Wednesday, April 10, 2013 – 12.6 km

The beautiful end of Passage 15 provides a delightful contrast with the hideous beginning. Today’s blue sky was peppered with friendly, non-raining clouds that gave form to the mountains and kept the temperature down.

While on the ridge I decided to try out my phone to see whether I had reception. I had realized that I was due to arrive at my next resupply spot, Superior, on Friday afternoon, so I wanted to check whether the post office is open on Saturdays. It isn’t, and I further realized that I hadn’t planned well for the next leg. I had been planning not to resupply at the Roosevelt Lake visitor centre between Superior to Pine, and that would have been fine at the beginning of the hike, but now I have trail hunger and need to carry more calories. I also wasn’t sure whether if I mailed a package from Superior to the visitor centre, it would arrive before I got there. I decided to make a side trip to Kearny to mail a package and because I was running low on food and ‘Kearny = calories NOW’.

Just below the Florence-Kelvin Road trailhead, I encountered two men who introduced themselves as Fred Gaudet and… I don’t think I asked for the name of his friend. Sorry for that rudeness (and he was very nice too). Fred maintains the invaluable AZT water report, so meeting him was exciting. He’s completed PCT, AT and CDT hikes along with multiple AZT hikes, so I felt like an ultra-newb in comparison, but his friend was closer to my level. They drove me into town, where I bought donuts and ice cream and chips and various other groceries with fewer calories (sometimes called healthy, but I like to call them useless) and got a room at the inn. I hadn’t seen myself in a large mirror for awhile. I can now say with certainty that I look as waifish as I feel, and my face was dirty. You know it’s been a good day when your face is covered with dirt!