The Arizona Trail, The beginning (07-17-2025)

 I am finally on the path to do those things that I had wanted to do while I was in Kansas. This time I am hoping to hike the Arizona Trail, an 800 mile trek from the Mexican Border to Utah. The last part of the hike will take me through the Grand Canyon. I purchased a camera that will take both pictures and videos which I will publish into this blog.

I will be hiking with Amanda, a fellow hiker and a dog owner. In fact, Jack, my dog, feels that Amanda's pooch, Honey, is his girlfriend. Now, she has been unfaithful to him, but he keeps a stiff upper lip, and forgives her. 

If you return to this blog, you will see more pics and videos as well as a running commentary of this trip. I've been flirting with the idea of taking this foolishly long hike for months, but I feel good about it. It's not like I'm climbing K-2, but the  hundreds of miles of desert will certainly be a challenge. 

The photo shows Jack in the front hogging the camera, honey to the right, obviously not interested in having her picture taken, and Amanda attempting to control the dogs.

Much of my confidence of this fools errand comes from the fact that Amanda, who is a nurse, will be there with me, at least for a while. And Jesse, my old friend has volunteered to be at points on the trail where I can get re-supplied. My only fear is getting water. When this trail was created, there were places along the trail where through hikers could have access water. Hikers who need this water, and all hikers do, will need to filter some pretty rough wet stuff, and much of it will be green mossy water for drinking and cooking. I have a filter for this water and have drunk green water once on a packing trip with my daughter in the 1990s. It tasted pretty fishy, but it was wet, and that is all that matters. 

So far I have a tent, a camera, 2 backpacks, a doggy pack, a light weight single burner camp stove, and a tent. We will need much more, but we are on our way.

There's one more task I need to address, and I will try to make this endeavor a way to collect donations that will be used to help fund education. I figure that there are some who believe I am crazy, but there are some who seem to want funding for education stopped. Education is vital for building our country back to where it once was. Unfortunately there are some who believe that education is unnecessary. I guess they want to create a third world economy where there are plenty of workers who must work for starvation wages just to survive. I don't want that world, and I will do everything to prevent that from happening.

Happy Trails!

Steve