Читать книгу Backpacking Arizona. From Deep Canyons to Sky Islands онлайн

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Experienced local hikers know that backpacking is one of the best ways to enjoy Arizona’s incredible diversity and beauty. Carrying all you need to live comfortably in the wilderness for days at a time gives the hiker a satisfying feeling of self-sufficiency. Such a “house on your back” enables the backpacker to travel deep into the backcountry, far beyond the reach of hikers limited to a single day. In all but a few places, Arizona backpackers are free to camp nearly anywhere, at sites whose pristine beauty is beyond the imagination of the legions of vehicle recreationists who camp in a few designated campgrounds or heavily overused roadside campsites. Backpacking loads don’t have to be heavy, although some trips do require you to carry heavy water loads. Modern lightweight equipment greatly reduces the load on your back, and there’s a large selection of high-tech packs available that make carrying your gear surprisingly comfortable.

In Arizona, you can hike through deep canyons, listening to the music of a desert creek and the soft rustle of cottonwood leaves. You can walk the crest of a forested mountain range through cool sylvan glades, observing the shimmering heat of the desert vistas far below through the trembling aspen leaves. You can spend ten days or more wandering the depths of a great canyon system, where even human footprints are rare. You can loop from cactus-studded desert to forested mountains and back to the desert, without seeing another person for days on end, and never be more than fifty miles from the state’s largest city.