Thursday, March 22 - Tuesday, March 27 (Heidi)

Thursday morning I pack up my gear at Nancy's Airbnb and walk into Patagonia for breakfast at The Gathering Grounds, after which I meet my shuttle in front of the Stage Stop Hotel.

As we near Colossal Cave where I'm meeting McKenna, I can see she had to make a pretty big climb from the trail to get up here. And when I see her, she's going through our resupply boxes, but is thoroughly disappointed because the cafe is closed. Knowing there's a cheeseburger waiting was most of her incentive to climb up here. Well, and to see me, but I'm not sure that is as important as the cheeseburger at this moment. I make an emergency request to our trail angel Laura to pick up cheeseburgers on her way to meet me at Colossal Cave.

Laura delivers cheeseburgers and then drives McKenna and another hiker, Jeff, back to the trail. She takes me to my next Airbnb in Sahuarita. I'm trying to slowly head north as I keep up with McKenna and heal.

I've stayed in several Airbnbs, always with a private room, private bath, and, well, privacy. This set up in Sahuarita is living with the family, and it's awkwardly uncomfortable. Laura is concerned about leaving me, but I thank her and I'm left alone once again with strangers. My feet are quite painful and after removing boots and socks I discover new blisters. Frustrated and discouraged, I think I should just go home.

But about then my oldest son sends me a message asking how I'm doing and I decide if I can get to Phoenix and stay at McKenna's and use her car to hit REI, maybe a medical clinic, and get healing supplies, I can get the better of this. He agrees to drive down and pick me up, which is probably a four or five hour round trip on the day that he just closed on buying a new home. What a way to celebrate.

So, I tell my new hosts that my feet are worse than I thought and I won't be staying.

Host: Let me see your feet; I work in a hospital.
Me: Oh, what do you do in the hospital?
H: I do psyche evals.
Me:

Anyway, I get fixed up at REI and get some calendula cream for my blisters. There's an amazing improvement within 48 hours.

I make a request on Facebook for a ride from Mesa to Mt. Lemmon. I'm finding that the trail is a great equalizer...it doesn't care if I'm a project executive with a multinational building company, or  an out of work waitress, or a college student, I still have to bum rides from strangers and rely on the generosity of others.

But I do secure a ride with Glenn, a section hiker from Tucson who is hiking from Lake Roosevelt to Bushnell Tanks, and who goes right past where I am staying, and drives me all the way to Mt. Lemmon on Monday night.

Tuesday I'm sharing a zero day with McKenna and we will hit the trail in the morning. She has covered 130 miles without me, is battle proven. I'm starting all over...