Wednesday, April 24th, 2019
Finally we can leave Flagstaff! After our free hotel breakfast, we lounged around until noon, which was when my package was scheduled to be delivered to Absolute Bikes. We browsed through some more shops until I was notified of the delivery, then headed over there to pick up my package. Thanks again Absolute Bikes! You guys rock! We ate at Diablo Burger, then it was time to hike!
We walked through parks and pretty neighborhoods with incredible looking modern homes. One of the owners was outside doing yard work, and stopped to give us high fives after asking us about our hike.
The logging detour directed us through the woods. Frisbee was feeling tired and unmotivated. This is commonplace whenever leaving a town, especially after a bunch of zero days.
We crossed paths with a section hiker named Upstream who was about to complete her hike in Flagstaff. We also saw a guy on a dirt bike and a number of mountain bikers.
After crossing Snow Bowl Road we had a 1,200+ mile elevation gain. It ended up being so gradual that we hardly realized we were climbing! We hit mile marker 600 before running back into Barrel. He was back hiking on his own since his wife had to go back to work.
We stepped through a few patches of snow before getting a nice view at Alfa Fia tank. We were out of water so we stopped to fill up.
There was a couple camped up there that were doing a section hike. The guy told us he thru hiked the AZT last year. Barrel followed behind us. He liked the view, so he decided to stop there for the night. There was too much exposure at high elevation for our liking, so we kept moving. We didn’t want to be wet, covered in dew in the morning when it was so cold out.
Ahead of us was fresh snow melt, a flooded trail, and more patches of snow. As the sun made its way down to the horizon, I’d become mesmerized by the sun’s glow through the aspen trees, and the sunset in the distance.
We found a semi-flat spot in the pines near mile 604.7 which was at 9,000 ft.
18.7 miles (30.1 km)
Jump Ahead to The Arizona Trail: Part 32
Jump Back to The Arizona Trail: Part 30
Start from the Beginning
Stubbs Rambles On 
Those tree photos are stunning! Thanks, Mel
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Such a beautiful part of the country!
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It’s definitely one of my favorite places!
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It totally surprised me. I just randomly picked Flagstaff as a city to stay in on a road trip a few years ago with zero research lol. We arrived in the dark. When we woke up, we were amazed that we were in the mountains.
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Thanks! Beautiful things like this are the reason I hike! ☺️
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