Amazing, Spectacular Arizona Trail Thruhike: Kaibab North-Jacob Lake

In the land of Arizona
Through desert heat or snow
Winds a trail for folks to follow
From Utah to Old Mexico

It’s the Arizona Trail
A pathway through the great Southwest
A diverse track through wood and stone
Your spirit it will test

Oh, sure you’ll sweat and blister
You’ll feel the miles every day
You’ll shiver at the loneliness
Your feet and seat will pay

But you’ll see moonlight on the borderlands
You’ll see stars on the Mogollon
You’ll feel the warmth of winter sun
And be thrilled straight through to bone

The aches and pains will fade away
You’ll feel renewed and whole
You’ll never be the same again
With Arizona in your soul

Along the Arizona Trail
A reverence and peace you’ll know
Through deserts, canyons, and mountains
From Utah to Old Mexico
-“The Arizona Trail,” Dale R. Shewalter

Arizona Trail Passage 42 (Kaibab Plateau North): Kaibab Plateau Ascent to US-89A

I encounter my first AZT hiker, Eric, to whom I give a great recommendation for Vermilion Cliffs – anyone who read my entries for the first week of this trek surely knows why. I also encounter some friends from Grand Canyon who were out for a trail run after attending the condor release conducted by the Peregrine Fund at Vermilion Cliffs today. My only regret about this hike was that the timing prevented me from attending, so it was good to hear how that went. I’m sure word of my trek will now make it back to Grand Canyon for my return there in the near future.

The trail winds through extensive ponderosa groves and some large meadows created by wildfires. While smaller fires that clear out underbrush and allow additional nutrients and space is a natural occurrence in the ponderosa forests of the Colorado Plateau – on which sit many smaller, higher plateaus like the Kaibab – large scale fires that reach the crowns of trees can destroy wider sections of forest and subsequently replace it with rice grass meadows. Ricegrass is a common pioneer species – one of the first to move into an area after a disturbance has occurred.

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Arizona Trail Passage 41 (Kaibab Plateau Central): US-89A to Jacob Lake

After 5 miles, I cross US-89 and enter Passage 41, the central Kaibab. In the next few miles, the first aspens are sighted. Like the ricegrass, aspens are a pioneer species, one of the first trees to appear after a disturbance. It appears that my hope of seeing some foliage color in the has been fulfilled. Fingers crossed that continues heading south.

After a few more miles, it’s camp for the night and a side hike to Jacob Lake for dinner. Some real food for the first time in almost a week and a half.

My camp tonight is in a clearing thinned (though not completely exposed) by wildfires on the central Kaibab. I lay looking up at surviving ponderosas creaking and swaying in a gusty Kaibab breeze, one of the loudest winds I’ve ever heard, silhouetted against the light of the Milky Way stretched out across the heavens. I could hear others creaking unseen, the sound the only clue to their presence. Unreal. I’m not sure even if I had my real camera with me to capture that that it could do that moment justice. (If only I had a portable wind turbine as well as a solar panel. I could have charged everything off the breeze in that clearing tonight.)

Tomorrow morning, back to Jacob Lake for a real breakfast and then 15-20 miles down the trail through the central Kaibab.

Trail Logistics and Passage Ecology Info