This part was 1.4 miles, 42’ ascent, 161’ descent, 1:23 elapsed time.
Heading North, and still following along the Barge Creek.
A nice gentle slope down.
As I walked along, still in beauty overload, I was glad I had decided to walk more after supper. I was hoping for a sunset, but realized that being in the canyon was probably going to prevent it.
Looking to the East with the sun hitting high on the cliff - getting close to time for evenglow
My little trail winding through the desert
It was starting to get rather dark, so I decided to sleep at the campsite marked CV04. It was a little off the trail, and there were some impressive cliffs towards the East. Because I was following the Barge Creek, and therefore in the canyon it had carved, I would really not see a sunset or a sunrise. But these rock walls would do. I set my tent up so I would be facing the cliffs when I woke up, making it a nice bedroom wall.
I rolled out my bughut on top of my ground cloth. My ground cloth is an old aluminized space blanket that I was given at the end of some marathon. The bughut is a small tent made entirely of no-see-um netting, except for the bathtub floor. It provides excellent visibility. I didn’t bring the rain fly for the bughut due to the forecast of no chance of rain. There was nothing to hang a food bag from, and I had not brought my hanging gear anyway, so everything went inside my tent with me. I had my inflatable air pad and my down underquilt. I stuffed all my dry clothes in the pillowcase for a pillow and lay there drying off. I’d hung my wet clothes from the clothesline I rigged inside the bughut.
I lay back and tried to get comfortable. If I couldn’t, I was prepared with a really bright headlamp and my current book, James Michener’s Centennial. But I was tired enough so there was no need for reading.
I did wake up often. I was a little anxious about having the food bag in the tent with me, but no animals came near, as far as I knew. I heard a dog bark during the night, and my ears perked up to listen to see if it was going to be a pack of coyotes, but no, it was just a single dog bark.
It had been cloudy most of the day, and it still was. Every now and then the moon would shine through the clouds a little, but no stars appeared. A jet flew over every 5 minutes or so - probably in the standard terminal approach route for Sky Harbor airport, to my northwest. And if I looked to the west horizon, I could see the reddish glow of Phoenix. I decided this isn’t what I would call a wilderness area, and that I would have to go explore in the Mazatzal Wilderness area north of here.
During the night I got pretty cold, and since my shirt and shorts had dried, I used them to cover my feet and ankles. The under quilt is only 3/4 length.