'Hiker trash,' a fat rattlesnake and fickle Mother Nature: What it's like to trek 800 miles on the Arizona Trail

SAGUARO NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. - Fat drops of rain tap out a mournful melody on the nylon ceiling stretched over my head. Peeking out from under a thick down quilt, I watch tiny rivulets of water drip down the sides of my tent and sigh.

It's not supposed to be raining here, at the entrance to Arizona's Saguaro National Park. Not in March. Not here in the Sonoran Desert. But rain is the least of my problems.

I'm just a week into a 45-day trek along the Arizona National Scenic Trail, or AZT, which unravels northbound from the state's Mexican border to Utah. Here, in its southernmost