Arizona Trail

My Arizona Trail Hike

I hiked the Arizona Trail from March 17, 2012 to April 28, 2012.
I took 1,699,035 steps to travel about 800 miles.

Journal Photos Map Gear Food Expenses Supporters Stats

My Gear

My pack weighed 17 to 28 pounds, depending on how many days of food and miles of water I carried. There was an additional 4lbs of clothes on my body.

Item	Ounces	Cost	Notes
G4 backpack	16	$40	made myself from pattern. Worked much better than I ever hoped. Comfortable, light, and plenty of room for all my gear.
Sleeping
shelter	23	$75	made myself, includes plastic groundsheet and 8 stakes. Great little shelter but did not get stress-tested by any bad weather. My next one will have a few changes, but the general design is just what I like.
sleeping quilt	40	$105	made myself from pattern, birthday present. Too warm most of the time! Worked super.
Synmat 7 UL Pad	16.2	$155	Two baffles popped, making it uncomfortable but usable. It got no leaks the entire trip. ExPed sent me a replacement when I got home!
Exped pillow	2.7	$20.50	xmas present. I believe this really helped me sleep and was worth the extra bit of weight.
sleeping hat	1.5	$26	made myself, xmas present. Since I had a hood on my down coat, I didn't need this.
Cooking
alcohol stove	1.1	$10	messier than I had hoped. Used more fuel than expected. Did not carry for last 2 weeks - no cooking.
cook kit	5.8	$25	includes spoon, pot, foil lid, stand, windscreen, and lighter.
8oz bottle	.9	$3
food cozy	.8	$0	homemade. No complaints, saved fuel and got food soft and hot.
food	0-9lb.	$0	I carried 6 days of food at the most.
fuel	7	$0	up to 7 oz. of alcohol, but usually less.
Water
pre-filter	1.2	$1	homemade did not work. Still more work to do on it.
water filter	4.2	$51.70	Sawyer filter and raw water bag. Water bag got a few pinholes and delaminated at opening.
water bottles	1.8	$16	2 1L Platypus roll-ups. no problems.
soda bottles	1.2	$0	2 .6L hard. cheap, easy, light, no problems.
water	0-12.1lb.		5.5L on the longest stretch, 2.2lb/L
Clothes
down coat	21	$120	my big splurge. Used it every night as soon as the sun set.
long-sleeve shirt	9		wore every day and the shoulders have worn through from the pack straps.
gaiters	1.4	$19	Dirty Girl gaiters
BSA zip-off pants	17.2		wore every day.
liner socks	2.8		2pr.
BSA socks	3.8		2pr. ankle socks
shoes	28	$32	one pair wore out after 450 miles. Second pair doing fine.
underwear	4.2		2pr. wore them out
BSA hat	3.5		wore it every day with homemade sun shield.
bandanna	1.0		only used a couple times
BSA t-shirt	5.6		for in-town wear
BSA short pants	11.9		for in-town wear
long underwear	12.4		top & bottom
Electronics
cellphone	4.3		borrowed from friend. Worked super for blogging daily with pictures.
camera	5.4		old digital SONY
tracker	5.1		pings to satellite with my location. Batteries lasted about 10-14 days when on for 12 hours/day.
solar charger	7.3		Kept cellphone charged just fine. Stopped working in Grand Canyon and still broken.
Other
umbrella	8.1	$35	used about 8 days for desert sun. Worked wonderfully to keep cool.
pedometer	.6	$25	wore every day to track steps.
rain poncho	1.7	$2	cheap disposable. Used twice in snow.
maps	2	$25	up to 1 week of maps at a time. Used all the time to track location.
1st aid kit	2.3		used for blisters
pad repair kit	.4		used to patch water bottle
compass	1.1		only used 2 or 3 times.
knife	1.1		tiny, single blade.
toothbrush	1.3		includes paste
ear plugs	0		never used
50ft. core	1.5		used once to hang food
toilet kit	2.8		TP, Purell - had trowel at start, but left it.
trek poles	19.4	$30	inexpensive and wore out the tips. Should have lasted longer. Used to support shelter also.
headlamp	.5	$11	Awesome photon light. Batteries lasted about 12 hours, so I replaced each week.
Stick Pic	.4		self-pictures and videos
misc.	2.8		2 garbage bags, whistle, clippers, thermometer

Total	19lbs 4lbs were worn, not in pack 15lb pack weight 2 to 13lb food & water 17 to 28lb - total pack weight

My Food

My daily menu was:

Breakfast: 2 poptarts - 400 calories
Lunch: peanut butter and honey mixed, on ritz crackers - 650 calories
Snacks: Trail mix - 750, 2 candy bars - 560 calories
Dinner: Knorr noodles or rice, salmon or tuna or chicken pouch, 1 oz. olive oil - 700 calories
Drink: mostly water, gatorade - 100 calories
Daily vitamin

That is about 3100 calories/day. Every 3 to 6 days, I went through a town and got real food. I bought apples, oranges, bananas, sandwiches, salad, meat, pizza, milk shakes, and consumed around 6,000 calories those days.
For the last 10 days, I left my cook kit behind to lighten my load and only ate cold food, replacing the dinner with 2 Snickers bars. But, I had access to restaurants and fresh food often, too.

My Expenses

This is very close, but I expect there were a couple other expenses. The $$/mile is high because travel to/from the trail was expensive. A longer trail would have that base cost distributed over more miles.

travel - $565 - air MSP to Tucson $210, trailend to Phoenix $200, air Phoenix to MSP - $155
gear - $350 - I got lots of birthday and Christmas presents so had little expense for gear
maps - $25 - terrific mapset from simblissity.net covered the entire trail and profits go to the AZT Association.
food - $294 - groceries in towns and for the trail
restaurants - $170.68
lodging - $352.48 - Patagonia $89.74, Patagonia $89.74, Oracle $42.64, Mormon Lake $58.18, Jacob Lake $72.18. Stayed with friends and Scouting families about 8 nights.
Grand Canyon camping - $21 - $6 at Mather campground, $15 at Cottonwood camp
fun - $486.57 - thank you meals with host families, going out on the town zero days and after trek.
souvenirs - $29 - BSA patch set
shipping - $36.49 - bounce box and shoes
Total - $2350 - almost $3/mile.
$2.50/mile without gear costs since I can still use that.
$1.10/mile for food and lodging.

You Asked

questions you asked about my hike. Got one? - Ask It

Arizona Trail Statistics

States

Arizona

Distance

800 miles - trail reroutes happen so this is an estimate of the trail length.

Total Elevation

Terminus

South: Coronado Nat'l monument on Mexican border
North:Utah border

Highest Point

AZ Snow Bowl on San Francisco mountain, about 9270ft

Lowest Point

Gila river, 1700ft

Map

Click for Large Map

Terrain

desert with high daily temperatures and low night temperature. Travel through mountain ranges as well as many miles of fairly level plateaus. Many prickly, scratchy plants which can be hard on clothing. The trail is complete, but not well-traveled in spots.

History

designated in 2009 and completed in 2011.

Challenges

water sources are scarce, extreme temperature fluctuations from day to night, potential dangers from illegal alien traffic at southern end, rim-to-rim of Grand Canyon, common snow cover north of Grand Canyon

Time Window

February to May. Start too early and you'll be hampered by deep snow, too late and the desert will have no water. Most thru-hikers go March through April, northbound.

Time to Hike

Typically takes 40-50 days. Speed record set in 2011 is 21 days.

Permits

Saguaro National Park and Grand Canyon National Park require permits for camping. An optional AZT permit can be obtained to allow the thru-hiker to camp outside a 15-foot corridor along the trail through State Land Trust areas.
(I purchased this permit to support the AZT, but I have no idea why anyone would ever need it.)

Thru-hiker Tally

less than 100, no award or recognition for thru-hiking or section hiking

Trail Links

Google Earth

View Trail with google earth

Full Maps

Agencies

Arizona Trail Association

Land Managers of the Arizona Trail

Forest Service - Coronado, Tonto, Coconino, Kaibab	73%
Arizona State Land Department	11%
National Park Service	7.3%
Bureau of Land Management	5.0%
County / Municipal	2.1%
Private	1.1%
Arizona State Parks	0.5%

Patches

ATA patch

Boy Scout patch set
(click patch for large view)

Hike On: My Hikes

All Comments:

Mar 08, 2012 - Brad Reily

Hi Paul,I've been looking at your website and I'm very impressed,Colton can learn so much from you. I will be providing breakfast and dinner for you guys for the 3 or 4 days that i am with you so plan on that. I will also have a solar shower available if needed. Later, Brad

Mar 25, 2012 - Linda Herzog

Love the site! Hope all is going well and you are loving it! Big day yesterday as Lindsey got married! Linda Herzog

Mar 25, 2012 - Hiking Dude

Thanks, Linda. And, congratulations!

Mar 28, 2012 - math.guy

Paul, It appears you are taking 2,210.8 steps per mile which means you get 2.388 feet per step. If you could increase this distance just 3 inches, you would have saved 38652 steps so far.

Apr 08, 2012 - Randy Howell

I've just discovered your web site. I live in Phoenix and started hiking a year ago. I'm impressed with all the work you've done and appreciate your tips for a beginner. Good luck on the AZ hike!

Apr 13, 2012 - L.O.T.P. 2007 A.T.

When I zoom in on the map I can not see you. Please wave your arms or something. Just kidding... Your pages are so awesome! I know you're having a great time.

Apr 10, 2015 - Jamie

Just found your site. I'm solo thru-hiking the AZT next year, Spring 2016. Thanks for posting all of this! I'm a little inexperienced, so this helps immensely. :)

Oct 25, 2016 - John Archuleta "Ping"

I am really interested in all the aspects of your thru hike. I myself just completed my first thru hike (Colorado trail) and now am looking into completing the Arizona trail in 2017. I am very interested in how you resupplied as i used the mail resupply but got bored of the same food at every resupply.

Oct 26, 2016 - Hiking Dude

@John - You should be able to find out everything relevant in my journal linked up at the top. I only sent a resupply box to Roosevelt Marina, and really didn't need to do that. I was lucky to have rides into Tucson and Tempe, and bought food in Oracle, Pine, and Flagstaff. There were also supplemental meals in towns along the trail, like Patagonia, Colossal Cave, LF Ranch, Tusayan, and Jacob Lake.

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