with our familiar Saguaro cacti friends.

After a couple of hours, we were on the final push up to the top of the ridge. It was super steep, and it took like 30 minutes to go a half mile.

But once we were on top, it was great! It was also noticeably colder and windy.

After a quick break at the top, we escaped the wind and descended the other side, using a nice ridgeline.

That part went faster, but we kept getting separated so that added some time. Finally, we were at the bottom, and found a dried up water source.

The solar well didn’t seem to be running, probably because it’s for cattle, and there weren’t any nearby. After another 30 minutes of hiking, we came to a guzzler with plenty of green-ish water.

As we were leaving, we met a quail hunter, he was curious what we were doing way out here. The feeling was mutual. We hiked some old dirt roads for an hour, and then climbed up another ridge, this one was much shorter.

The descent off that ridge was speedy, and then we were back in a flat valley with the Saguaros again.

Towards the end of the day, we crossed a paved road, which was very unusual. It was the road that led to Lake Alamo State Park, where we will be tomorrow!

The last hour of hiking for the day was in nice gravel washes, and we even found a very nice burro trail to use. Sweet. And at the end of the day, we randomly stumbled upon a perfectly flat spot for camping, pretty much exactly where we hoped to find something. Perfect!

Wednesday November 29, 16.1km/10.0mi

US Highway 60 (334.5/2000ft) to McMullen Valley (344.5/2080ft) (AZ)

It was a cold night, and I slept until 7am, when I could feel the air start to warm up. After a nice hot shower, I walked over to the restaurant for breakfast. It was a lazy, relaxing morning with nothing else to do after breakfast but wait. I sorted my food on a table, to make sure I had everything for the next 5 day section.

Eventually, we left the campground, and said goodbye to the cozy little place.

TopShelf had arranged a ride back to the trail with one of our campsite neighbors, but he was nowhere to be found. So, we walked to the highway and hitched a ride. We made a quick stop at the grocery store, which turned into a long stop. Finally we were ready to do the final hitch back to the trail, but there were hardly any cars. After an hour, we gave up and asked for a ride from the storekeeper. She agreed to give us a ride at 3pm! We arrived back on our trail at 3:15, about three hours later than planned. Darn, time to make up some miles with night hiking. We watched a train go by while we were hiking.

And saw way too many green fields…in the desert. What a waste of water.

Just before sunset, we saw Cullings Well, an old water source that was famous for having a beacon light so people could find it.

We night hiked until 6:45, about an hour later than we usually hike. Darn short daylight hours! Hopefully it’s not as cold tonight.

Tuesday November 28, 27.5km/17.1mi

Base of Harquahala Mountain (315.5/2360ft) to US Highway 60 (334.5/2000ft) (AZ) -1.9mi shortcut

We were aiming to get to town today, and knew we had a big 3,000 ft climb ahead of us, so we started early at 6:15am. We used headlamps for the first 30 minutes before it became light enough to turn them off. The moon was setting and it was really bright!

Looking ahead to what we had to climb.

About halfway up the ridge, I looked behind me and saw the entire valley that we had hiked through yesterday.

For most of the hike to the summit, we followed an old eroded jeep road.

Towards the top the road got better and smoother.

Just before we got to the summit, the clouds started to disperse and it warmed up a little bit. Even so, it was pretty chilly up at 5600ft elevation.

Of course, since there was a road to the summit, there were also a bunch of communication towers and equipment.

I went and found the summit marker, which was embedded in a little boulder.

And nearby, somebody had cleverly placed a half dozen little gnomes. This one was right next to the summit marker, ha!

We also found a picnic table near the summit, which was a perfect opportunity to sit down and relax. I love finding random picnic tables in the wilderness!

There was even a trailhead register, it didn’t have many people signed in but I was sure to add our names to it.

It was pretty windy on the summit and still a little chilly, so after 15 minutes we started our hike down the other side.

I was happily surprised to see a very nice switchbacked trail down to the valley. It started off along the ridge…

… And then started dropping down rapidly.

Near the bottom of the descent, we passed by the ruins of an old mining cabin.

And then we were at a low enough elevation to see the Saguaros again.

We took a short break at the trailhead for lunch, and looked at our maps. We had about 9 more miles of hiking to do and we were hoping to get to town at 4:30 before the post office closed. We planned a small shortcut which cut off almost 2 miles, and we arrived at the highway at 3pm. It’s a remote road with little traffic, so it took us almost 30 minutes to get a ride but we made it into the town of Wenden. I picked up my box of food at the post office, and then we walked next door to the general store so TopShelf could also buy some supplies.

There isn’t much else in Wenden, so we then hitched again a further 5 miles to the little town of Salome, where we stayed at the KOA campground.

After we had set up our tents we walked next door to the Salome restaurant, which was a small little establishment with amazing food and friendly staff.

We ate quickly since they closed at 6pm, and we were back at the campground at 6:30. The KOA had a nice lounge room with a TV and some sofas, so we relaxed and watched some old movies.

A perfect relaxing end to a strenuous hiking day!

Monday November 27, 36.1km/22.4mi

Big Horn Mountains Wilderness (293.1/1520ft) to Base of Harquahala Mountain (315.5/2360ft) (AZ)

We started in the dark as usual, using our headlamps for about 20 minutes before we could turn them off. The wash was a little convoluted and braided, but we gradually made our way uphill. The cows stood nearby to supervise.

The wash system continued uphill all the way to a pass.

We had a neat view of a rock window at the pass.

The view to the south, from which we came:

The view to the north:

Our descent off the pass was slow, as this section of the route is unrested, and some of the suggested washes were choked with paloverde and mesquite bushes. We stuck to the higher ground, eventually joining the wash a mile further downhill. Fortunately, that wash soon joined with a very large wash, which was easy hiking.

We hiked along a road for a couple miles, and then stopped at our first water source for the day. Like most of them, it used to be powered by a windmill, but is now solar powered.

We continued on thru an alternating series of washes, old roads, and xc. It was mentally tiring to always be paying close attention to all the turns. We had lunch on top of a little pass, where the sun finally came out and we could recharge our phones. After lunch was a descent to another wash, which had a tricky exit.

After we solved that puzzle, there was a relaxed stretch of roadwalking, with some old mines along the way.

And the views of our upcoming terrain were pretty impressive too.

After one final wash…

…we were on dirt roads for the rest of the day. The big peak ahead is Harquahala Mountain, our objective for tomorrow.

We stopped by Tiger Well, our final water source for the day, and for the next 20 miles. They were doing some unrelated construction nearby, so we didn’t linger long.

The cows weren’t happy about the construction either.

We continued another hour on dirt roads, and then we had to make a short detour around a tiny parcel of private property where a gun nut lives. After some quick xc, we were back on a dirt road. I looked behind me, and saw that the almost-full moon had just risen. Amazing!

I hiked until just after 6pm, and setup camp in the dark. TopShelf had taken a wrong trail, believing it would reconnect but it didn’t. After some minor shenanigans, we reunited at the campsite. Even though today wasn’t even 23 miles, it felt like a long day!

Sunday November 26, 35.1km/21.8mi

Base of Saddle Mountain (271.3/1320ft) to Big Horn Mountains Wilderness (293.1/1520ft) (AZ)

I started hiking at 6:15am, with TopShelf a few minutes behind me. After a mile, I was able to switch off my headlamp and see the valley to the east. I think the smokestacks are a huge chicken processing plant.

Saddle Mountain had this cool stripe in its summit rock formation. Neat!

I stopped to get some water from some potholes in a slickrock wash. The map calls these “tinajas”, but usually they’re just called potholes.

For the next hour, the morning light soaked everything it touched.

The view to the south, thru the Teddy-Bear Cholla cacti.

Eventually I left the Saddle Mountain wilderness, and was back on flat land.

I took a break, and waited 30 minutes for TopShelf. Morning delays. A few miles later, we walked over our first and only paved road in this section.

And shortly after, we crossed under I-10 our 2nd of three interstates on this route.

For a couple of hours, we followed a set of high-voltage powerlines. It was neat to see they had just finished building a 3rd set of lines, a project that was promoted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2021.

We crossed a canal, which was the main canal for the Central Arizona Project (CAP).

The construction project had built a bunch of supports for the Saguaros, presumably to protect them, but it looked pretty funny.

We stopped at a guzzler, which had good water in the troughs, though it also had this creepy looking dead frog.

Just after getting water, we entered the Big Horn Wilderness area.

As usual, we entered the wilderness on an old disused dirt road…

…and then hiked up a wash.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking up and down various washes, which was entertaining but also slow. The view of all the nearby mountains was cool.

At one point, we hiked xc over a tiny pass, and it was a nice surprise to discover a game trail to follow.

We stopped for the day at 5:45pm, setting up camp next to a wash. The moon is full tonight!

Zzzzz…