Trail Comparison

imported
#1

How does the AZT compare to other trails in terms of trail bed and gradient? Is it a smooth, well graded wilderness freeway like the PCT? Or is it more of route pieced together from existing trails and roads like the GET which can be rocky and steep? What I am getting at is what can I expect for daily mileages compared to my past trail experiences? The only part of the AZT that I have hiked is the part that coincides with the GET. That was great trail. Is it all like that?

I want to thru-hike the AZT as a warm-up for a nobo PCT thru-hike. I will start the PCT in early to mid May and I would like to have a couple of weeks between finishing the AZT and starting the PCT. How fast I can hike and how soon I can start will determine if I can do both trails in 2011. So, how early can I start nobo on the AZT? Thanks for the advice. Tom W

Tom W

#2

It’s a tough question, not knowing your abilities and experience. Hiking the AZT can take as little as 30 days if you’re fit and fast, and if you start in late March (possible in a low snow year) you’ll be OK on a PCT start, if a little fatigued.

A 3,500 mile year is tough on most. I hiked the AT and the AZT in the same calendar year. I’m not sure I could have done the AZT after my PCT hike, but the PCT was my first hike and it pretty much wore me out.

The AZT can be done fast, but much depends on snow conditions and what will have happened to the Trail over this coming winter. Last year was tough on the trail with heavy snow and very high winds. You might want to plan on being flexible and keep an eye on conditions on both trails. Look at Snotel sites and at postholer.com.

Another option is SOBO on the AZT in late September, especially if you can get an early start on the PCT, depending on snow conditions in CA. That way, you’ll have good desert experience for the AZT, which is a little more difficult in terms of water supply than the PCT.

Most of the AZT is on finished grade. All new trail is designed for equestrian and bicycle use, so grades are excellent. The few X-C sections are easy enough to navigate with topo maps, and excellent up-to-date info, including GPS tracks, is available to members on aztrail.org. There are some difficult burn areas that will slow you down, but only a day or two.

Good luck!

Garlic

#3

Tom W. can you tell us a little more about your age, physical fitness levels, trail experience, gear, and hiking philosophy?

The only reason these are important is because I know a lot of hikers who have hiked two long trails in a season, but these guys/gals hike between 25 to 30 miles a day, all day, day after day with packs with a base weight of 6 lbs. Most are in their 30s, extremely fit, etc.

Most people never tell others the truth, but typically most people who start a thru don’t finish, the odds are highly stacked against them, regardless of the ease of the trail conditions or grade.

But to answer your other questions I’ve heard of people hiking the AZT in the winter months of December, January and February, often with snow shoes for the higher elevations.

I hiked the AZT in March 2008, then started the PCT on June 1, 2008 and finished the trail in 100 days @ about 28 miles per day. But I’m not an average hiker.

Martin

#4

I averaged about 20 miles per day on both trails. The level of dificulty is about the same. To go faster on the AZT, consider caching water in some of the dryer stretches. I won’t carry more than 4 liters and prefer to not carry more than two.

bowlegs

#5

Tom thru-hiked the GET a while back, and like me, isn’t exactly a spring chicken, I don’t think. I thru-hiked the AZT in 2004, and while this trail has come a long way since then, both in terms of trail corridor completion and ease of navigation, it is still more the slightly milder stepchild of the GET than anything familial to the PCT, with a real hodgepodge of conditions, gradients, and degrees of (in)civility. You can expect somewhat higher daily mileages on the AZT than the GET, but certainly nothing like on the PCT, at least on average.

Typically you won’t want to start the AZT before the 1st or 2nd week of March, due to snowpack in the Sky Islands, and a schedule that would put you potentially in deep snow above the Mogollon Rim. In a high snow year you may be delayed such that completing the AZT in time to tackle the PCT would be a prohibitive challenge.

Forty to fifty days would be a reasonable timetable for completing an AZT thru-hike - on par with the GET. And while this may offer a manageable window given your planned back-to-back thru-hikes, ask yourself whether you’d have been eager to begin a PCT thru-hike immediately upon completion of the GET. The AZT ain’t no warm-up hike; it’s a full on commitment, and you may well feel “done” when you’re done. Same for the PCT. So perhaps the most important question to ask is which hike seems most important, if you had to choose. If it’s the AZT, then keep planning accordingly. Otherwise, consider a warm-up program that’s less a liability to the successful completion of the PCT.

And Tom, when you’re done, and have completed the AZT or PCT as well as the GET, feel free to share any insights over on the GET forum. We don’t hear from many hikers who’ve gone the distance, and people are getting tired of my stale old perspectives. ;0)

blisterfree

#6

I have 2 friends who attempted to hike the AZT and the CDT in the same year. Neither cared to finish.

Personally, if i were to try it, i’d do the PCT first as a warmup hike to the more difficult and solitary AZT. PCT late April to late September, then AZT October into November.

Last year was a very heavy winter here in Arizona. People who started in March had “impassable” (i know that term is relative) conditions just in the southern high mountains. If you want to email me, i’ll keep you posted on winter conditions as i see them from my window. I have a nice view of the Catalinas and Rincons. :cheers

markv