Desert Pilgrimage by Jon D’Auria
pilgrimage. One such hiker, John Officer, finished his jour- ney in May 2010. Dedicating much of his life to hiking and the outdoors, Officer walked the route in its entirety in just 41 days, stopping only to sleep. Every Saturday, his wife brought him supplies and clean clothes. Officer takes his success on the Arizona Trail as much in stride as he does his steady hiking pace. “It was a culmination of a lot of things in my life that
made me want to do it,” explains Officer. “I remember reading about the Appalachian Trail as a kid and think- ing, ‘How can someone just walk for hundreds of miles?’ I found out about the Arizona Trail at some point and really wanted to see Arizona and experience what such a long hike would feel like. I prepared for the hike for four to five years before I did it. Preparation is the key to any trail, especially one like this.” No preparation could have readied me for the sight of the segment of the trail on the edge of the Catalina Moun- tains where I met Officer and his wife. The trail markers bowed throughout a large wash and up into a massive mountain. “I didn’t imagine it to be so uphill,” I said casu- ally. “Oh, that? That’s not much,” Officer laughed. “Right up those mountains [pointing behind us] is the Molina ba- sin to Summer Haven march. I did those 19 miles in a day, but it was all uphill. That was a long, hard day though.” I began to understand that a long, hard day to him was a very different concept than it was to me. “Your legs condition to it quickly,” explains Officer.
John Officer at a trailhead marker of the Arizona Trail
In this edition of Arizona Extreme we take a look at the trail that covers the span of Arizona and the hikers who are brave enough to venture it.
trian artery of the Grand Canyon state, eponymously titled The Arizona Trail. Yes, the Arizona Trail actually traverses all of Arizona – from the Mexico border to the border of Utah – and, believe it or not, there are brave souls who embark on this
T 14 Tucson
hey say that to fully understand a person, you must first walk a mile in their shoes. Some Arizonans feel that to fully understand and ap- preciate the state that we call home, you must first walk all 820-plus miles of the main pedes-
“People say that they have ’15 mile legs’ and I finally understood that on this hike. I started off doing 10 and worked up to over 20 a day. The longest I did in a day was over 30 and it was right over here on this stretch right up here,” he said, pointing to the Rincon Moutains. He gazed at the trail as if he were peering at an old friend that he hadn’t seen in a long time. We walked through a beautiful stretch of it as he described to me the feeling of being so close to Mother Nature for such a long period. His respect for it was evident. Dubbed appropriate- ly “The Gentleman Hiker” by the many people whom he passed along the trail, Officer made it his mission to pick up all the discarded trash and waste that he found along the way, even stopping to repair the trail where needed. “That’s just me,” says Officer. “As you get close to roads and communities you encounter a lot of trash, so I would just pick it up and dispose of it. If a tree or a bush had fallen over in the path, I would just pick it up and move it. It wasn’t a big deal and it made it better for those people behind me who were hiking the trail. If everyone does their part to maintain it, it will remain special.” To help insure that the trail stays as pristine as pos- sible, the Arizona Trail Association dedicates their entire
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