Verde River Crossing

April 25, 2023 Day 25

Mile 428.3-450.8 (22.5 miles)

Some kind of exotic sounding creature (either a frog or a bird) called out repeatedly during the night which meant I did not sleep very well at all. The morning temps were nice but the temps rose quickly. Even the descent down to the Verde River was hard between the loose scree and the intense heat. The river was like an oasis though, and Henry and I found a private spot up river to stretch out, eat, relax, and skinny dip. The river was shallow enough that I could sit on the bottom about halfway across just relax there, the water cold on the lower half of my body while the sun warmed my back and my shoulders.

After a good break we packed up and crossed over and hiked on. Henry joked asking me if I remembered how often he told me this trail would be easy LOL. What a lie.

It was hot as we continued to climb, we sat down for a break once because he wasn’t feeling good. Our final 6 miles to the next water were mostly in silence because we were both so tired. I listened to my audiobook to make time go faster. We did have a beautiful sunset just before we reached camp.

We cameled up on water and hiked until we found a descent enough campsite. The ground was tore up from cattle and there were piles of poop everywhere but it would have to do.