Wandering around the Desert with Anna and Lucy

If we’ve learned anything on this trip it is as follows: the snow is not over yet. It’s always bitter sweet leaving a town, but the calming trees and gentle creek made it easier… for about five miles. Here, we hit our longest continuous blanket of snow yet. There’s typically patches of bare ground amongst the snow, but not today.  We stopped at a small, half frozen lake on a wide plain into which all the snow melt was pouring. Splashing through boggy and windy marshland to get water, we really hit a low point of the day.  To further our dismay, the snow made for slow and frustrating navigation. We tried following others footsteps, but these kept disappearing on us. Hidden logs also made for a treacherous crossing, as we would continuously and unexpectedly and plummet through the thin snow around them. Lucy managed to get stuck under one particularly mean log, and was genuinely worried she wouldn’t be able to get her tired legs out.  Even though there was sn...

As type A girlies, we had already arranged for a trail angel to pick us up at the nearby highway and even arrived 15 minutes early. This punctuality took the angel by surprise, so we ended up joining her and her dog, Pia, for a morning walk.  The angel dropped us off at IHOP for vegan chicken and waffles, a milkshake, and some French toast. Feeling very content, we meandered over to the post office to collect the boxes sent forward from Mormon Lake. Anna’s uncle, Eric, had even sent us a care package full of amazing snacks from Trader Joe’s.  Flagstaff is big enough to have its own bus system! We hopped on the Red Line and headed downtown. Here, there was an abundance of outdoor stores; we felt like kids in a sweet/candy store without any money, as we couldn’t afford to make our packs any heavier. Anna did buy some extra sporks though as she’s somehow broken two already.  We managed to find some shade in a park to make some calls, and then headed to a local s...

Walnut Canyon day. We woke to the same gorgeous red canyons as the precious day. However, this morning was a little less peaceful as the tent was aggressively covered in frost, which results in a leaky ceiling. With her new gloves to try out, Lucy attempted in vain to remove the frost before the inside of our home became a swimming pool.  We meandered up the canyon on a clay path amongst pines, which continued for the first 11 miles. Due to a lack of water, we decided we may as well take the detour to the Walnut Canyon National Monument visitor centre. We even managed to charm a ranger into letting us in free of charge. The canyon is home to over 300 cliff dwellings of the Sinagua tribe from around 1200CE. These dwellings were literally carved into the rock - see the incredible pictures below. We also found it weird to be surrounded by tourists and general society.  Back on the trail, we had a brief interlude of turquoise fields before finishing back in Pine forests...

At this point in the AZT, the trail branches in two - an urban route through Flagstaff, and a scenic route around. These reconnect at around mile 600. With all our food gone, we took the urban route into the edge of town to stock up on supplies before heading back and taking the scenic route.  We hiked for a baby 5 miles in the morning, taking us into the industrial district of Flagstaff - a stark contrast from the pine forest from which we had emerged. Naturally we headed straight to Denny’s (an outdated American breakfast chain) for a quintessential diner experience; an impatient waitress, a hearty milkshake, giant pancakes, etc.  Our next stop was Goodwill (a thrift store) to prep Lucy for some cold nights. She came away with non-holey gloves and some sexy fluffy sheep print pyjamas. Noice. This really is thru-hiker-nighttime fashion at its finest.  Our food shop was the next task - but as we only need food for less than 48 hours, efficiency went out of th...

Without snow (finally) we were cruising through the miles. We forgot how quick flat solid ground was, and easily crushed over 5 miles between each break! Early on, the San Francisco Peaks came into view, glistening with snow. We even positioned our first break to admire them from across a lake.  Throughout the day, we passed a series of lakes - most of which haven’t been seen in decades; the snow this year broke all sorts of records since the 70’s. For one lake, the fence we were meant to walk alongside was fully submerged, leading to some acrobatic manoeuvres to get us back on track after our detour here (see pictures below).  On our last stint, we bumped into two chatty retired ladies who spend their time truly vibe hiking and lightly bickering - we can really see our futures in them! Despite the sharp stabbing pain in Anna’s foot, we got to 20 miles only to be confronted by a thigh deep water crossing. Reluctantly we took our shoes and trousers/pants off and wade...

In the middle of the night, we were awoken by the sound of howling animals (it sounded maybe like coyotes). Whatever the animals were, it sounded like a pack were surrounding the tent. Sadly we also woke up to frozen boots - another day started with our feet between literal ice blocks. Despite this, we were in good spirits and began the walk with a little karaoke.  Despite our hopes, the snow was not done and continued for over half the day. Just when we thought we’d seen the last of it, another patch would appear.  As we ate peanut butter crackers on a dry rock, at the end we realised we actually had a visitor with us - or maybe we were the visitors. A two foot snake sat watching us from an uncomfortably close distance. This really inspired us to get moving through the snow. On the wildlife theme, throughout the day we disturbed several herds of Roosevelt Elk (which we previously mislabelled as mule deer).  We powered through the last 5 miles, having actuall...