Saturday, April 13th, 2019
We packed, had one last round of McDonalds, then met up with Klaus to hitch back to the trail. A retiree named Glen decided to turn his car around to pick us up. He was originally from Detroit, then moved to Houston which he loathed, before moving to Fountain Hills, a suburb of Phoenix.
We were back on trail by 10:30, and we were mostly hiking on rocky dirt roads to start. I passed two guys on horseback with a mule and a dog in tow before the trail turned into very groomed ridges.
We were now in the Mazatzal Wilderness, and the scenery was lovely. After filling up on water at the creek, we saw a couple of caves (or mines) that I was half tempted to go inside to explore.
Then we crossed a wash and began climbing, passing Wags and Frenchie who we haven’t seen since we camped by them right outside of Roosevelt.
We hit our 400 mile mark then worked our way up some very steep switchbacks. There were two hikers ahead of us that I could here talking above us. By the time we caught up with them, we realized that it was Klaus and our old friend Jump (formerly known as Jill, or Stretch) that we haven’t seen since Oracle. It’s been a mini reunion out here!
We talked a minute by the water source as we filled up, and encouraged them to meet up at the saddle to camp for the night. There was a short stroll through the pines, we made it to the saddle at mile 406.4.
Klaus and Jump followed behind us. It was an awesome site with views of horseshoe reservoir.
We all watched the sunset together and could see the lights from a Phoenix suburb in the distance as it got dark.
19.6 miles (31.5 km)
Jump Ahead to The Arizona Trail: Part 23
Jump Back to The Arizona Trail: Part 21
Start from the Beginning
Stubbs Rambles On 