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A One-Night Hike

During Parent & Family weekend my freshman year, my mom challenged me to complete the Prescott Circle Trail before I graduate. My walk across the stage is just around the corner, so I recently made one final attempt at the 56 mile walk around all of Prescott. When I tried it in January (see Horizons Vol. 39 Issue 9, “Running Around Town”) I made some bad assumptions that stranded me in the snow behind Thumb Butte. Though I failed, I used all four years of engineering education to collect data and update my analysis as follows:  I can hike 3 miles per hour.  56 miles / 3 miles per hour = about 19 hours.  I should finish the while the sun shines in the midafternoon.  Conclusion: start hiking during the previous evening.  So with conviction in my heart and caffeine in my head, I arrived at the Fitness Center parking lot at 10:00 p.m. on a cool Friday night. I was just in time to meet the late-night gym crowd, who looked curiously at my headlamp and hiking poles...

A One-Night Hike

During Parent & Family weekend my freshman year, my mom challenged me to complete the Prescott Circle Trail before I graduate. My walk across the stage is just around the corner, so I recently made one final attempt at the 56 mile walk around all of Prescott. When I tried it in January (see Horizons Vol. 39 Issue 9, “Running Around Town”) I made some bad assumptions that stranded me in the snow behind Thumb Butte. Though I failed, I used all four years of engineering education to collect data and update my analysis as follows: 

I can hike 3 miles per hour. 
56 miles / 3 miles per hour = about 19 hours. 
I should finish the while the sun shines in the midafternoon. 

Conclusion: start hiking during the previous evening. 

So with conviction in my heart and caffeine in my head, I arrived at the Fitness Center parking lot at 10:00 p.m. on a cool Friday night. I was just in time to meet the late-night gym crowd, who looked curiously at my headlamp and hiking poles as I scurried towards the rocket test cells. Finding the Circle Trail by Pioneer Park, I turned left onto the singletrack. 

The Circle Trail first took me around Willow Lake, where scarce pairs of headlights swept across the Dells and mirrored off the still water. The moonless night was windless too, leaving me alone in the quiet pattern of steps and breaths. 

After Willow Lake was Watson, then the Peavine Trail that brought me past landfills and chop-shops towards the open, hilly expanses surrounding Highway 69. Once beyond the lights of the juvenile detention center, my only illumination was my soft headlamp upon the rocks and grass. 

The night’s stillness was occasionally interrupted by lone spherical reflections: prey animals have one eye on each side of their head (to better watch for predators), and the fearful bunny rabbits gave me glowing side-eyes before scrambling into the noisy bushes. 

To get ahead of my scheduled pace I tried running, but my knee soon inflamed and forced me to walk as I reached Highway 69. Here, the Circle Trail passes through a tunnel in the highway embankment, and after a short spelunking session I noisily exited into the tall grasses on the other side. 

My sudden rustling noise was met by a short howl from the embankment behind me. Turning around, my headlamp reflected off a pair of forward-facing predator eyes 40 feet away. Their fiery white glow was soon joined by two more pairs of eyes, which began growling and yipping at me.
 
As these coyotes advanced towards me, I slowly backed away with my hiking poles held like dollar-store swords. They followed me for a short distance, but thankfully turned away when they found something better to eat. When they left, I high-tailed it down the trail, further hurting my knee but escaping without confrontation. 

While alone in the 4:00 a.m. forest – where birds don’t sing and shadows don’t fall – I found community in the rocks and trees. They gently welcomed me as one of their own, letting me travel undisrupted up P-Badger Mountain and towards Goldwater Lake. Sadly, this forest community lacks an urgent care, and my knee became weaker and tenser with each step. 

Unfortunately for you, dear reader, my knee is more important than this column. So at the intersection of Turley Trail and Trail 62, which lay only 16 miles into my 56 mile trek, I made the difficult decision to go home. 

But I wasn’t out of the woods yet. Figuratively and literally – it was another four miles to the nearest trailhead, and my slow, sad hobble wasn’t exactly the triumphant finish I was expecting. Instead of running back onto campus having conquered the Circle Trail, I called my good buddy Eric and asked him to pick me up. The hour of my defeat was 6:00 a.m., just in time for sunrise. 

Just as this day’s dawn signaled the start of something new, the dawn of May 6th will bring my life’s next chapter. Instead of birds chirping at sunrise, Pomp & Circumstance will signal Embry-Riddle’s move from my present into my past. For four short years I’ve loved exploring these Arizona hills with you, dear reader. I hope you continue loving them even though I’ve finished writing about them. Happy trails, and I’ll see you in the next one. 

FINAL SCORE
Prescott Circle Trail 2, Jacob Wolf 0. 

Time for new choices in new places.

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