Grandpa Does the Arizona Trail: Passage 37

 

South Kaibab starting point

We began at the South Kaibab Trailhead, SOBO on September 17, 2023. Within the National Park, the AZT is not clearly marked until it becomes the Tusayan Connector Trail. The first 6-8 miles are mostly paved, though there is one AZT stretch in the national park that follows a power line maintenance road, rocky and rough. This early stretch gave us the unwarranted hope that we might be able to complete the ride in less than six hours.

One of the Arizona Trail underpasses

At the Tusayan turnoff, the AZT becomes two-track and single track to Grandview Lookout. Though designated "easy in the AZT bicycling guide, the two-track is actually quite rocky and rutted. This meant two things: a generally slower pace, because of having to walk bikes around obstacles (and because of the change in altitude from home), and the destruction of my (admittedly 40-year-old) touring shoes [pictured]. but the woods were open an often beautiful.

So, what we thought would be about a 6-hour tops ride ended up being about an eight-hour trip. Shuttling is an issue, since no shuttles travel between Grandview Point Overlook (near the Grandview Fire Tower). The AZT Trail Angel for this section has said that shuttles might be possible.

Our Lunch Spot outside Tusayan

But at the time, I had not thought about calling on a trail angel since I had had difficulties arranging things with other trail angels in other places, and because I (mistakenly) thought that 10 miles on Highway 64 back to the South Kaibab Trailhead (where we had left the car), would be safe and easily done. Between the shoe destruction, the onset of dusk, the tourist traffic, a lack of bike lights and general exhaustion, I ended up hitching a ride back to the car from a group of tourists at Grandview Point (thank you so much!) The trip, however, was a success, because if Emergency Services don't have to be called, how bad can it be?

Here is my RouteScout track from hikearizona.com: https://hikearizona.com/x.php?x=209797.

Grandview Fire Tower-End of the Passage