Monday, March 18, 2013 – 6.3 km

There are probably hikers who enjoy packing up and carefully arranging their gear so that it consumes the least amount of space possible. I enjoy cramming everything into my backpack, getting frustrated when it doesn’t fit and sticking the leftovers into my pockets when my shuttle arrives fifteen minutes early.

Hello day one!

Two other hikers, Lupe and Jim, had booked the shuttle on the same day. They appeared fleetingly in my life and then never again as they sped off after our arrival at the Coronado National Memorial visitor centre, from which a trail extends to meet the AZT near its southern terminus. During our brief time together, I learned that Jim is a fellow newbie at long-distance hiking. Lupe asked whether I was an ‘AT girl’ and seemed surprised when I also testified to my newbishness. According to him, the AZT isn’t a normal first long trail, but hey, newbies made up 2/3rds of the hikers on the shuttle!

The Coronado National Memorial commemorates Francisco Vásquez de Coronado’s Spanish expedition, which marked the first European sightings of the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. Ahh Arizona! Looking very forward to seeing those sights (I was about to write that I was looking forward to ’emulating the early Europeans’ and then realized that I absolutely shouldn’t), if I survive that long! I found the appropriate trail near the visitor centre and climbed steadily to its junction with the AZT, where I slackpacked to the southern terminus on the Mexican border. The boundary marker where the AZT begins is on the other side of a fence. A fence with a hole in it… I’m not going to say that I went through. Only that any normal, red-blooded human would have.

I returned to my backpack, crossed a road and began the steep climb up to Montezuma Pass. As a quiet lone hiker I was rewarded with seeing two deer, two grouse (grice) and a lizard.

There was a nice campsite at the pass, but I hadn’t made much progress, so I continued walking until I started worrying about getting stuck on the ridge in the dark and made camp at the first viable spot I saw. Today’s total distance = a whopping 6.5 kilometres. Hurrah for the newbies!

My campsite wasn’t far above the pass and had a gorgeous view, the price of which was rocks and wind. The sides of my tent flapped steadily and I kept thinking that I was hearing footsteps outside, but after half an hour of hearing footsteps, you have to acknowledge that anyone lurking around isn’t planning to hurt you. Unless they’re slowly and ominously building a bonfire around your tent. If I were to be killed by a random stranger, I’d like it to be someone with a penchant for the dramatic.