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Blissful heads up to the beautiful Mazatzal Mountains filled with flowers, birds, streams and amazing views. 

In this episode:

1. Margaret of the trail magic new sleeping mat drives Blissful to the trail head. 
2. More magic happens immediately when Joey walks by just as Blissful gets lost.
3. It's a race against bad weather on the way to walk 70 miles to Pine, Arizona.
4. The trail is easy from one beautiful stream to the next, amazingly clear and delicious in the dry desert. 
5. It's the first night on the new mat – and a good one. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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After Blissful punctures her sleeping pad, she meets a trail angel who manifests her own magic and gets her replacement

In this episode:

1. It's an extraordinary night on the edge of a ridge in the Four Peaks Wilderness with wind like a jet engine in the towering pine above her tent. 
2. After gorgeous streams, the trail meets a road, dull and long. 
3. A trail heads steeply down on rocks into a canyon along Boulder Creek where the frogs sing a chorus. 
4. Blissful makes the mistake of camping on what looks like luxurious grass, but turns out to have sharp points that cut into her mattress. 
5. It's a short, but circuitous, walk up and over the canyon towards the road where she quickly catches a hitch to Payson, where Margaret just happens to be at the right place at the right time to snag her a new mattress. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala and Pastorale Calchaqui by Hector Gallac as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful climbs steeply up into the Four Peaks Wilderness, where she camps right on the edge of a cliff.  

In this episode:

1. After sleeping on a wee bit of astroturf at Roosevelt Lake Marina next to the highway, Blissful hitches to the Vineyard Trail.
2.  The wide open trail climbs up past Saguaro and myriad wildflowers, including thousands of Mexican Poppies. 
3. Water sources are far apart on the Mills Ridge Trail requiring big ascents with stunning views of the lake over 3,000 feet below. 
4. All alone except for two tourists and one backpacker coming the other way, she sidles the peaks on a balcony walk finding a perfect flat spot under one lone Ponderosa Pine in snow.

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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It's rough trail for Blissful as she works her way towards Roosevelt Lake mostly on rocky road, far harder going down than up. 

In this episode:

1. From a camp above Walnut Spring in the Superstition Mountains, it's slippery and steep 1,000 feet straight down and 1,000 feet straight back up.
2.  The views are towards ancient seabeds, lifted up as mesas, the trail covered with lupine and prickly-pear cactus.
3. Then the trail crosses a dry wash over and over, Cottonwood Creek disappearing underground, then reappearing just in time for to drink as she gets thirsty. 
4. No more trail after that, as Blissful follows a rocky road so angled, it would make a roller coaster blush. 
5. But that gets her to the highway and finally, Roosevelt Lake Marina, her resupply package waiting for her, and a small square of astroturf for the alicoop. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful sees her first cactus bloom and has a magical day of steep climbs and a little bit of thunder and rain. 

In this episode:

1. After a brilliant night camped by a stream, Blissful sees her first bloom on a cane cholla. 
2. When she reaches a road, a couple of ATVers offer a beer at 9 a.m. 
3. It's a nice group of thru-hikers including "Clothesline" and "John the Baptist" plus a German couple, plus other backpackers. 
4. The Superstition Wilderness winds through Rogers Canyon filled with cat's claw then up and up over Reavis Saddle to Pine Creek, hidden underground. 
5. The views are outstanding of seemingly unclimbable sharp peaks. 
6. She hears thunder and gets a bit of rain which requires a small moment of using the raincoat, then grabs water before a big climb.
7.  A glorious view to the next mountain range is followed by one final spring, collected in a square metal box.
8. She camps with the Germans on the edge of a huge cliff looking out over the abyss. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful meets a trail angel (who never knew he was a trail angel) and he advances her past the low desert to big mountains.

In this episode:

1. It's a very hard day up and down on rocky trail in hot sun with no water over Oracle Ridge with Holly Hobbit.
2. When they reach American Flag Ranch, she's exhausted and has nowhere to stay in town.
3. At the post office picking up a resupply, Blissful meets Hector willing to take her in for the night and help her prepare for the next section, which she ends up skipping.
4. It's not like she won't return to walk the desert and cross the Gila River, but time is limited and she decides to pick up the trail in Superior.
5. And it's stunning  with wild flowers and streams in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains and she feels revived. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful bumps into Holly "Hobbit" who steps right into the trail behind her for the steepest of all sky islands.  

In this episode:

1. We're warned that we'll need to use our hands on the exposed rock up Mount Lemmon.
2. It's hard but fun with a companion, exactly the same age and speed, who talks non-stop.
3. The views to the desert are glorious, but nothing compared to the hoodoo forest of wind and water-worn rock in fanciful shapes. 
4. Streams abound, cool and fresh before it's deep in forest that seems to go on forever through changing biomes, as if traveling from Mexico to Canada. 
5. We arrive just in time to get pizza in Summerhaven, before heading down the Oracle Ridge to a flat spot at Dan's Saddle, just as the moon rises. 

MUSIC: Air de Chacarera by Horacio Salgan and Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful heads into stunning Sycamore Canyon, where the mountains seems to part and reveal the final sky island. 

In this episode:

1. Blissful awakens as the moon sets, sleeping out in the open between two mountain ranges – the Rincon and Santa Catalina. 
2. It's a winding trail, up and down and after such a long and hard day before, she's tired and her heart skips a beat before beating hard and fast. 
3. Blissful handles her SVT with a rest and a beta blocker, then heads steeply up and over a pass down to Molina Campground where she takes water and leftover hiker food left in a designated locker by the road. 
4. And also takes  a hitch, only a short two miles but enough to change the entire day. 
5. A perfect day on switchbacks sidling deep canyon walls down to a deep river lined with fluorescent green trees. 
6. Again, it's a night out again sleeping in a sandy wash like a cowgirl. 

MUSIC: Introduccion y allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful climbs up and over the glorious sky island Mica Mountain, finding the descent far more difficult than the ascent. 

In this episode:

1. It was a great decision to stop early in cool oak forest right next to a stream at Grass Shack, but it leaves a long up of 3,500 feet in four miles. 
2. Manning Camp is lovely under towering ponderosa pine, but cold still in snow. 
3. Plenty of water lulls Blissful into not collecting enough for the hot, rocky and slippery descent which is hard on the knees.
4. But the views are vast to mountains and desert, but is so disorienting, it feels like flying. 
5. From a pool, the trail pushes through cattle country up and down to a high point between the Rincon and Santa Catalina Mountains, with an almost full moon where she sets her cowgirl camp. 

MUSIC: Con la chola y el changuito by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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Blissful is fueled by trail angels to climb steeply up into Saguaro National Park. 

In this episode:

1. In only a few miles in the early morning cool, Blissful arrives at Magic Camp for a full breakfast on their very last day helping AZT hikers. 
2. She joins Jeff and "King Arthur" into beautiful Saguaro National Park, where the cacti crack her up in odd shaped and human-like poses. 
3. There's still good water in pools and babbling brooks, but she needs to "camel up" for a very steep climb up over 4,000 feet to her goal of Manning Camp.
4. The trail leaves the cacti behind and opens into a kind of high altitude bowl, that feels aerie and vulnerable.
5. Trail workers are making spectacular rock stairs to prevent erosion and suggest she camp at Grass Shack instead. 
6. It's still a long way up, and a site under oak trees right next to a babbling brook is the clincher, camping with her new friends. 

MUSIC: Quena by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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