June 7, 2017 If you’d been traveling the AZT’s Ponderosa country on Passage 28 on June 7th, you might have been lucky enough to come upon a marvelous exhibition of girl power. Fifteen members of the Linda Vista Young Women’s group spent part of their day creating drains and repairing tread on the Happy Jack passage near Moqui Campground. It […]
Read moreJune 1-5, 2017 Thanks to an extraordinary effort on the part of AZT volunteers, the Forest Service, and AZT stewards, the entire Arizona Trail north of the Grand Canyon from the National Park boundary to Route 89A has been cleared of deadfall! Thanks for all the hard work and long miles driven to Lee Allen, Roger Smith, David Rabb, Dan […]
Read moreJune 1, 2017 Scout Troop 829 from Queen Creek hiked the Highline and included daily activities along the way. They worked on badges and this was a service project. Chris from Payson RD connected them with the ATA and it came together. After hiking over 9 miles, the scouts had a short rest while the Toyota underwent the third flat […]
Read moreMay 24, 2017 Work on the new Colonel Devin trail continued with removal of the large logs. These were too big or numerous to be handled on the trail construction project a few weeks ago, so some diehards returned with saws and pry bars to remove them. The FS fellows showed up for a little chain saw work on a […]
Read moreKVOA.com Alyx Dote A high school senior hiked 800 miles alone to raise money for charity. Brady Maghran, 17, is a student at BASIS Oro Valley. As part of his senior project, he hiked the Arizona Trail by himself to benefit the Southern Arizona Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. [To read the rest of this article, click here.]
Read moreMay 6-8, 2017 A key milestone for ATA through-hikers is the climb up the Mogollon Rim, 18 miles east of the Pine TH. After contouring below the towering cliffs of the rim the trail makes a sharp turn to the north, and quickly ascends the rim. Unfortunately, it follows a utility corridor for most of the climb. The ATA recently […]
Read moreMay 4-7, 2017 This 4-day work event installed 7 new wilderness signs on segment 23c from the Barnhardt Trail junction with the Divide Trail and The Park, 7.7 miles north. The 3-man crew met at the Barnhardt TH on the evening of May 4th to hand-off 63 lbs of signs, a 15 lb. digging bar and a 5 lb. crosscut […]
Read moreLakePowellLife.com Mike Reilley The Page Library recently hosted a talk about the Arizona National Scenic Trail. The speaker was Sirena Dufault, a writer, public speaker and a woman who often speaks about the trail throughout Arizona. Her appearance was part of the Glen Canyon Lecture Series. A native of the Midwest, Dufault captivated her audience with stories about specific historic […]
Read morePayson Roundup A woman had to be carried off the Arizona Trail last week after she fell and broke her leg at a low-water crossing. The 70-year-old woman was hiking the Arizona Trail Thursday, April 27, approximately four miles north of the Rim Road (Forest Service Road 300), 13 miles east of State Route 87, when she slipped on wet […]
Read moreApril 28-29, 2017 We had our annual maintenance event on Passage 11b (Wilderness of Rocks) on 4/28 and 4/29. We had scouted out 37 deadfalls across the trail beyond what we had cleared out on April 8th. Of those, 15 were on the western end of the passage between Romero Pass and the Wilderness of Rocks trail junction. This is […]
Read moreApril 22, 2017 For April 22, 2017 I had 3 hearty volunteers. Two were my regulars and I had one new to the crew. We hiked 2.5 miles in Reavis Canyon heading north. Once we reached the location that I pre-marked we got to work. Current condition was hikers, bikers, and equestrians were having to walk up in a drain […]
Read moreApril 18, 2017 The gate crusade continued today as number 44 was installed at mile 6.25 of the passage on a bench overlooking the Gila River. BLM had delivered the gate and redi-mix a couple weeks previous; today – aided by the mini-excavator and operator Rob B. – the crew installed the heavy steel gate. During the few hours on […]
Read moreApril 13-14, 2017 This 2-day backpacking work event was phase 2 of 2 to install 6 new wilderness signs and 4 new posts on the Red Hills passage. The 2-man crew hiked 8.5 miles from the City Creek trailhead to the previously cached signs, hardware and tools. This gear was then moved 2.5 miles north to Brush Spring. After installing […]
Read moreCopperArea.com Mila Besich-Lira Over the past decade more and more attention has been given to the Arizona Trail. The 800 mile trail that travels from Arizona’s southern border with Mexico goes through the entire Copper Corridor before it makes it way through northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon before it reaches the Utah border. As the popularity of the trail […]
Read moreApril 9, 2017 Four hardy souls joined me as we attempted to head into the teeth of the Shovel Fire. Our original plan was to drive out to the end of the 2 track on top of Mt. Lemmon and park Tom’s truck at that point. Tom was busy in the Chiricahuas but was kind enough to lend us his […]
Read moreApril 8-9, 2017 Our weekend work event started at Campaign TH hiking up to Two Bar Ridge Trail to Walnut Spring. Between Two Bar Ridge and Walnut Spring we built a few necessary drains and cleaned out Walnut Spring from some grasses encroaching and removed some sediment in the bottom to allow it to hold a greater amount of water, […]
Read moreMarch 30-31, 2017 A total of 89 trees were removed from the trail between northbound passage 23 mile 5.0 and Bear Spring over the course of this 2-day, 20 mile round trip backpacking work event. The work event was especially challenging due to a high winds and a low temperature of 27 degrees overnight; not to mention the snow flurries […]
Read moreMarch 28, 2017 The “Project of Many Moving Parts” installed AZT gates number 42 and 43 in the riparian area just north of the railroad trestle, below the AZT completion monument. BLM helped fund machine maintenance over the passage, now 5-6 six years since completion. An assessment in March of 2016 showed where the trail needed tweaking and the machine […]
Read moreMarch 24-25, 2017 The above average moisture in the Mazatzal Mountains this winter has caused many dead trees in previously burned areas to fall across the Mazatzal Divide trail. Over the course of this 2-day backpacking work event, a total of 71 trees were removed from the trail between the Mount Peeley trailhead and northbound passage mile 5.0. Longtime volunteer […]
Read moreMarch 18-20, 2017 This work event was phase 1 of 2 to replace and/or install 6 new wilderness signs and 4 new posts on the Red Hills passage. The trip started earlier in the week by packing 43 lbs. of signs/bolts and a 27 lb. slide hammer (a manual jackhammer) 5.9 miles up the Mazatzal Divide trail from the City […]
Read moreMarch 15, 2017 ATA’s effort to remove the trail from roads has quite the target in Passage 25. Five-and-a-half miles of the passage fall on two-track, county road and powerline road. It has long been a “someday” project to cut across Rock Creek and shorten the trail as well as remove it from the roads; at a recent meeting the […]
Read moreMarch 15, 2017 Twenty members of the SaddleBrooke Hiking Club completed significant trail maintenance on the Oracle Passage of the Arizona Trail on March 15. Catclaw and dead tree branches were removed from the trail. The trail was widened next to natural drainages and water barriers were developed to prevent trail erosion. After 3 hours of satisfying work our SaddleBrooke […]
Read moreMarch 12, 2017 As part of the Bi-annual Steward Conference there is a workday training also involved. This year the first Steward Conference was held at the Arboretum in Superior. On the second day of the Steward Conference a hearty bunch of Stewards braved FS 650 and went out to Reavis Canyon TH to do some hands on work. You […]
Read moreMarch 10, 2017 Volunteers installed the first “stretch-limo” version of the iconic ATA gates in a remote location south of Ripsey Wash. BLM requested a wire vehicle gate be replaced so ATA commissioned the distinctive metal gate with the AZT emblem, which provides reassurance to trail users that they are on the correct route as well as a permanent, easy-to-operate […]
Read moreSierra Magazine Jason Mark To the north, at the edge of sight, there’s a giant wall of rock stretching east to west across the horizon, a ridge erupting out of the otherwise unbroken sweep of ponderosa pine forest. From my vantage, it looks like an impenetrable cliff. But I’ve got a map, so I know better. [To read the rest […]
Read moreMarch 3, 2017 Twelve American Express Serve2Gether volunteers came out for a half-day maintenance project on AZT Passage 15b near the Florence-Kelvin Highway Trailhead. Four ATA volunteer crew leaders along with Zach McDonald and Wendy Lotze provided support. After a thorough safety talk, four crews split off – two headed northbound and two southbound to tackle various issues on the […]
Read morePayson Roundup Randy Cockrell A note of thanks right up front: While out with the Payson Packers each Tuesday, I sometimes find myself hiking a portion of the Arizona National Scenic Trail, (AZT). Created and maintained by the Arizona Trail Association (ATA), this 800-mile beauty spans the entire length of the state from the U.S.-Mexico border to Utah. Here’s a […]
Read moreFebruary 15, 2017 Arizona Trail Volunteers Brave Cold and Wind on Trail Work Event Volunteers from SaddleBrooke Hiking Club are hearty. Twenty one hikers joined forces with Zach McDonald and Shawn Redfield of the Arizona Trail Association and Gary Faulkenberry of Oracle State Park to improve almost 2 miles of the Arizona Trail north of American Flag Ranch TH. It […]
Read moreFebruary 12, 2017 A partnership between the Southern Arizona Hiking Club (SAHC), the ATA and REI – what a powerful team! The southern portion of passage 8 leaves the Gabe Zimmerman Trailhead and follows an old utility easement road down into the bottom of Davidson Canyon. The descent has always been steep and subject to regular erosion, and the final […]
Read moreFebruary 11-12, 2017 Volunteers from Tucson, Nutrioso, San Tan Valley and Albuquerque, NM met near the historic town of Cochran on the south side of the Gila River. The goals were to monitor the AZT for Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii) and remove every living plant from the trail corridor, in addition to conducting minor trail maintenance along the way. After […]
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