Living It Up In Limbo

It’s been a relaxing month of loitering through the Midwest & East Coast of America, following the termination of my Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike. This time instead of by bike or by car, I went dependent on public transit. Doing things impromptu was a bit of a stressor on affordably navigating one-way flights and buses, but was absolutely worth it to see most of my beloved friends that the pandemic’s ills prevented me from sharing my life with. Having had all this time to think, lift spirits, nurse wounds and fatten up, I’m opting to take a stab at thru-hiking the Arizona Trail. That two month hike will fill out the remaining time I allotted myself to the Pacific Crest Trail.

A refresh, I found myself wandering this way after forest closures burned me off the PCT at the end of August. Though public lands throughout California reopened on September 15th, fresh fires near Sequoia National Park still have the Sierra toxic with smoke. I’m glad not to be returning; I’m absolutely done with hiking through the dregs of burning forests. At least I’ll be getting a different flavor of desert to hike through with Winter’s advent.

I have a different set of unfinished business with the Arizona Trail. I originally planned to thru-hike it last year, but a harsh summer fire season here suspended my plans. Though the AZT burned this year (one of my favorite sections too, Telegraph Canyon), it’s been a wet Summer and conditions are ideal to take a hike with water fairly plentiful. Through my two years now in the state, I’ve developed a great support network, and there is an allure to ‘hiking home’ to Tucson, which is about an hour from the end at the Mexican border.

The northern terminus, 800 miles north alongside Utah, is a bit trickier to access. I am flying to Page, population 7,000, near Lake Powell, and hitchhiking an hour west into oblivion to begin (not far at all from Paria Canyon!). I’ll be taking a zero degree sleeping bag and pushing through some really cold days hiking until I pass the North Rim of the Grand Canyon just before its closure date on the 15th. I’ll be starting a new story on the site to chronicle the Arizona Trail and aiming to update just like I did along the PCT this year.

As to real life and where I’ve been the last month, I am gonna let the photos tell most of the story of friends dropped in on following the PCT. After making my way short notice to Minneapolis, I then bussed to Madison, Wisconsin. A weird flight and overnight bus brought me to Pittsburgh and then State College. I made my way east to Harrisburg, Lebanon, and Allentown, all in PA, and then bounced around North Jersey a little bit. I found I had less time than I thought in the city due to friends having moved or time crunches, so I did some commuting before a too brief stay in Queens.

Leaving New York was kind of hard on me. I got to see a lot of what I missed and was formative for me. Being part of that energy is still something amazing, and even though I’ve been happy in Arizona, nothing really is the same as being there. Blasting around on busy subways or dodging through thrums of people; these are unique to being part of the New York ecosystem, in the States, at least. It’s hard separating myself from it. Masked up and vaccinated, things seemed pretty healthy and active there. I’m more optimistic after dropping in that the city will continue strongly and am wondering just when again I’ll be back and in what context.

It was a funny contrast winding up in Phoenix after New York, and being put up by a friend, Roger, in town at an empty home. Back in NYC, I joked about how no one walks in urban Arizona and how if you are, people assume you’re homeless or on drugs. Cue a “Karen” neighbor presuming I’m a squatter and harassing me at the doorstep until I surrendered his phone number. Do I look the part with my adventurer’s garb and beard? Sure, but how about we don’t just assume the worst in everyone? The stay passed without further incidents, but the whole episode was bitterly ironic.

I was only lingering in Phoenix because I had sent my cold weather attire sent there. It proceeded to get lost in the mail; first class shipping wound up taking 6 business days. This is me getting punished for delaying until the very last day my decision to hike. My despair at this gear being lost and being stuck in Phoenix led me to briefly cancel the hike and book a return to Tucson. Why not pick up life a little early after all that adventuring?

However, my zero degree sleeping bag & some other reserve gear awaited me here. The day after arriving at Merianne’s with designs to wait out my subletter there, I felt good enough again to stick to my original guns and attempt this hike. Transit was subsequently booked, and tomorrow I’m off to end this year strong!