Mischief in the Coyote Mountains

On January 20th, 2018, 19 students from Basis North adventured into the Coyote Mountain Wilderness. These rugged mountains offered missive monolithic views, deep ravines, and anthropological wonders to explore and learn from. Together we trekked through areas with an abundance of archeological artifacts, played in tall grass fields, and ventured into wilderness that knew no trails and held our imaginations to […]

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IN MEMORIAM: Maureen Sipple

Maureen Elizabeth (McGuire) Sipple passed away on March 22, 2017. She was born on April 10, 1949 in Mahanoy City, PA, and grew up in Landisville, PA. She moved to Henderson, NV in 1985 with her husband, Art, and two children. Maureen worked for American Airlines from 1989 until she retired in 2012. She moved to Payson, AZ with her […]

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On May 24th, 2018, 16 students from Peaks School visited Ashurt Lake near the Mormon Lake passage of the Arizona Trail. The goal of the day was to conduct a “bioblitz” on the plants and animals we could find in the area and upload our findings to iNaturalist, an app where citizen scientists can add to the database of known […]

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Sabrina Carlson Receives Advocacy Award

On May 21, Flagstaff Biking Organization recognized Sabrina Carlson as the recipient of the 2018 Brick Award for Bicycle Advocacy. As the Youth Outreach & Education Coordinator for the Arizona Trail Association’s Seeds of Stewardship program, Sabrina has led thousands of children into the woods for the past three years. She regularly integrates mountain biking into her outdoor education programs and […]

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Passage 28 – Happy Jack

Volunteers installed four of the iconic AZT steel gates on the north end of the project.  Forest closures threatened the effort but the crew was able to get the work done within the time allowed, although extra water and several fire extinguishers were added to the equipment list.  Six more gates are planned for this season but will have to wait […]

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Northern Terminus Monument

On Saturday, May 5 a crew of stonemasons from Payson met with Passage 43 Trail Steward Paul Ostapuk at the Stateline Campground on the Arizona/Utah border to construct an official northern terminus monument. For anyone who has completed the AZT or visited this location, you know it’s impossible to determine where the trail ends. Not anymore! Carlos Rodriguez (RB Stonework) […]

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Passage 28 – Happy Jack

Work resumed today on the Happy Jack Single Track project with installation of a kiosk at Gooseberry Spring TH, and relocation of the steel AZT Sign from Pine Spring TH to a new TH at Bargaman Park.  An ATA Volunteer Vacation completed 1.7 miles of new trail last season, and things are starting to roll for this season. The HJST […]

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Mustangs on a Mission Hit the Trail

Agriculture.com (May 2, 2018) by Lisa Prater Mustangs on a Mission, an epic six-month horseback ride from Mexico to Canada, was featured in the April 2017 issue of Successful Farming magazine (read article). The ride is the brainchild of Sara Sanderson, who was inspired by a 2015 documentary, Unbranded, about four men who took a similar journey to bring awareness […]

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4 Reasons Why You Need to Hike the Sonoran Desert

Popular Mechanics (May 2, 2018) by Peter Reese A dazzlingly white blossom sways like a sea anemone. To its right, a jumble of tubular appendages resemble a maze of coral. The night sky’s yellow, green, and red traces mimic the luminescent lures of depth-finding anglerfish—but we are a long way from the ocean. Welcome to the Sonoran Desert, one of […]

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IN MEMORIAM: MATHEW SHANNON

In May 2005, native Arizonan Mat Shannon completed his hike of the entire Arizona Trail. At that time, at the age of 72 years and 8 months he was the most senior person to hike the entire AZT. “It’s a great trail and not crowded” was his plain spoken words about the trail. Many hiked with Mat on his AZT trek but he was very proud that his […]

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Can a Trail Teach?

Payson Roundup (April 27, 2018) by Michele Nelson My daughter Brooke walks the Arizona Trail (AzT). The long, winding ribbon of a path leads her up — then down — only to climb up again. I watch her progress daily from the SAT phone GPS coordinates she sends me each morning and evening. Who knew a series of numbers and letters could […]

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Earth Day Trail Work in the Santa Ritas

We coordinated two trail work events in Southern Arizona to commemorate Earth Day on Sunday, April 22, and to finish some much needed trail rehabilitation at Enzenberg Canyon in the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains (AZT Passage 5). Saturday, April 21, we coordinated with a high school group from the Coronado Youth Corps (CYC) to repair a gate latch […]

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Lost – but not for long – on the Arizona Trail

Arizona Daily Sun (April 24, 2018) by Jack Welch In this time of rare good news what follows is an inspiring tale about the Arizona Trail, lost equipment, and a remarkable hummingbird. Recently my friend Ellen Wade was involved in a hike to Fisher Point, and after she completed the adventure she realized expensive binoculars gifted her by husband Bill […]

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Arizona Trail Race Gets New King and Queen

Outside Online (April 18, 2018) by Aaron Gulley Despite sizzling conditions, with temperatures in the high 80s, this year saw a slew of fast times at the 760-mile Arizona Trail Race and the shorter AZT300, with new records at both events set on the trail that traverses Arizona from the Mexico to Utah borders. Read the entire article here.

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Passage 17 – Alamo Canyon

The Arizona Trail Association has two proven strategies for significant trail improvement—the “cast-of-thousands” one-time work event and multiple, regularly scheduled smaller events.  Mazatzal Mountains Regional Steward John Matteson organized the latter this year, taking on several tasks along the trail within the region but adventuring beyond as the opportunity arose.  A core group of volunteers joined in this year and […]

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New Trail Construction

On April 12th, 2018, 38 students from Ms. Esparza’s class at Sinagua Middle School traveled to Kelly Pocket to put in some work on the Kelly Canyon trail network.   This brand new set of trails had been roughed in by machine and required significant hand smoothing and polishing to finish the work. Students leveled tread, improved outslope and naturalized […]

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