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Trailing Back

By Jan Nesset

Nearly a decade ago I hiked and biked portions of the Arizona Trail. At the time, it was a proposed 790-mile trail that connected bits and pieces of existing trails and 160 miles of lines drawn on a map by trail planners who were doing their best to protect habitat values and cultural areas.

With the exception of portions of private land in northern Arizona where the terrain is a checkerboard of ranch and public land, the entire trail crossed public land. To satisfy the "public" aspect of the trail, the ranch had donated right-of-way through its property.

I wrote about my experiences on the trail in an online journal - in what we'd today call a blog (americanfrontiers.net) - on a public lands- and National Geographic Society-sponsored trek across the country entirely on public lands. I am pleased to be writing about it again today, but this time the pleasure is a result of the trail receiving last year an official designation of National Scenic Trail. And it's now 817 miles and within 35 miles of completion.My experiences on the Arizona Trail are too far behind me to be fresh. So I dug into the archives of my blog for a refresher. It helped. It got me excited for the trail all over again. So much so I decided to share a few snippets from the "blog," which were written along the Arizona Trail in 2002:

- "When asked how he thought about public lands, [Vincent Randall, an Apache] said, �?the most important thing to us [the Apache people] is that this is still our land in our hearts. I always feel good and my heart soars when I think of that.'"

- "I am in touch with the rock - the land - and so happy."

- "I see blooming desert and fresh mountain tops. I see free-flowing rivers and endless prairie. I may be a daydreamer but this realism is amazing."

- "If it weren't for my watch I'd have no idea what day it is."

- "Jacob and I, who held positions at the back of the line, were abuzz with flying insects wafting from the front of the line. They swarmed our headlamps in such large number they entered our eyes and mouths. Jacob turned out his headlamp and followed my beam, which I held at my knee."

- "I feel about as small as a virus riding bacteria on a flea in the hairs of a bat in a Grand Canyon cave."

- "Our group campsite at Phantom Ranch had visitors: mule deer, a ring-tailed cat, a fox and a scorpion. The scorpion stepped lively into camp during the middle of the night. I must have heard it scuffling its scorpion boots through the sand because something triggered me awake and to sit up and turn on my headlamp. It marched toward Wayne who heard me awake. He took refuge on the top of a picnic table and didn't come down until morning."

It's time that you, our readers, know about this new national treasure. Ann Weaver Gates digs into the Arizona Trail in her story, "Arizona: The Long Way," pg. 10.

A final excerpt from my blog: "The Arizona Trail, from what I've seen, is worth a look." So true, now more than ever.