The Stealthiest Stealth Spot

April 20, 2023 Day 20

Mile 349.6-369.2 (19.6 miles)

The highway and the sun woke us up around 5:30 a.m. We packed up and made a last minute decision to go to the marina store and grab enough food to get us through 2 more days to Payson instead of hitching into Tonto Basin this morning. The store had a meager resupply but enough to get us through. Lots of sugary snacks which I would normally be all for, but hiking in the sun does weird things to my stomach and sugar for the most part is not appetizing at all to me.

Left the marina and was welcomed back to trail with a huge climb out.

The sun was hot, wind was minimal. We took a break at a small creek with other hikers including Michael and Katie and Jenny Jurek out hiking a section with her two friends. They were friendly and funny and lifted my spirits some.

After hydrating we pushed on and just like our other big climbs my feet were in a terrible amount of pain by mile 18. By mile 19.5 I was holding back tears. It’s like pain ripples over every inch of my foot. When we reached a water source that Guthook described as having a small stealth site my heart plummeted when we saw a tent already set up there. We walked down the slope to the water to fill up and trek on to find the next possible campsite. I was sitting there thinking there was no possible way I could take another step when Henry disappeared down a small path and waved me down. There, just downstream from the water source was a flat spot just big enough for our tent. Katie and Michael groaned when they saw they’d missed it, they didn’t want to hike on either- but left shortly after filling up on water to search for the next spot. I would feel bad for them if I wasn’t in extreme pain lol. Time to eat dinner and collapse. I am so tired. Town tomorrow.