AZT: Blue Ridge Trailhead to Junction with Daves Tank

The Stats:

We went into Flagstaff for two days to let the storm pass.   We toured native sites at Walnut Canyon and Wupatki as well as driving around the Sunset Volcano.   They say it erupted around 1100 and shortly after this time period the area also had thriving native communities.   The people are called the Sinaguans, which means ‘without water’ in Spanish.  It mostly had to do with their practice of dry farming and also because they lived where there wasn’t any running water year round.  The Hopi people say that they descended from these people.  We really enjoyed learning new things on our driving tour.  This is a Wupakti dwelling.  The Walnut Canyon peoples built cave like homes on ledges in the canyon.  

Right now our home is a tent and the temperature is falling.   We zipped our bags together tonight, so we should stay warm.   We hiked about ten of the fourteen miles today in sticky, icky mud.  It was a bit tiring.  Made me think of peanut butter.   It really worked my hamstrings picking up my running shoes, with what felt like pounds of mud and pine needles and other woody debris.  

We stopped a few miles short of what we hoped to hike today.  Our motorcycle is hidden in some trees off Lake Mary Road,  we have about 16 miles to hike to get there tomorrow.  Which under normal circumstances would be very doable, but we’ve heard from hikers that it’s a beast of sloppy trail.  One hiker that we gave a ride to, said he postholed in snow to his waist and that his phone app wasn’t showing him where the trail was correctly.   We have a bit of trepidation.    

It was a beautiful sky day today with big puffy clouds.  The trail on gentle  undulating land.  If it wasn’t for the mud we would have cruised.   We didn’t see any humans.  We did see a lot of elk though!  

We  were following their signs for the first seven miles, before catching up to them. We first saw their light rumps through the pines.   When I stopped to take my phone out to get a photo, they bolted.  We were astonished at how large the herd was.  We are guessing a hundred or more.  Hawkeye says hundreds.   We later came upon another herd as well.  It was a moving and impressive sight.   I failed, unfortunately, to get a good photo.  One interesting thing I learned is that elk smell like horses.  The aroma took me back to my youth riding my horse, Randy, on the mountains in the Sierra.  

Hawkeye is out like a light, so I guess I’ll get some shut eye too.   I think the sun just went down.   Lol!  Cool.  Just as I finished typing that last line, coyotes started yipping.