Entering the Grand Canyon - Arizona Trail ep.4

The final episode, my last days of walking across Arizona. Finishing with a snow storm at high elevation, and hiking the Grand Canyon from rim to rim along the Kaibab Trail. It's been a great hike and these sections from Flagstaff through the San Francisco Peaks, the National Park, the Kaibab Plateau, and what lay beyond to Utah have been amazing.

I don't think the Arizona National Scenic Trail gets as much attention as many other long distance hikes in the US, but it is truly a premier trail worthy of doing. It's not entirely a walk across some desert wasteland. It's hiking up into high elevations, deep into desert valleys, through canyons, across mountain ridges. An abundance in the variety of plants and animals you will see from various cactus species, ponderosa pines, juniper, oak, snakes, scorpions, elk, bear, rare squirrels, colorful birds. Every day on this trail has been an adventure and I would highly recommend it.

Starting this video I had just taken a few days off in Flagstaff Arizona, I was planning on taking less zeros, but a snow storm was rolling across town and I decided one more day in town to avoid it wouldn't kill me. My neros have all been roughly 20 mile days and I hadn't taken a single zero yet, so I think regardless of weather I was still itching to keep going and keep my pace up. It was smart to not camp in the storm. Wet, freezing rain, snow, and wind wouldn't have been fun even if I was prepared to deal with it. My primary shelter is just a small zpacks dyneema tarp after all. The next day I didn't take off my puffy enlightened equipment torrid jacket at all, it was so cold I could freely hike in it all day to stay warm. Still I wound up doing 37 miles to try and get to a lower elevation where it would be warmer. My quilt is only rated to 30 degrees so I figured I'd rather go further and camp happy.

I wasn't able to get a permit to stay at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, as for most Arizona Trail thru hikers it's quite easy, the lack of cell service in the section just before it meant I could never get through with the park rangers. Even within the park I didn't have cell service, and I heard they don't like to accept day of or walk up permits. So I decided to hike across the canyon in a single day. Not ideal but it does suit my fastpacking hiking style. At this point I started to run into more bikepackers, and was actually keeping pace with them. Doing 30 or more miles every day meant that my average wasn't too far off what they were riding on the AZT.

Overall this is a great trail, and definitely worth doing for anyone who even sort of has an interest in it.

During this trip I unfortunately broke the fancy new camera lens I had bought to better document this hike and those I take in the future. For those interested I have made paintings to help replace it! All of these are original, and it all goes back to making these videos better. Thanks for checking out my artwork!
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