Once More into the Breach

Hi all, feels a little weird sitting here trying to start writing this stuff again, but I guess its all for the best. I'm here at the Westin Resort in Tuscon, AZ with my mom where we have been staying for the past few days resting and getting ready for the challenges ahead. Having never been to this part of the country, it has been interesting just driving around and taking in the desert scenery. Not wanting to over tax ourselves, we have only done a few touristy things while here. We took a drive out to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, which was surprisingly large and inclusive, with a modest size zoo and gardens, as well as geology and native american exhibits. The place was deceptively far out, seeing as the maps here seem to operate on a different scale than elsewhere in the U.S. City blocks can be a mile long, and the terrain quickly changes from urban to desert to really desert very fast.

We did get to visit my cousin Caitlin, her husband Fred, and the kiddles Alex and Markus up in Tempe (or Tempe area anyway. Kinda hard to tell where one city ends and another starts)., which was much fun. With the family spread out so much currently (I'm looking at you , Hong Kong), its good to get to see everyone whenever possible, even if only briefly. Seeing as it has been a good portion of a decade since we last hung out, I'm glad we drove up to see them. We got to explore the botanical gardens up there, which were pretty amazing and informative given the novelty of it all for us east-coasters. It was also probably worth it just to get a preview of what I'm sure will be the bane of my existence over the next few weeks; the many varieties of cactus and their accompanying array of insidious spikes (mental note -- possible indie death metal band name?).

Anyway, we head out shortly for the trail, a scant 5 and a half hour drive along I-10, then down along some... less developed roads to the Antelope Wells border crossing in the NM bootheel. It is surprisingly cold and rainy outside here, with precipitation (including snow at higher elevations) expected into tomorrow before the real heat returns, which is largely a good thing I suppose. There is little while hiking that comes without some price, but trading the scorching sun and unreliable water sources for rain, wind and a brief cold snap seems like a plus, but time will tell I suppose. When all your time is spent outside, the weather becomes less a hinderance and more a simple fact; I'll walk regardless of what its doing outside, so why give it too much thought? As always, I am rather nervous about setting off, which isn't necessarily helped along by the (hopefully) exaggerated accounts in some hiking books, but it is what it is. Regardless of what happens, or if my plans have to change, if I have to flip-flop the trail, wait out a storm, route around a forest fire, hitch 50 miles to town, or whatever else the trail has in store, I'll give it a shot. Talk to you later, wish me luck!