First Rattlesnake & A Surprise Visit

April 9, 2023 - Day 9

mile 151.1-172.7 (21.6 miles)

Happy Easter! I always feel a little homesick on holidays when I'm on trail. Knowing the family is gathering at Gagoo's and eating her delicious home cooked meal while I bake in the desert and eat a Cliff Bar is hard to think about. We found another beautiful swimming hole only a few miles in this morning. The water was cold and clear and we both stripped down naked and eased our way into the deepest hole. It was freezing cold and amazingly refreshing. Hambone spotted a mysterious white frog swimming around in a rapid. 

As the temperature climbed throughout the day I fantasized about our lunch spot being a beautiful cold creek with a huge swimming hole. There were no pictures of it on Guthook so we really didn't know what to expect, all the description said was "reliable creek". When we got there I deflated slightly, it was a shallow cow shit creek. But it was water nonetheless. We filtered enough to get us to our next source. I stripped down and laid down as best I could in the creek, rinsing out my underwear and socks and laying them in the sun to dry. I laid there beside Henry in the shade topless, hair wet. He tickled my back as we relaxed for about an hour. I heard voices now and then of people hiking down the trail but we had walked up the creek a good piece and no one could see us. 

After leaving the creek we walked on some dirt track and saw our first rattlesnake! Neither one of us had seen him curled in the grass beside the trail and we both walked right by him when he rattled. We both jumped out of our skin and scurried away before returning slowly to get a good view of him as he slithered away. 

Later in the day after taking a long break in a single spot of shade we could find- we had a great surprise. Lightfoot came hiking around a bend in the trail. We knew he was hopping around a few places on the AZT waiting to start the PCT but wasn't expecting him to surprise us! It was nice catching up with him and his parents, they gave us chips and candy and cold drinks down at the parking lot. After a few hugs we pushed on, getting our headlamps ready for some night hiking.

We wanted to push 5 more miles to the reservoir so we could get as close to Mt. Lemmon as possible. The hike down into the canyon felt like it took forever. The steep cliff on one side gave me a shiver of fear every now and then as I imagined losing my footing in the darkness and falling down, down, down. We made it down to the bottom of the canyon with no issues though, besides being incredibly tired. We set up the tent next to a nice creek, although the water was cold and clear it kind of tasted like iron. We ate our Mountain Houses and nested into the tent, the sand beneath us making a soft bed. Alarm is set for early, early tomorrow morning. We want a head start on climbing this big ass mountain before the heat kicks in.