The Arizona Trail or "Just one more mile!"

This past weekend my father recruited Zach an I to go hike a portion of the Arizona trail with him. When he first approached us about doing this we were very excited. We enjoy hiking and don't get the opportunity very often so we jumped at the chance. My understanding was that it was going to be about a 11-13 mile hike through the Arizona desert. What I forgot to factor in was the extra 4-5 miles that you always need to calculate in when going on a hike with Lynn Smith. All in all it was a perfect day for hiking and we got to see some gorgeous country. Even though we all have blistered feet and couldn't walk on Saturday night, it was very worth it. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

This is us starting. Mom dropped us off not knowing if she'd see us alive. I made sure to tell her she'd been a great mother and had raised me well. Notice how fresh we look. I still have my sweater on.

Dad in front of a tall mountain. We walked past that mountain or should I say, around it.

Zach was in charge of the GPS and would give us updates along the trail. They had plotted out about 7 points along the trail and the GPS could tell us how far it was to the next point. The problem was that it was plotting distance in a straight line and we don't walk in a straight line. Zach would tell us we had .6 miles to go to the next point. 4 miles later of twists and turns and switchbacks we still had .2 miles to go.

Beautiful country!

This rock formation is called Hole in the Rock. Notice the pile of rocks we are standing by. It's called a cairn or as my Dad called it a cairnbeaner. They are set up along the trail to help hikers know they are on the right path. Dad couldn't remember the name at first and then Zach tried to correct him but I was so entertained by cairnbeaner that I made sure we yelled it out every time we passed one on the trail.

Painted desert!!

See that little bump of a hill right above my head. Our destination was past that and trust me it's farther away than it looks. It's a big hill. You'll also notice I'm sporting a hat. I don't really like hats but this one is very colorful and Zach aptly named it my Dr. Seuss hat. Well, after that, who wouldn't want to wear it!

This is the grave of the guy who died on the trail last year. His belt broke and that was the end of him. That's our destination, Picket Post Mountain, in the background. It's still really far away.

This is Dad napping during one of our breaks and that is Picket Post Mountain in the background. Notice how it never seems to get much closer. These last few pictures were not taken in close proximity of each other.

Ok, this one is the same spot as the last one but still.

This is us at the end.We're more tired than we look and we are now on the waaaay other side of the mountain.

So the final milage total, 17! Next week it will be up to 20 and when I end up telling my kids it will probably be about 35. All in all it was a great trip with good conversation, great company and spectacular country but rest asured, next time I won't forget to calculate the extra 5 miles!