At 5:42 pm I hiked away from the Colorado River, away from Arizona and into California, beginning the Great Western Loop. 200 plus days of hiking and 7,000 miles awaited.
It’s amazing this new adventure is actually happening. I didn’t make the decision to attempt the Great Western Loop until only a couple weeks ago. That means I have little packaged in terms of mailing resupplies or gear. But what I will have is large flexibility through many of the sections since I will be buying most my food in town. It will be a different type of thru hike than I have done in the past.
To get to the start required a plane, bus and car. I flew into Phoenix, bought fuel for my small stove and then made used of the Uber to arrive at the Grayhound Bus station. As seems always to be the case when traveling by bus, departure was delayed and I was stuck running on little sleep, trying to get comfortable on the wire framed benches.
Two hours by bus and I was in Blythe, CA at 3:30. It took over 2 hours and 8 miles to hike Northeast to where I would start. After the warmup miles I was there, and after a few photos at the river I turned around and walked nearly the same footpath West, toward the heart of the desert.
16 trail miles down, a whole lot to go!
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