My wife and I live in north central AZ and are avid AZT section hikers, 284 miles to date - shooting to complete it in the next year or two. We have hiked most of the trail from the LF Ranch outside of Payson to the Utah border - just missing the passages between the South Rim and Kelly Tank (just north of the San Juan Mts.)

All of this just to add... A GPS is extremely helpful in places, as someone pointed out, cows+water somewhere near by but they also are pretty good "trail builders!" We have seen places where trails are heading off in all directions - which one to take? The AZT "stakes" and tree markers really help as do cairns. But having the track downloaded into a gps has put us back on the trail numerous times. Our last hike (from the North Rim to Utah) we had the new Guthook AZT app - Highly recommend it!

Water... always an issue on the AZT. Last summer a "seasoned hiker" was airlifted out of the Mazatzals after becoming severly dehydrated, and as it turns out he apparently passed up a water tank because he didn't like the look of the water. Unless you are certain you have enough water to reach the next KNOWN TO BE RELIABLE water source, passing a tank because the water doesn't look good is a no no. A friend related a story of coming on a tank in the southern sections with a dead coyote in it... he filtered and used Aqua Mira tabs but said it still tasted like what he figured dead coyote would taste like...but it was water and got him to the next water hole.

You mentioned renting a car and going out to cache water. That may be great in some places but unfortunately it may take a 4x4 or at least a high clearance vehicle (and good driving skills) to get to some places you might want to cache. We have done some caching - others may have more ideas on how/where.

We love hiking this trail! You see few people so it is fun to run into folks esp if they are coming from where you are headed, they can be a wealth of info as to what is up ahead. Have fun, be safe!

Nobadays and "Just Susan"