Sunday November 19, 37.0km/23.0mi

South Maricopa Mountains Wilderness (160.5/2120ft) to North Maricopa Mountains Wilderness (183.5/1580ft) (AZ)

I woke up at my usual time of 5:30am, and had this amazing view from my tent. Twilight Saguaro!

We made breakfast, packed up, and hiked out at 6:15. Now that we have been hiking west for a few hundred miles, the sun rises noticeably later. Gotta love physics.

After ten minutes, we joined a wash, which was very easy to follow in the dim light.

Eventually it was bright enough to turn off our headlamps, and we enjoyed the tangerine sky, while hiking xc thru some Saguaros.

Occasionally we would hike in a wash, which is easier for navigation, but sometimes more difficult with narrow corridors and overgrown vegetation.

After a couple of hours, we left the South Maricopa Mountains, and followed an old road. There were some odd tracks in one of the sandy ruts.

By noon we had reached a paved road, and a set of well-used railroad tracks.

We crossed both, and then had lunch by a trailhead. While we were eating, a train went by, and it took awhile since it was so long. Glad we weren’t stuck behind that train! After lunch we entered the North Maricopa Mountains Wilderness, and had a fun time hiking in another wash.

The little forests of Teddy-Bear Cholla always look cool, but they are a minefield to hike thru. They drop little balls of spikes, which get picked up by your shoes, which then brushes against your opposite leg and embeds the spikes in your calf. Ouch.

Pretty soon we joined a National Historic Trail, which was also an overland mail route from 1858 to 1861. Cool!

Towards the end of the day, we came to our first water source for the day. It had two troughs, only one of which had clear water. The water level was pretty low, so TopShelf was in there pretty deep.

Right after that, we hiked for the last hour of the day on the Brittlebush Trail.

It’s nice to be hiking on a real singletrack trail!

There must’ve been some thin clouds to the west, because the sunset looked extra unique today.

Eventually the trail joined a wash, and we hiked along until we found a spot to camp.

It’s a peaceful spot in the valley, and I hear coyotes in the distance.