Arizona Trail 2025: Days 1 to 4, into Patagonia

This article first appeared on The Trek on April 2, 2025.

Day 0: Travel, Gear, and Arrival in Tucson

I bet you’re all dying to know what happened! Well let the ride begin.

Four, count ’em four flights to get from Labrador to Phoenix. Hope and prayers went up that they didn’t lose my one checked bag: my entire gear list minus fanny pack. Miracle of miracles, it arrived at the same time as me!

I had made a conscious decision not to make these posts political, but I will point out that I am worried what happens when I try to fly home. The border services people at the Toronto airport were great but sadly they didn’t know anything about Trump’s plan to require Canadians more than 30 days in the USA to register and be fingerprinted. So my 30 days will pass before I return to the airport. I really hope more clarity is made public whole I’m down here so I don’t run afoul of anyone trying to return home.

Got a shuttle from the Airport via Groome Transport to Tucson. The driver was very helpful in pointing out I booked the wrong dropoff point for the hotel I was planning to stay at but he dropped me at a better one. I Ubered over to the hotel and managed to crank out a Day 0 video before passing out at 11pm.

Watch the video from Day 0 of Oliver’s Arizona Trail series:

Day 1: Miller Peak Challenges and Solo Camping

Up at 5am for a 6am pickup by Finding True North, I luckily discovered a 24 hour IHOP right next door so I slammed down some pancakes before my ride showed up.

At the border! Here’s hoping nobody checks my passport…

Dropoff was faster than expected: myself and 5 other hikers stepped off before 830! Tagged the border and started the long climb up Miller Peak.

Sunset day 1. You can’t buy colours like that

Oh. My. Gosh. Miller Peak punished me. Apparently my preparations were insufficient for the altitude gain from my home at sea level. In hindsight, I should have taken a day in Tucson to acclimate. I did feel dizzy at times but mostly I simply couldn’t catch my breath, especially at altitude. Up near 9000 feet I would pause to catch my breath and minutes would pass while I continued to pant. I hiked off and on with some of the people on my shuttle. Somehow we all managed to be at Bathtub Spring at the same time (excellent water BTW). We all kind of planned to camp at mile 13ish (there was reports of a large campsite on FwrOut) but one couple powered down at mile 9 and I tapped at mile 11. Haven’t seen the other two since but they were both significantly younger so they may have actually stayed at the camp.

So I camped solo my first night on trail. I was super exhausted and it took me a long time to set up camp because of my condition. I barely managed to choke down some supper before dark but I didn’t feel like eating. I was also dehydrated and had a ton of cramps and spasms as I went to bed so I chugged some electrolytes and passed out at 7:30 feeling chilled. Woke up having to pee at 1045 which to me was a good sign that I had successfully rehydrated. And I felt comfortable and warm.

Watch Day 1 of Oliver’s Arizona Trail series:

A continuation of day 1, after Oliver found his lost footage:

Day 2: Long Downhill, Trail Magic, and Stock Tank

Got up with the sun, which I was hoping to do. Puttered around camp at a leisurely pace and just finished packing when one of my shuttle mates came up: a lovely person who was section hiking. She hiked with me for a few miles then stopped for a break so I kept going.

This day has a very long downhill but despite the pounding, the day got easier and easier as I descended into thicker, more oxygenated air. I reached Stock Tank at mile 18.9 at 11am so I elected to have a bit of a siesta and lunch. The older couple that I was supposed to camp with night 1 rolled up, and we caught up and proceeded together.

At Parker Canyon Trailhead we stopped for a breather and experienced our first trail magic. A guy came down from the parking lot offering water jugs and PB&J’s as he was waiting for his sone who tagged the border the day before.

We wound up camping at Small Ridge Top mile 24.4, there were a couple of good pads but hard ground for tent stakes. It was a dry camp but good overall and we knew the next water wasn’t far.

Watch Day 2 of Oliver’s Arizona Trail series:

Day 3: Hot Valleys, Cows, and Red Bank Well

Broke camp before 7 which was awesome. Gave us lots of time to push to where we hoped to get: somewhere far enough to make a short hike into Patagonia on day 4,

We stopped for water at Middle Canyon Tank which was wonderfully shaded, but it was bovine soup. The water we scooped was orange and smelled of cow urine and droppings. My hiking companions, Cheers and Take Charge had marvelous charcoal filters by Katadyn that cleaned up the water perfectly. I was quite jealous but I still had two liters so I just filled my CNOC with cow water and carried on, knowing I could always filter it if I needed.

Thankfully when we reached the end of Passage 1 (Canelo Pass Trailhead) the hiker box had just been resupplied with 30 some gallons of water. So we dumped our cow water and refilled from that. What an amazing thing it is to have so many people willing to support the trail with waterl one this! Ina drought year it is truly a gift.

We descended into a ranch area and met our first cows. It turned out that the AZT through here has become quite tragic (for cows) as we found three different sets of cow bones on the ground as we went. It got real hot through here because the trees were left behind. Some cool history we passed though with ruins of what I thought was an old ranch house.

We pushed on through the windy valley until we reached Red Bank Well (mile 41.2), after passing Down Under Tank which didn’t exist as depicted but there was a dugout with sketchy water nearby. Red Bank Well on the other hand was very good water. It was fresh in the cow trough so it may have been drooled in by cows but wasn’t filthy. We elected to camp there, scouting out a couple of spots where the cow pies weren’t too thick on the ground.

This bully would not let me pass. I had to use stern language before I could get through the gate to Patagonia.

Watch Day 3 of Oliver’s Arizona Trail series:

Day 4: Arrival in Patagonia and Hiker Resupply

After a restful night at TerraSol, we were in striking distance of Patagonia. I elected to take the direct route via the Harshaw Road trail, while Take Charge and Cheers elected to take the purist’s route and hike up to highway 82. My route got me to the trailhead before 9:30am which gave me a nice long Near0 to recover. We resupplied and had an amazing dinner at the Wagon Wheel, and spent the night at Überhost, Mary and TerraSol campground which bends over backwards for hikers! Did some laundry, and socialized with a number of other hikers in various states of repair. What a great start to this thru hike!

Watch Day 4 of Oliver’s Arizona Trail series:

Video Embeds / Links:

Day 0: Day 0 Video
Day 1: Day 1 Video 1 | Day 1 Video 2 (Lost Footage)
Day 2: Day 2 Video
Day 3: Day 3 Video
Day 4: Day 4 Video