Tuesday November 21, 34.0km/21.1mi

N of Rainbow Wash (206.1/1060ft) to East of Gila Bend Canal (227.2/790ft) (AZ)

We got a late start, knowing we had less miles to cover today. A friend is picking us up Wednesday morning, at a spot that is only 24 miles away, so we have lots of time to get there. When I started hiking, it was already very light.

After following an old road for an hour, I turned north to walk under some power lines. While these little paths are perfectly straight, they are also a little hilly.

Just before I crossed a freeway, I started seeing signs for the Maricopa Trail. Everything around here is named Maricopa, including the county itself, so I’m not sure where the trail went.

TopShelf caught up and we crossed the divided freeway, probably the most dangerous part of the trail so far! On the other side was the Robbins Butte Wildlife Area, a neat little county park.

When we saw a picnic table and a trash can, we stopped for another quick break in the shade. It wasn’t hot, but being in the sun all day is tiring.

The rest of the day was mostly xc travel, either on donkey trails….

…or just straight across open terrain.

After lunch, we climbed a little pass, gaining 400ft while walking up a rocky slope. It was fun!

After we easily reached the top, the trickier part was descending thru a maze of washes. We eventually figured it out, sometimes walking a narrow gravel ridge between two adjacent washes.

We had to take a short side hike to get some water from a guzzler, which was up a rocky wash. It was slow going, and when we got there, there was minimal water and it smelled like sheep poop. Gross.

After that horrible water, we hiked down a wash for a couple of hours.

It was easy to navigate, and relaxing to walk in the cool shade of the wash. Before we knew it, we had arrived at the powerline strip, which we followed for an hour until finding a random campsite under the buzzing wires.

Tomorrow is a short day, only a few miles to our pickup spot!