Arizona Trail Passage 1, Take 3 (or 4). After several failed attempts to hike this passage due to circumstances beyond our control, Jerry, Andrea ("Cheetah") and I finally started our three day trek along the very beginning of the Arizona Trail starting from the U.S.-Mexico border and ending at Parker Canyon Lake. Fire restrictions or actual forest fires had halted our previous attempts, so this year we decided to plan it earlier in the year before the fire season really kicked in. We made it this time, BARELY.

We left Tucson after lunch, driving in two cars so we could set up our own shuttle. I got to Parker Canyon Lake first, but didn’t have to wait long for Jerry and Cheetah to arrive. Since we would be camping near the trailhead tonight, we left my car at the end of the passage and took Jerry’s truck to Montezuma Pass, the closest place you can drive to the actual start of the Arizona Trail down at the border.

We put our boots on the passage today, but our goal wasn’t very ambitious. Our plan was to merely hike the portion of the trail south of Montezuma Pass down to the border and back, thus avoiding having to hike those miles tomorrow. Donning our day packs in the late afternoon, we hiked down to the border and the beginning of the Arizona Trail. After taking some photos of us at the border, we hiked back up to the truck, then hiked up to the top of Coronado Peak, where legend has it Dale Shewalter reportedly concieved of the idea of the Arizona Trail. We watched the sun drop to the horizon from the birthplace of the AZT.

The breeze was cool, and we wanted to have at least a little bit of light for finding a place to camp, so we returned to the truck before it got dark and descended to the west to locate a couple of places that we scouted out from the peak. The sunset as we reached camp was stellar. The sky was on fire. We found a nice large, level fill pad that we thought may have been created by the Border Patrol for a camp and decided to call it home. After dinner in the dark around a small campfire, it wasn’t long before we turned in for the evening. I didn’t bother with a tent, a decision that I hoped the chilly breeze didn’t make me regret.