The Lowest Point on Trail & the Town of Superior

April 15, 2023 Day 15

mile 268.4 to 284.6 (16.2 miles)

Can't believe we somehow did 16 miles today. Seems appropriate that we're camping at the lowest point on trail tonight. Henry hiked ahead of me for most of the day, I had another terrible nosebleed and felt sicker after. We night hiked some and are camped by the Gila River. You know it’s a bad day when I only have 1 picture to show for it.

April 16, 2023 Day 16

mile 284.6 to 305.7 (21.1 miles)

A rough morning, didn't wake up earlier enough, but we pulled it together. I found a rattlesnake tail on trail which cheered me up and felt like a good omen. We realized today that Trail Days is a whole week later than we thought which is amazing news because that basically means we can take our time and zero now! This lessens a lot of the stress we had put on ourselves for a deadline.

The views today were absolutely beautiful, tons of small orange flowers lined the trail for miles around and we passed mile 300.

Had lunch at a rain collector tank with a bunch of other hikers and bikers. Pushed 11 more miles to get to the town of Superior through the hottest part of the day. When I say it was brutal... even under my sun umbrella I felt like I was cooking in an oven on the highest setting. I tried my best to stay hydrated but at one point my brain stopped producing any thoughts at all. My feet just robotically moved one in front of the other, which, looking back was kind of nice. The last 4 miles to the parking lot were so hard for me but I just repeatedly thought about the motel with AC and pushed on. We took a break at the parking lot under a pavilion where someone had left clementines for trail magic. After awhile we headed toward the highway to try to find a spot to hitch from. Had to walk through some tall grass and got surprised by a rattler too close to us. Eventually gave up after seeing that we had to climb a large embankment, turned around to walk down a trail and saw another rattler! Called a trail angel named Al to see if he would pick us up.

He answered on the first ring and said he'd be there in 10 minutes and I could've cried with relief. He took us straight to the hotel and then offered to pick us up in the morning to have breakfast at his house before he took us back to trail.

I went into the lobby to check into our hotel room where the owner told me "Your friend Alyssa said to let you know they’re staying here also." So Eagle and Voodoo are here!

Henry and I took a much needed shower and laid naked in the AC before finding the strength to walk next door to the Italian restaurant DeMarcos and pick up some take out. It was honestly really good food. Called Mom, took an edible and fell asleep watching a movie.