Woke up in Sierra Vista and had motel waffles. A trail angel named Clyde drove us to Montezuma Pass, pointing out facts about the sky islands along the way. Once we were dropped off, we hiked a couple of miles south to the Mexican border, the official start of the trail. Lots of loud construction. Then we hiked a couple thousand feet up into the Huachuca Mountains and eventually stopped at Bathtub Spring. Met Lone Wolf, a thru-hiking veteran with tons of trails under her belt, and Ariana, on her first (many thru-hikers have “trail names” they’ve earned from friends on the trail, usually with some funny story or personality quirk behind them). Rose wasn’t feeling super well so we camped up on a ridge near the spring. It was a terrible choice… turns out we picked the mouth of a wind funnel and it was blowing hard all night.