Desert Horizons, #5, Arizona, 2014 (from Mt. Wrightson)
“Wilderness. The word itself is music.”
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”
“Awright boyzzz… Move ’em out!”
–Camp Counselor Carl, (1943 – ), Director, Camp Minnihaha, Minnesota
A Walk Across Arizona, May 19 -July 12, 1980
Way back in the dark ages, before GPS, cell phones, digital cameras, and social media, my college roommate, Bill, came up with the crazy idea of a really long walk through the State of Arizona–the “Arizona Trek”, if you will. He soon enlisted Don and me, and the three of us were soon off to the races… (well, with heavy packs and at roughly two miles per hour, that is).
And, yes, it turned out to be a full-on adventure.
In the weeks and months following the Trek, in my dorm room and with a portable typewriter (remember those?), I wrote up my perspective on the experience–seasoned with a dash of U.S. history–as an independent study project within my Social Science degree program at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff. Since then, the “manuscript” has gathered acres of desert dust, the pages have become slightly brittle and yellowed, and indeed the thing was well-buried within a random box in a seldom-visited storage unit.
But with some prodding from Bill, I thought maybe I’d resurrect the thing, polish it up slightly, and then publish a link to it right here in my blog for those curious about such things… the thinking being that, with the fairly recent establishment of an official Arizona Trail (finished in 2011), perhaps there might be a bit of interest in this early effort at a similar concept.
However, don’t expect much more than a curious, dry, and somewhat superficial documentary on the topic of thru-hiking and Arizona. The pictures suck (digital scans from ancient Kodachrome slides) and the writing only average. The text certainly reflects the times and our youthful optimism.
And, finally…
It is still very much in draft form (with only minor changes I have simply transferred the the fading typewritten pages to a modern Word document), so I am certain there are still formatting issues, typppos, grammar and spelling errors, and so on. If you feel inclined, let me know in the Comments when you find blatant errata and I’ll fix these when I find the time.
Link to the current draft manuscript (to view only in Dropbox):
Link to the official Arizona Trail Association (ATA) website:
Granite Sunrise, #2, McDowell Mountains, Arizona, 2014 (Weavers Needle visible in the distance, to the right.)
First Light on Baboquivari Peak, #2, Arizona, 2014 (from Mt. Wrightson)
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