Category: Free Roaming Photography

Day 1

Our currently anonymous friend drove us to Coronado National Memorial to fill up on water and get us on our way up the Arizona Trail. The first two miles head south to the Mexico/U.S. border, so realizing that immediately leaving would put him in Tucson during rush hour, he agreed to come with us for the first two miles each way and see the border.

From a large parking area on Montezuma Pass in the park boundary, the trail climbs up a short distance and then begins a lengthy descent until reaching the border, marked by an obelisk commemorating a treaty between the U.S. and Mexico. Along the way were various interesting rock formations and a high grasslands sparsely decorated with juniper and oak.

After the ascent back up, we unloaded the bulk of our gear from anonymous’ car and poured our thanks on him. As he drove off we began getting our packs together and with only an hour or two before sunset, made our way to at least two more miles in to get past the park boundary since no camping is allowed inside. The Miller Peak Wilderness borders the park to the north, so that was our goal. Under normal circumstances it would have been easily doable, but the trail was a relentless climb higher and higher. While the views were amazing, the climb only intensified as the weight on our backs became apparent. At the same time, the light from a near full moon began to take over as the sun had set a long time ago.

Exhausted, we reached the boundary and set up camp, something we were both eager to do since we were up till 2am the night before finalizing our packing. We both agreed on a simple dinner and rushed to bed.

That would have been the end of day one but shortly after crawling into the tent the wind began howling from out of nowhere and never let up, dropping the temperature with it. We slept ok, but it definitely could have been better and less noisy.

Day 2

Early the next day, I woke up at sunrise to find traces of snow flurries and sleet around our tent. Since there were still many clouds in the area, it made for a great, but brief sunrise. I made the mistake however of assuming the worst of the weather was over.

Though the wind had died down overnight, we were about to climb to the high point of the next several passages, and the storm was only just getting started.

Neither of us slept well from the wind and cold, so ultimately crawling out of the tent to start the day proved difficult. We eventually did make it out though and got on our way.

After hiking a mile or so, the clouds parted and we finally had some sun to warm up to. We prematurely put away a few layers and continued on where it didn’t take long at all for the clouds to roll back in. More sleet began pouring down on us, but began to let up as we neared the turnoff to climb Miller Peak. We stopped at a nice overlook for lunch to also take advantage of a break in the weather.

Our lunch was cut short by more sleet and even snow now dumping down on us, but cleared up as we reached the spur trail for the peak.

The short mile-long, round-trip detour was well worth it. We hit it during another break in the weather giving us amazing panoramic views and glimpses of trails to come, and the gateway towns below.

We hit more snow as the trail finally leveled out, giving us a rest from the excruciating climb up. We also hit our first water source along that stretch, Tub Spring, named so for a natural spring that’s piped into an old bathtub. As long as we didn’t stir the water up too much, the quality was great! We of course purified it though.

Just a short climb up the ridge we watched a fantastic sunset and found a nice spot for camp, until an unrelenting wind that lasted well into our sleep rolled in as soon as we had our tent up. It wasn’t long after that before the temperature began dropping quickly. Fortunately the tent was set up well enough so that the wind didn’t bother us much, but it still helped to bring the overall temperature down. This proved especially difficult in getting our alcohol stove lit for a warm dinner, which I was now trying to do in the dark. It didn’t help that I forgot my headlamp at home, so we only had one to share between the two of us.

We both spent the night periodically waking up and seeing where in the sky the full moon was and finding out the next day that we were both getting more and more excited as the bright moon began to set behind our heads, capping off another long, cold, and uncomfortable night.

Read on Source Site

I was already on my way down to Texas as Bill Wren and I were hammering out details for not only where to meet, but also if he was even interested in participating. As I was cruising down a remote New Mexico highway, he asked me about my expectations for the film and what I was hoping to accomplish. After an enjoyable conversation learning a bit about each other, he decided that he was happy to participate in an interview. The timing, however, was developing into an issue.

I was driving down in the middle of the week, expecting to meet him in West Texas at his work place of the McDonald Observatory. – Read more

Read on Source Site

If there’s only one energy bar that I could have in addition to Cricket Bars on the Arizona Trail, it would be Grizzly Bars. Unlike most other energy bars on the market, they don’t have that protein powder taste that I find in other bars. Instead, the peanut butter and dark chocolate infused Grizzly Bar actually tastes like real peanut butter and real dark chocolate. In fact I like the taste so much, I’ve even been known to eat them for dessert just so I can get my chocolate fix.

Prior to finding Kate’s Bars, I had been a Clif Bar junkie, mainly because I wanted good ingredients in my system in a portable snack I could bring on the trail and at the time, they were the only thing on the market that I could find that fit that criteria. After a few years of living in Jackson Hole, I noticed a new(er) bar popping up in the energy bar section. Promoting organic ingredients and chocolate while also being from a local business, I had no reason not to give it a try. I was instantly hooked and in a short time had decided that Kate’s Real Food bars were my new favorite backcountry snack.

I’m excited and overjoyed that we’ll have Kate’s Bars to enjoy along our epic journey through Arizona. They’ll be greatly needed and devoured appropriately.

Read on Source Site

Pat seemed nice enough, but there was no way I was going to eat insects, nor was I interested in his reasons to do so. I assumed his TEDxJacksonHole talk was just going to be the cliche of trying something new.

Preparing for my own TEDxJacksonHole talk, I met Pat for the second time at the dress rehearsal. I’m willing to give anyone a chance, so I listened to his rehearsal with skeptical ears. It turns out that his talk wasn’t just about eating insects and trying something new (at least new to the U.S., the rest of the world eats insects all the time). The talk went into great detail about why the Colorado River doesn’t flow to the Sea of Cortez anymore, an angle I wasn’t expecting. He made compelling arguments about our habitual consumption and why our freshwater is in grave danger if we don’t start making changes in what we eat, namely, insects.

Why insects? Many people hear about the importance of saving water by taking shorter showers, not flushing as much, etc. While it’s certainly a worthwhile effort, this only accounts for about 5% of the water used from the Colorado River. Agriculture actually consumes about 80% of the river before it ever even reaches Mexico, leaving it bone dry where there used to be lush wetlands in a fragile desert environment. Most of this is for cattle, an animal that evolved in Europe where water is much more readily available. As a result, they drink significantly more water than the arid southwest was ever meant to provide. In fact, a single hamburger requires a staggering 634 gallons of water, the full cow needing as much as 11,000 gallons of water! And for some reason we have these animals grazing all over the desert southwest. In addition, cattle consume significantly more grass than bison, the latter being our native meat source.

This is where insects come in. For a beef cow, 100 gallons of water will yield a meager six grams of protein. From the same amount of water, crickets will yield 71 grams! They’re not only healthier for humans, but healthier for the land, both public and private. Pat recognized this and created a company called Chapul to produce them into something he knew people would (literally) eat up: energy bars.

Obviously nobody wants to eat an energy bar that has legs and antennae poking out of it, so Pat and his team grind the crickets down to a very fine flour. The result is an extremely nutritious bar that tastes amazing and is helping the Colorado River once again reach the ocean. I became a huge fan of the bars right away and was ecstatic when Pat agreed to help us out on our thru-hike of the Arizona Trail, which made Chapul an official sponsor.

For more information and detailed data, head over to the Chapul website, or watch Pat’s talk below.

Read on Source Site