DWTH Day 15: North Maricopa Mtns Wilderness

Daily Miles: 20.8, Total Miles: 224.4

I had a strong enough signal last night to stream Saturday’s NFL playoff games – the Seahawks and Broncos are through. I still don’t know who won Sunday’s playoff games.

I should have got further away from the train tracks by the highway, seemed like a train every half-hour. Good thing I have earplugs.

Up early, I walked down the road initially by headlamp, eventually turning west up and over Estrella Benchmark on a x-country section.

This connected me to a short distance on the Butterfield Stage Route, an historic 2,800-mile overland mail and passenger route from St. Louis to San Francisco, 1859-1861.

Now in the North Maricopa Mountains Wilderness, I turned up a wash before joining the Brittlebush Trail and then Margie’s Cove Trail (whose Margie anyway?). On this section, I met two dirt bikers taking a break in a narrow wash – nice chat and they offered water. I think we were all a bit surprised by the encounter.

I passed three wildlife guzzlers in the next five miles, not as much water and lower quality than previously seen.

Running on empty at dusk, I set up camp in a wash at the base of Margie’s Peak.

New birds today: Gilded Flicker, Black-throated Sparrow and a Dark-eyed Junco.