Bob and I leave North Carolina in just 5 days for beautiful Arizona. We have packed our packs, decided which sweaters are AZT worthy, and are hunting down the last of our allusive equipment (like my Leatherman tool.) We have made the last of our online purchases. We were disappointed to find that the company that makes our favorite in-step crampons, Ice-Walkers, went out of business. Also, Reyovac stopped manufacturing the best headlamp ever made, a 200-hour, three light (red, LED, halogen) a $12 number sold at Wal-Mart. Luckily these items were still available online, and we received these packages today. We are excited to try out a solar battery charger that Bob found to recharge our AAAs for the headlamps (we will carry no other electronic gadgets, besides our camera with 2 extra batteries.) Besides packing, we have been finalizing the details of the logistical aspects of our trip.
We made a chart of all our resupply points. Included on the chart were mileage and approximate days between resupplies, and availability of goods at these points. I made a lot of calls to post offices and grocery stores across Arizona. I found out that the information from various resources online and the “Arizona Trail: The Official Guide” by Tom Lorang Jones and the ATA, was out of date. The post office rules for general delivery vary from town to town. I found out that generally, if you call when you send the package, the PO is more willing to hold your package a little longer if they know your circumstances. I also found out that white gas is difficult to come by. The only groceries were it is available is South Rim Village at Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Benson, and Patagonia only if it happens to be in stock (it currently isn’t). We aren’t too worried as we’ll be using campfire as our primary means of cooking for a lot of our trip, and we also plan to carry 4 weeks worth of fuel just in case. We only plan on mailing ourselves 2 packages: one to Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon, and the other by UPS to Roosevelt Lake Marina. The other resupply points have good enough grocery stores. My criteria if a grocery store was a worthy resupply was if they sold tuna in the package, and many of them do.
There were two tricky resupply points. One was where the AZT crosses I-10 near Tucson. The trail is 10 miles from Tucson, and we don’t feel like hunting down our necessities in a large city, so Tucson is out. There are a few small towns near the I-10 crossing. But finding any information on these places was like searching for a needle in a haystack. I finally got in touch with the post master in Vail, and she had never even heard of the towns just a few miles down the road. So we have decided to make our way towards Benson at the I-10 crossing and hitchhike or walk from there. They have white gas and a Safeway grocery store.
The other tricky resupply is near Oracle. The two groceries in the town, according to Tom Jones’ book are now closed. The nearest grocery is in San Manuel, 15 miles down the road. After much searching I did find that Oracle has a natural foods store, a dollar store, 2 convenience stores, and a True Value. Meghan at The Station, the natural foods store, was excited to hear about our trip and was willing to special order anything we might need. This was awesome news as Oracle should have sufficient resources to cover our needs. So with that done, all we need to do is find my Leatherman and we’ll be off.
Our t-shirt order has been sent off. They should soon be flying off the Scully Screen Printing press. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to all those who listened to our pitch, donated to our cause, and sent us positive vibes. We have 6 wonderful sponsors and were able to purchase a good number of shirts for our cause. So here’s to promoting the importance of open spaces and saying thanks to the Arizona Trail Association! Our shirts are available now for a $20 donation, get one before it’s too late!
RSS Feed