Miles Hiked: 34.6
AZT Progress: 547.5
I was freezing cold once again overnight at wild Horse Tank. I made coffee and crawled out of my tarp to get everything packed up. It was a cold morning and I hiked with all my warm layers on until about noon. I filled up water from a flow into Bargaman park tank. I hit snow about six miles into the day and it slowed me down significantly. My feet were soaking wet and at one point I followed the wrong set of footprints way off the trail. It took a while to navigate back to the trail and when the snow finally ended the trail was a muddy river. I gave up on following the trail for a while and just walked through the woods in the right direction trying to stay out of as much water and snow as possible. When I finally crossed Lake Mary road the trail became mostly dry again for the rest of the day. I was really hoping to do a long day today but all the snow really slowed my progress. I was glad the trail was still flat and easy enough that I was still able to hike a normal day of milage. The trail went through another really nice but closed forest service campground called double springs where I took my last break of the day and got more water from a flowing stream. I hiked on into the dark and set up camp under a very large juniper tree near horse mesa trailhead. It was the perfect shelter. Today I had the opportunity to hike a mile to the Mormon Lake Lodge and general store where a lot of hikers go to get snacks, resupply, or a nice meal at the restaurant. It had just opened for the season and I had already been there a few years ago when I hiked this section. I remember not being too impressed by it. I was glad I decided to just stay on the trail today because I was looking forward to getting to Flagstaff. During my hike I had enough cell service to look up places to stay in Flagstaff. Given that they were all really expensive on a Saturday night and I was hoping to take a zero in Flagstaff, I looked up trail angels on the AZTA website and set up a place to stay with Melody and Tim Varner when I get to town tomorrow. Very much looking forward to the rest and happy I set up a place a little bit ahead of time. While I was settling in to camp under the Juniper Tree a girl named Late Start who I met in Pine stopped by to chat and eat her dinner even though it was 9:30pm. She was continuing on another five miles to meet her 50 mile goal for the day. She had started hiking at 3am this morning! It was nice to have some company for a moment as this particular section of trail was a little creepy feeling to me.
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
Des Hikes Thru 