The Arizona Trail (www.aztrail.org) is an 800-mile backcountry or wilderness trail crossing the state of Arizona from the Mexican border in the South to the border near Utah in the North, hauling itself over 8 passes above 9000 ft (3000 metres) and passing through only two towns. Most people hike the trail in Spring in this direction (South-North), but as we’re hiking it in Autumn, we’ve read we can avoid the worst of the weather by hiking North to South.
SO, we have an enormous pile of kit in which each individual item is supposed to be lightweight, but which as a whole makes up a weight a hippopotamus would be proud of and a size which way outstrips the apparent size of our backpacks. We have 2 days to whittle it down into something we’re capable of carrying 900 miles (800 miles + 100 for hiking out to resupply points and getting lost) and squeeze it all into our packs. The countdown has started for our flight to the nearest town to the trailhead: Page, AZ.