Days 4 & 5 – Patagonia and a Run-In With Rain

Dates: February 21 and 22, 2020

Miles: 48.3 – 51.2 and 51.2 – 66.7

Friday morning around 7, I walked the road into Patagonia and did the usual town routine. Ate, picked up resupply box at the post office, did laundry, ate some more. I checked the weather forecast and saw some rain and a possible thunderstorm coming up, so I decided to just stay the night. Stay in a warm bed and take a shower? Yes, please.

I got a room at the Stage Stop Inn and then went to check out the town. There isn’t much to it, but there’s a great coffee shop, pizza place, health foods store, etc, and apparently it is a very popular place to see a lot of birds. I started walking to the Audubon Center for Hummingbirds, but rain started and a lady on the sidewalk told me that there weren’t very many there. Bummer.

I followed another lady who was yelling ‘Water is life!!’ back to town, got a wonderful pizza and headed back to the hotel in time to listen to a mariachi band perform. By that time, a few other hikers had come in, also hoping to sit out the weather.

The courtyard of the Stage Stop Inn. Charming place.

The next morning, it appeared to have rained overnight, but not that much. I went to Gathering Grounds for breakfast and contemplated whether I should stay another night or head out and take my chances. I eventually decided that I can handle a little rain – I’ve been through worse – and got back on trail mid-morning.

Road walking. Yay.

The sky was pretty dark and threatened to unload for a few hours, but it wasn’t very cold out and it actually turned what could have been a very hot and dusty slog along forest service roads into a pleasant, but boring, walk.

Unfortunately, the rain didn’t hold off all day as I’d been hoping, and it started to come down off and on from about 2 pm until I found a campsite near a stream at 5:30 pm. It was cold and windy so I didn’t take very many pictures along the way.

I was relieved to see someone already camped by the stream when I walked up. I have run into a few other hikers the past few days, but have yet to have any company at a campsite. I get a little bored when I’m by myself, and camping by myself at night still makes me a bit anxious, so I like knowing that people are around. The other hiker, wearing a shirt, shorts and a balaclava, introduced himself as ‘Mustachio’. Since we were both wet and cold, we said hello and talked a bit about the trail, then retired to our respective tents to warm up, eat and get some sleep. The sun is supposed to be out again tomorrow!

Pizza from Velvet Elvis Pizza Company. Would go back for this.
It’s nice that the trail goes right through town. Makes my life easier.
Between downpours and finally off of the forest roads.

8 Replies to “Days 4 & 5 – Patagonia and a Run-In With Rain”

  1. What an adventure! You write such interesting blogs! Thanks for sharing your journey for the more faint of heart (and feet!)

  2. Good ole Arizona, wide open spaces. Big views, tough landscape. You are looking good girl. Hang in there, keep the posts coming!

    1. I’m currently in Oracle, recuperating from the elevation changes of the last couple days. It got tough out here!

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