I’m so sick of obituary drivel about ‘he died doing what he loved.’    I hate dead-legged interminable uphill slogging cold-sweating cramping fileted by catclaw and wondering how my wife is gonna salt those wounds cause i’m hours late on New Years Eve. That would have been a horrible death, and in my final moments of breathless frustration i would have cursed the Heavens and wondered why i was not at home playing Wii with the best little girls in the world?

The AZ Trail from the Picketpost TH outside Superior, to the Gila River and back. 41 miles, and we thought 7500 vf.   Turns out it was 9k, that extra 20% all stuffed into a 10 miles climb. I was doing great through the first 5 miles of the climb.   Reliable 15 min miles that steadily rolled off me. The last 5 punctured all reserves and left me utterly shattered. I haven’t had my ass handed to me so badly in a couple years. All I could think was ‘i have to get out of this canyon! i have to get out of this canyon!‘ When I finally did, my left leg locked up both ways. It cramped extending and it cramped contracting. I couldn’t spin out the cramp or be still with it. I flopped over on a switchback, trapped in cramps extending and contracting, and writhed on the trail until i was able to grab my foot and pull my leg bent, whenceforth it cramped again and i had to stand up to prop my leg extended, whenceforth… This continued for 2 hours.

Other than all that, it was a primo day on primo trail

The trail is holistic, and follows the contours of the terrain so seamlessly i often couldn’t guess where it went around the next bend. Its surface blended the landscape. Some sections are bench cut, others over embedded rock, through rock gardens or stream crossings or narrow lines on exposed pitches. There were no freebies.

out to the dropin at mile 14 and back would be a great long day without being totally brutal. ~5 hrs, but not so much that you lost the joy of the engagement on the trail. I averaged just under 11 min\mile out to mile 14.   A bit faster on the return. It was flowy and snug, but i was so broken the last 5 miles i appreciated very little.

the change in tree color marked the Gila River

strange bedfellows

I rounded a corner and saw Doug rolling through this on the far side, arguably the most interesting rock formation on the route. It reminded me of  The Canyon.   can you see him?

lemme help ya out with that