April 20 & 21: Four Peaks Wilderness

After camping next to Lake Roosevelt for the night, then picking my battery up at the visitors center in the morning, I tackle the next passage of the AZT. I want to ratchet up the mileage until I reach the Mogollon ranger station in 8 days. From there I’ll catch a ride to Phoenix and fly to Palo Alto to meet Chinita and Emma. Then back to Phoenix on May 1 and back to the trail to finish. Sounds easy huh? The goal now is as many miles as possible without breaking anything. I want to see if I paid a price for yesterday’s 20+ mile race through the Superstitions.

I paid a price. By 2pm on April 20, I’m dogging it. Not even 10 miles into the day. The climbs are a bitch. The Four Peaks Wilderness is one of two remaining mountain ranges between me and the Mogollon Rim to the north, and the first 10 miles climb 3100 feet. It’s hot, it’s hard, and the whole mountain range has suffered from forest fires that have left miles of manzanita as the only vegetation. That night I sleep in a saddle amongst a thicket of manzanita. They are all blooming, and the sound of the bees is constant. They stop buzzing only when the sun sets.

At sunrise the bees resume buzzing and I, after coffee, resume hiking. The top of the Four Peaks on this day is a much better story. I’m on top of the world. I hike 22 miles on a soft dirt road that twists and turns. I get amazing views of the desert far, far below, and I get the shade of boulders, pinyon and the occasional ponderosa pine. I run into two guys lost in the mountains in a side by side. They ask me for directions…

When I finally descend from the Four Peaks, I spend the night in an abandoned corral at mile 382.6. Tomorrow I tackle the Mazatzals, but tonight I can take it easy. After dinner, the moon rises over the mountain slope in the southeastern sky so brightly it’s as if someone suddenly switched on a giant porch light.