After a huge breakfast in Flagstaff, T drove me the 3 hours to the Stateline campground at the Utah/Arizona border. The Arizona Trail begins at the campground’s SE end, in a well-marked area with interpretive signs and a pagoda-style area at which one may cry as she realizes that she is embarking on a hot, juniper-filled set of switchbacks right away. Not that I shed any tears, but I certainly wasn’t looking forward to this stark beginning on a big breakfast now churning away in my belly at early afternoon.

T sent me off with a shared beverage, a photo-shoot designed to hide my incredible beer gut next to the trail sign, a kiss, and a look that made me question whether she thought I might just go missing out here. I set off, mildly huffing and puffing. When walking in familiar landscapes, I immediately start naming species to take my mind off of my feet, knees and lungs. The running jumble in my head often sounds like this: Yucca mohavensis? What the hell is the correct species name for Mojave yucca? OK, there’s Krasheninikovia. How the hell can I remember that and not the species name for broom snakeweed? And so on.

So, today’s species list includes:
Winterfat
Broom Snakeweed
Mojave Yucca
Juniper
Indian paintbrush
Old man prickly pear
More juniper
Low sage
Gambel oak
I hope that's not poison oak surreptitiously mixed in there
Cheatgrass
Indian ricegrass?
Some cryptantya and a couple gilias
More juniper
Pinion pine
Russian thistle
Silver cholla
Purshia
Some goosefoot shrub
Globe mallow

Whiptails
Side blotched lizards
Jackrabbit
Bobcat tracks
Coyote and cow scat
I also heard frogs starting up near the wildlife tank. Maybe I can catch one in the morning.

Today’s walk was just an afternoon jaunt to the first water source, 4 miles in. Hopefully, tomorrow, I’ll get in a good full day.