We hoped for a fast 12 mile down hill run into Vail AZ. We had hiked from the land of the Pine at high altitudes, to the land of the oaks as we lowered, to the land of no shade on the desert floor. Today was the warmest so far. Low eighties. Nary a place to sit, only the trail itself, which we didn’t do owing to no shade. It’s hard to sit under an ocotillo, the tallest vegetation out here. So we were on the move for 8 hours only stopping to snack and get water.
Terry continued logging in more plant Identification. I took a picture of him with the app, and he’s identified as an animal. About two thirds of the way down, Terry told me to try my bird song ID. It identified twenty birds, some I had never heard before, like a verdan, a cactus wren, and an upland sandpiper. It was hard to stop pulling my phone out for more IDs, but we were heading into town and glorious things awaited.
Emerging from a trail into a road is disorienting. The noise and fast pace of traffic breaks the peace immediately. We didn’t know which direction town was or how to get there. Calling Uber, Lift and a Taxi provided negative results. Hitch-hiking gave us no hope. I wouldn’t pick us up. We were wearing weird clothing to cover every part of your body except nose and mouth. We were hot, dirty, and stinky. And we had huge backpacks.
A man approached us. He had been day hiking on the trail, and now was heading to his car in the parking lot. When I asked for a ride into town, he reluctantly said yes. But he was going in the the gun shop that was directly across from the post office, our destination, so what the heck? It seemed about 10 miles into town and we were happy we didn’t have to walk it.
Vail didn’t know how to be a town. It was a bedroom community of Tucson with no center, only the gun shop, PO, gas station and Dairy Queen. I went to the PO and Terry went to the gas station to get a Monster. When I came out of the PO, I saw a man lifting his tail gate and helping another man lift his backpack into the car. That can’t be Terry. What the ? Terry waves to me to come. This man told Terry he was a trail angel and we could stay at his house, since there is no lodging in Vail. Mighty generous of an unknown man.
We drove up and around housing communities to Spider Rock Road to a good sized, really nice house on a acre with view of the mountains. His ninety pound Pit Bull greeted us affectionately. I’m instinctively fearful of pit bulls, but he gave me no room to worry about him. The man, Andy, had to leave to go to his son’s volleyball game. He was a divorced dad with shared custody and the kids were with their mom on weekdays. It was about 3:30. Andy would be back around 7:00. Make yourselves at home, wash your clothes, take showers, No Wifi and weak Verizon service.
He drove off. We had an intense conversation about how stuck we were and how this detour would put us behind schedule by a day. We needed to be in our own space without distractions to regroup. We needed to spread out our stuff and focus on the next leg of our journey and call people and and eat with abandon and shop . . . And not visit with strangers.
Andy came home with a pizza and a salad for me and his friend, Rita. She had a great interest in hiking and she became a Trail Angel when she learned that people thru hiked this trail that basically was in her backyard. She had been encouraging Andy to get into this volunteering opportunity. And he pounced on it when he saw us in our state of need. Over a couple hour dinner, we learned a lot about these two generous people.
The bed was good.
Mountain Peace 