May 2
The sound of frogs croaking woke us up this morning. We pack up quietly knowing that Numbers will still want another couple hours of sleep. The trail takes us down to Lake Mary Road. Hikers that reached this road early April had had enough of snow and most walked the road to Mormon Lake. No need for us to do that. Other than some wet trail, we do not encounter any snow. The trail followed an old railroad bed for awhile.
This made us think of some our bike packing that we had done. We got complacent following the trail and as it became blocked by trees, it was time to check Far Out. Alas we were off track, fortunately we could cut across some fields to the trail. Unfortunately for us we had to go thru a marshy area and no longer did we have dry feet.
This area was covered with snow 28 feet deep this winter and a lot of the larger pine trees had toppled over, Several of the AZT gates had been destroyed.
There is going to be a lot of trail work to be done. We came to a junction. The trail to Mormon Lake is about a mile. Eventually coming to this sign.
The mile trail to Mormon Lake was quite rocky. We were glad to see the sign.
Mormon Lake consists mainly of resort buildings. This winter they had so much snow damage that they are slow to get up running operations. A new company bought the resort and they are slowly bringing it up to speed. So our hopes of taking showers, doing laundry and eating were not going to happen. The county store had some food, but we would have had a hard time to resupply there. We were glad that we had a box of food waiting for us. Numbers shows up grabs her box and buys some potatoes chips to share. There are two hikes here who are trying to get enough food to make it to Flagstaff . Neither of them carry a stove. So Feral (trail name) bought a couple cans of chili , a dozen hot dogs and a loaf of white bread. He opened one of the cans of chili and started eating. We definitely do not mind carrying a stove and canister. After consuming some ice cream and coffee , it was time to get back on trail.
There is still remnants of the snow in the forest.
The large amounts of snow though has filled the lake!
It is interesting of how the descriptions of this place talk about the lake that is no more. Hope it sticks around.
We stop at a campground and hope to get water, but the campground won’t be open for a couple more weeks so the faucets are all shut off. There is a stream running thru the campground so we filter some water and more on. We decide that we will stop at the first flat area. Numbers is hiking on for another couple of miles. We are enjoying the temps.for hiking.
May 3
The birds started singing by 5 and we were on the trail by 5:30. The trail has more elevation than yesterday and also more rocks. When we were leaving our campsite this morning a herd of elk ran by us. We get so spoiled when the trail is nice and smooth. Our first view of Mt.Humphries was today.
It feels early spring with the grass just beginning to turn green. Mt. Humphries is past Flagstaff so we won’t be hiking near it this time.
Mid morning finds us walking beside an old rail bed. A train had been used to transport logs. A lot of rocks went into building the rail bed.
With all the rocks that we have been hiking on it is easy to see that they didn’t have to go far to find rocks.
We stop at Pine Creek campground for breakfast and to fill up our water bottles. The sites were beginning to fill up, but we found an empty picnic table. Leaving the campground found us walking on a very rocky dirt road. We kept waiting for it to turn on to a trail, but no such luck. The trail (road) is going to Horse Lake.
It is huge, much larger than the map would let you believe. We saw a couple of day hikers walking towards us and they stopped to talk. They were the trail stewards in charge of this section of trail. They have never seen so much water in the lake and warned us the the lake had overtaken the trail.
Some geese were taking their babies out for the day. They were quite adept at keeping the babies between them.
We come to the spot that is washed out..
The path normally goes along the fence, not today!
Somewhere we have made a wrong turn and are not on the correct road. The signage is poorly done thru this area. Once again Far Out sets us straight. At least we aren’t going up and down lots of elevation.
Back on the trail. It seems like there are reroutes in this area and some of the signs are missing.
The trail takes us over for a scenic view of Lake Mary, a shallow brown lake. There is a campsite below us, but it does not make sense to walk down to it and then have to walk back up.
Lake Mary
We pass by a Navy observatory which is totally fenced in and take a break at Prime Lake. Water is more scarce in this area and not as good quality. We got spoiled by the clear running streams.
A couple of hikers are taking a break here as well, we didn’t talk to them as they were sleeping.
The trail goes past Marshall Lake and heads toward Marshall Tank. Before we drop down to the tank, a large herd of Elk are in front of us. They start walking, then running towards a fence which they gracefully jump over. We are impressed with their agility.
Finally we see Marshall Tank. It is not quite what we expected. We were thinking that there might be a stream nearby, but after a search, we realized that this was the water for the night.
Thirsty people need water. Thankful for the Sawyer Squeeze.
We are entertained by a Raven who has a nest on a tall pine tree near us. Both the female and the male make numerous trips to the nest. Numbers shows up and sets her tent up. We say our good byes as we are leaving the trail at Flagstaff and she hopes to do a little more hiking. (and we know we will leave before she gets up in the morning!)
Miles hiked 22.5
May 4
Its our last day of hiking this go around. The rim to rim section of the Grand Canyon is still closed as well as some of the highways north of the park. There has been a lot of water damage on the trail and the expected date to open the entire trail is June 2.We want to start heading back to Alaska for the summer so our plan is to come back in October and finish the last 200 miles.
Now though we have 10 miles to hike to Flagstaff. The majority of the trail was flat, with of course some elevation thrown in.
There were some beautiful rock formations as we got closer to the city.
We started meeting more hikers and bikers on the trail close to town. One of the hiker/runner had a bib on. We moved to the side so he could pass, but he set down and wanted to talk.We found out that there was a 250 mile race going on and he only had 30 miles to go. It seemed like he had hiked the AZT before and wanted to talk. Now that is impressive!
Soon we heard the vehicles on Interstate 40 and passed underneath it.
We are taking the urban route which goes thru the city. There is also a route that goes around the city as well. The food in Flagstaff has most hikers doing the urban route.
This is the sign that we will be following thru the city streets.
We didn’t follow it very far as soon we saw Taco Bell. An air conditioned restaurant with food that we don’t have to prepare sounded like a win win. We headed in, took the packs off and ordered some food. Don had heard a podcast about one of their food items and the research that went into it being developed. It was a a crunch wrap supreme. He was so impressed that he got two of them. I had 2 bean burrito supremes. It was enough to make as feel full. We called Aaron, our friend that lives here and let him know that we were in Flagstaff. He came up with the solution of giving us his truck to go get our van. It was about an 80 mile drive to Pine. He met us at Taco Bell and we dropped him back to where he works. Off we go back to Pine stopping at the Pie Place in Strawberry for more food. Guess we have hiker hunger.
The van started right up! (No pack rats) we were able to take showers and soon we were driving back to Flagstaff. The logistics to do this trip has been made so easy with the help of our friends!
Upon arriving back to Flagstaff, we headed to Aaron’s and Makitas house A very creative house that they have been improving. Time to go eat again as we checked out a Thai restaurant. By this time our eyes were needing to stay shut so off to bed we went, feeling good about our accomplishment.
Miles hiked 10
And what comes next???? With all of the challenges doing the AZT this year, we decided that returning this fall to do the section from Flagstaff to Utah makes sense. In April, hikers were notified that one would not be able to hike from the south rim of the Grand Canyon to the North Rim. There had been too much snow and part of the trail going to the North Rim had been damaged. Come October we look forward to finishing the Arizona Trail!
Details of our hike
Total milage so far 580 miles
Total days hiking 37
Average milage day 15