Day 9: April 2, 2023
AZT mile 119.1 to 132.8
Hiked today: 15.7 miles / 25.3 km
AZT ascents today: 293m , descents: 393m
AZT hiked to date: 16.6%

Last night we were camped at a trailhead and picnic area where there was a lovely memorial to a man called Gabe Zimmerman who was killed with 18 other people back in 2012. There was a water cache nearby as well as a picnic table and even a couple of port-a-loos.

In the morning we recalculated the distance to the next potential stop. The big climb to Mica Mountain is coming up but the difficulty is that it is in a National park where camping is restricted to just 2 official campsites which require permits. Although we were able to pay the park entry fee, there was no availability for camping so we are forced to hike through the National Park in one hit. That is about 18 miles and includes the long steep climb.

As a consequence, today’s hike was shorter than we had originally planned, taking us to a lovely site beside a little creek just before the entrance to the NP. We did, however, have a side trip a mile and a bit off the trail to a place named Colossal Cave which is a local tourist attraction. Although we didn’t pay for the cave tour, we did buy a good hot snack at the kiosk and also sampled prickly pear ice cream (yum) and prickly pear lemonade (not so yum).

In this desert so far we have not seen a single rattle snake. We assume this is because the winter was unusually long. We have, however, seen a white tailed deer which we disturbed so that it ran up the mountain, white tail bobbing up and down. We have also seen a small brown mammal that scampered across the path before it could be properly identified, some nice birds including a beautiful hawk circling above, a couple of noisy frogs, a rabbit, a squirrel like creature (Gary saw it, not sure what it was) and maybe a road runner bird (sorry Kris, it had gone before we could take a picture). Although we haven’t seen them, we have heard coyotes and seen the prints of a mountain lion. Apologies for the lack of animal pics so far.