Day 33 Reavis Saddle to Superior

I woke up at 5 a.m. The sky near the horizon was brightly illuminated, but the source wasn't the sun. That wouldn't rise for nearly two more hours. What I was seeing were the lights of the Phoenix area, and specifically, the city of Mesa.

My early wakeup time wasn't on purpose, but I took advantage of it anyway. It gave me a head start on the day. If I wanted to get to Superior today, I would need to hike about 21 miles, or so I thought. (More on that later.)

I also thought, or at least presumed, the trail would be all downhill today, which would be favorable to my goal. I knew for sure the trail started with a long descent because I saw it from the top late yesterday before I stopped to camp.

The one thing I got right last night was the likelihood of finding a campsite. I didn't see any potential sites until I was near the bottom of the 1.7-mile descent.

The 2.5-mile climb that followed caught me off guard because I didn't look at the trail's profile before I started hiking this morning. It wasn't difficult, however, and soon after reaching the top, the trail left Superstition Wilderness and began following a smooth dirt road.

When I stopped for breakfast at 7:30 a.m., I made a quick calculation for when I might reach the Picketpost Trailhead. It looked like I could get there at a very reasonable 5 p.m.

From my breakfast spot, I could see signs of civilization in the distance, and that made me realize I probably had cell service. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a phone number for MJ, the trail angel Moonjuice recommended to me yesterday. Her number was in FarOut; it just never occurred to me to look for a waypoint on the app's map that marked where she lived.

Instead, I called the Copper Mountain Motel and made a reservation. When I asked for a suggestion on how to get into town, the owner said I should call MJ.

I already regretted not finding her number, but I decided to stick with the reservation. The reviews for the motel were good, and the price was reasonable.

The road went through another area that was burned this year. The Adessa Fire was started by lightning on July 28, just a couple of weeks after the Black Fire nearly forced an evacuation of residents near the Roosevelt Dam.

Here, there were already a few signs of life among the blackened remains of trees and shrubs.

As the descent continued, I began to see much of the landscape in the direction of where I would be walking in the next few days. The sky conditions were a little hazy, but I could tell I was heading into rugged terrain. There wouldn't be high mountain peaks like the Mazatzals and Superstitions, and beyond that section, the trail would follow a lower desert floor.

This wasn't a complete view of my upcoming route, however. The trail will soon make a wide bend to the east, which from my viewpoint was to the left.

If this had been a much clearer day, I might have been able to see Mount Lemmon. At the moment, it was 70 miles away and the next tall mountain I had to climb.

The burned section was bleak, though it only consumed about a mile of the trail. I followed it on a circuitous route that dropped into a dry creek bed in Reavis Trail Canyon. Even here, the name of the "Hermit of the Superstitions" was used to identify landmarks.

The sky was partially overcast, but it wasn't cloudy enough to keep the temperature from climbing.

When I reached the area of Mud Spring, I began looking for a concrete trough. The FarOut app said this was a reliable water source. That turned out to be wrong. Then I remembered reading comments about this source. There was no water here. It was about a tenth of a mile back the other way.

After backtracking and following a route off the trail described in the comments, which included looking for a series of cairns and a faded bandana, I found the water.

While I was there, I met a northbound hiker who told me she was hiking the Grand Enchantment Trail, a 770-mile route that includes some of the Arizona Trail. This was a route mapped out by Brett Tucker. He's the husband of Tree Hugger, the woman I met on Day 20, who helped me ditch my plans to quit this hike.

Soon after that, a hiker named Al arrived. As we discussed stopping at Superior, he told me he had arranged for MJ to pick him up, though that was to be at a different trailhead than Picketpost, where I had planned to stop. He said there was another trailhead about two miles before Picketpost.

This seemed like my chance to get a ride, so I hurriedly finished filtering my water and tried to get a lead on Al. I figured he would be a faster hiker than me, and I didn't want to miss out on the ride.

As I suspected, Al was faster. Before long, he passed me and was soon out of sight. I tried to descend the trail as quickly as I could, but the extreme heat made that difficult.

When Picketpost Mountain came into view, I knew I could get to the trailhead before 4:30 p.m., the time Al said MJ was picking him up.

The rest of the trail was favorable for going faster, and I arrived shortly after 4:00. Al said he got there 20-25 minutes before me. He told MJ I was on the way, and she agreed to wait for me.

MJ gave us a brief tour of Superior. It was apparent as we drove around that the town had been through some difficult times. Many storefronts and houses were boarded up or run down. The 2020 census recorded the town's population at 2,407, which was about half of what it had been 50 years before. Nearly 28 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

The town was started in 1902 by the Lake Superior and Arizona Copper Company for its employees. Before that, huge deposits of silver were mined in this area. Superior's economy and population began to decline as mining slowed. All operations in the mine ceased in 1996.

After the drive around town, MJ dropped me off at the Copper Mountain Motel, which was located on U.S. Highway 60, the main route through town. No one was in the office when I arrived, but when I made my reservation, I had been given a number to call. Julio arrived a short time later and checked me in.

The motel had no guest laundry facilities, but Julio offered to do my laundry for five dollars. He said he'd leave my clothes in my room when they were done. That was helpful, because as soon as I finished showering, I was able to walk to MJ's house and meet up with Al for dinner. Another hiker, Rocketman, who was from England, planned to join us.

MJ suggested a restaurant called Porter's Saloon and Grill, so that's where we went. We all ordered burgers and beers.

Al and Rocketman seemed unsure about returning to the trail tomorrow. I told them I wasn't planning to take a zero day. I didn't want to risk not finishing the trail until the Thanksgiving holiday, when the cost of flying home would be significantly higher.

That's what I was thinking, anyway. My body would soon suggest a different plan.