Sunday May 26, 19.9mi/32.0km

Hannagan Meadow Lodge (415.6/9110ft) to Lanphier Canyon TH (434.3/5770ft) (Arizona) +1.2mi to Post Office

I slept in pretty late and then spent a while figuring out the logistics for my next hike, and buying new shoes. I packed up and went downstairs and talked to the staff for a while. Nina and Angel were really friendly and seemed curious about my hike across Arizona, it was really fun answering all the questions. I finally left the lodge just after 10am and we took a departing photo.

I walked along the highway for a couple minutes and noticed this neat little plaque.

The Coronado highway was built in the 1920s, and was an engineering feat for its time, traversing some extremely rough terrain. Pretty soon I turned off the highway and was back in the forest once again.

Within a mile I turned onto the trail that would take me down below the Mogollon Rim, and all the way down into the little town of Blue.

There were plenty of spots of burned forest in this area from the 2011 Bear Wallow fire.

Even though it was 13 years ago, for some reason not much had grown back in this spot except these little yellow wildflowers.

I passed by this shallow, tiny body of water which my map called a lake, ha! I wouldn’t even consider it a pond.

From there I started my long descent off the Mogollon Rim. Looking South through the thin forest, I could see the deep valley ahead of me.

Still going down.

I could tell I was getting lower in elevation, because I stopped seeing Aspen trees and started seeing cacti again.

I was gradually losing elevation.

And even more cacti!

I passed by the Red Saddles, some cool looking rocky outcrops.

I dropped down into Grant Creek, which I followed for a few more miles into Blue.

It was very lush and shaded along the creek and it was the perfect temperature for hiking.

And the trail was pretty nice the whole way down.

Just before the trail reached the blue River Road, I had to get across Blue Creek, which was a shallow ford.

Having made it to the road with wet feet, I walked a half mile to the post office. Of course it was closed on the weekend, but I had pre-arranged with the employee to leave my box out for me.

I didn’t want to sit on the side of the road in front of someone’s house (while repacking my backpack), so I carried the box back to the trailhead and unpacked it there. My parents had packed this resupply box, and it had all of the usual things plus…homemade cookies! Yum. I always say Cookie Monster is my spirit animal. While I was there, a local ranching couple passed by on their ATV to check on some cows, and we ended up chatting for a long time talking about this little valley, hiking, and life in general. Fun! I still had a couple hours of road walking to do to get to a legal spot to camp, so I said goodbye and continued on my way.

It was a nice relaxing roadwalk and not a single car went by, which wasn’t surprising given that the entire population of this valley is 42 people. The road doesn’t have any bridges, so it just fords the Blue Creek.

It’s only a couple inches deep, so it’s easy for cars but it meant I had wet feet again. I finally turned off the road, and got to Lanphier trailhead. The temperature is quite a bit warmer down here, since I am 3000 feet lower now, so it will be a warm night of camping.

Saturday May 25, 18.4mi/29.6km

Elk Tank (397.2/7860ft) to Hannagan Meadow Lodge (415.6/9110ft) (Arizona)

I didn’t hear any elk last night, but I did wake up to a squirrel dropping pine cones on my tent. Good morning? I started the day with a nice walk down another old abandoned road.

Then I connected to a trail which leads down into Bear Wallow Creek. The trail was in terrible shape, and had large trees fallen all over it and it was very difficult to follow.

As I descended further the trail was easier to follow with fewer trees blocking it.

I soon came to Bear Wallow Creek, which was a beautiful serene setting and a very lush environment.

There were no fallen trees here, but the trail was extremely faint and I had to pay close attention to stay on it. I also had to stay focused on what vegetation I was walking through, as several of these itchy plants were lurking on the trailside.

I crossed and re-crossed the creek several times, but it was always an easy rock hop across and I never needed to get my feet wet.

Cool flower.

Sometimes the trail would climb a little above the creek and traverse on a sidehill…

… Before dropping back down creekside.

There was a massive wildfire here like 15 years ago, and some of the areas were extremely burned.

Since I was hiking upstream all morning, I was slowly gaining elevation and the lush environment started to transition to a pine forest.

I stopped at a trail junction for lunch, and noticed that the trail condition immediately improved.

The side trail must lead to an easy access point for trail maintenance crews to get here. After a couple more miles I finally climbed out of Bear Wallow Creek Canyon, and up higher the entire forest had been burned by that wildfire.

Just before I reached the trailhead, I passed by the backside of this sign, which meant I had been in a wilderness this entire time. Sweet.

Since Bear Wallow Creek was such slow hiking, I had only made it 13 miles by 3pm. But I was only 6 miles from my destination, so I pressed on down the next valley.

I passed by a very strange orange object. Even after exploring it I’m still not sure what it was.

I hiked down Double Cienega Creek, and it was much easier hiking.

After a few miles I turned off the creek, and hiked up a side creek and then some old roads which landed me at Hannagan Meadow.

Yep it sure looked like another alpine meadow.

I walked up to Hannigan Meadow Lodge expecting to get a shower and maybe a cold drink.

After I went inside the staff was very welcoming and even showed me around some of the rooms.

Since they had some cancellations they offered me a room and dinner for a reduced price, an offer which was difficult to decline. It had been such an energy intensive day, the high calorie meal was very welcomed and also tasted delicious.

Dinner was served at 7:00 and I must have eaten pretty quickly because I was done at 7:30 and went over to the sitting room to check out the maps. My favorite was this 3D map, which I spent a long time looking over to see where I had been, and where I was going to be hiking.

I went up to my room and got showered and sorted through my gear, and then went to bed.

Friday May 24, 22.4mi/36.1km

Home Creek Tank (375.3/8010ft) to Elk Tank (397.2/7860ft) (Arizona)

I was out of camp at 6:15 and continued my downhill trek into Home Creek valley.

It was a fun little XC jaunt through some meadows and alongside the stream. After a couple of miles I could see some buildings in the distance, and could tell I was getting closer to civilization when I saw an old concrete dam.

The dam looked like it could topple over at any second. I navigated around some private property and then found myself on a nice easy road.

The main attraction for the day was Black Creek Canyon. I navigated my way over to the East Fork of Black River, and crossed it on a road bridge which was under construction.

Usually I would take a break at the trailhead, but it was all torn up and had some construction vehicles parked in it so I just continued down the trail. The first mile of hiking along the river was easy, on a nice wide trail. After that, the East Fork of Black River merged with the West Fork and now it was just the main river. The GPS track showed that I should ford the river here, and then re-cross it again in less than half a mile. That seemed like a waste of time and energy, and all my maps showed that the trail just continued on this side of the river, but a little higher up the side of the canyon. So I followed some switchbacks up…and up. And I accidentally found myself on a plateau above the river.

It was beautiful and there were dozens of elk! I followed a pretty nice trail for almost a mile and then I left it to drop back down into the river canyon.

Now that I was back in the canyon, I was following the proper trail, which indeed was traversing a sidehill a little ways above the river.

A little while later I came across a pile of feathers blocking the trail and realized it was a dead bird. Poor guy. I wonder what would cause a large predatory bird to die here?

I walked a little ways above the river on that nice sidehill trail for an hour, just soaking in the views of the canyon ahead of me.

Eventually the trail dropped down to the river, and I had my first river ford of the day.

At this point, the river was quite shallow (only shin deep) and the water was moving slowly. But the rocks on the bottom were so slippery! Using my hiking pole, I was able to balance and slowly cross without incident. I was now soaking wet from the knees down, but it was a nice warm day so I didn’t care.

Mostly I was hiking above the river, on trail that was easy to follow. I knew there were lots more river fords coming up, but for now I was just enjoying the trail.

I stopped for lunch at a fork in the trail. This was a decision point, do I continue down the river canyon on a trail that was expected to deteriorate, and with dozens more river fords? Fortunately my Luna bar had the answer.

There were a couple options to leave the Black River Canyon, escaping up to the rim on either side and taking some roads to rejoin the trail later. But I decided to stick with the river. As expected, the trail did have quite a few more river fords further downstream. Usually getting to the river involved pushing through some willow bushes.

Surprisingly, it was mostly still a nice trail.

Usually when trails are this remote, they don’t see much foot traffic and the tread begins to fade away. And trail crews have a hard time accessing them for maintenance. There were a few times where I lost the faint trail, but it was easy to find again with all of the cairns. As I got closer to the trailhead for the bottom end of the canyon, the trail improved again.

I even saw signs for a trail junction, which was a little surprising because I had not seen any signs since I left the paved road this morning.

After the fish Creek junction I knew I had just over a mile to go, and now the trail was easy to follow again. I made it to the trailhead and exited the Black River Canyon, and it was 4pm. Those last few miles were pretty slow, but I expected that, given there were about 27 river fords. I left the canyon, hiking uphill on a dirt road, and it felt good to move quickly.

I enjoyed not having to focus on navigating, and for an hour I listened to a podcast while I hiked on the road. Then, the route abruptly left the road and dropped into Snake River Canyon. It was incredibly steep down to the creek, but it was a good water source and it really was the only way across to the plateau.

I hiked straight back up the other side, and since there’s no trail here, I just chose my own route through the open forest. Eventually I emerged onto an old dirt road which was nice walking for the last part of the day.

Because the Black River Canyon miles were so slow, I decided to hike a little later to make up some distance. Just before 7pm I stopped to camp in a nice big flat area near elk tank/pond. Hopefully I will hear some elk tonight.

Thursday May 23, 21.7mi/34.9km

Burro Mountain Saddle (355.4/9680ft) to Home Creek Tank (375.3/8010ft) (Arizona) +1.8mi to Big Lake CG

My campsite in the trees was pretty ideal for blocking the wind, but even so it was a pretty cold night. It was the highest elevation I’ve slept at on this trail and I definitely noticed. I started hiking in a bunch of layers and slowly removed them as the sun came up higher. I was also descending lower.

One of the old dirt roads was descending pretty steeply, so I had to watch my footing and I almost missed this good view of Mount Baldy.

Eventually the old road turned in a different direction and I kept going straight, crossing this meadow in whatever direction felt right.

I had dropped all the way down to the West Fork Black River, and while it was still windy here it was much warmer. I followed along the river for an hour, it definitely kept me entertained. They had built these little waterfalls to purposely keep out invasive fish, so only the native Arizona trout could get upstream.

This gate seemed kind of ridiculous, especially with its sign scolding “please close the gate”, given that there was no fence connecting to either side of the gate.

It was mostly just good views and the relaxing sound of the river next to me.

I came around the corner to this old dog just laying there napping in the sun. We were both very surprised to see each other, though a minute later I ran into his humans, who were fly fishing in the stream.

As I continued downstream, the river became less turbulent and calmer as it passed through some meadows.

Finally, in order to leave this canyon I had to cross the river. The crossing was called Deadman’s Ford, sounds like it’s a safe place to cross.

It was an easy crossing, since the water was only shin deep but it was so frigid. After 5 minutes my feet bones finally warmed back up and I could start hiking uphill again to leave the canyon. An hour later I was at the trailhead which had one of these neat carved maps.

I had heard this area had been burned pretty severely a few years ago but I didn’t notice anything near the trail.

Just before noon, I arrived at a junction with an optional turn-off to Big Lake Campground. I decided to hike the quarter-mile off route to go fill my water bottles and have lunch at a picnic table. I explored around the campground, looking for the one bathroom that had the showers, since I hadn’t gotten clean in 5 days. I finally found it, there was a whole separate building basically apart from the campground, and I gladly paid them the $8 to take an unlimited hot shower. The view from there was pretty good too.

After eating lunch, showering, and charging my phone, I realized that a couple hours had passed and it was time to get back to the trail. This part of the trail was in a burn section but thousands of young Aspens were growing amongst the charred trees.

I passed by the most unique spring I ever saw, there was a little pipe coming out of the ground filling a hollowed-out log.

And then for like a mile I saw all these little orange cylinders dotting the sides of the trail, it was such a curious sight.

I looked inside one of them and then realized their purpose, they are protecting the young trees that have been planted to replace the burned forest.

The last couple hours of the day were easy hiking on old roads through some nice unburned forest.

I saw that I was about to exit the forest into an extensive meadow, so I decided to stop and camp, while I still had good terrain to camp in. I can hear animals walking around the forest in this area, I’m guessing it’s elk since I had seen so many of them today.

Wednesday May 22, 23.4mi/37.7km

Start of Railroad Grade Trail (337.2/9180ft) to Burro Mountain Saddle (355.4/9680ft) (Arizona) +5.2mi Greer resupply

I watched the sunrise from my camp spot hidden amongst the trees, and I felt the warmth as soon as it hit the tent.

I spent the morning walking on the Railroad Grade Trail through a bunch of alpine meadows.

There were even a couple spots on some north-facing slopes that the snow hadn’t quite fully melted away yet.

I also noticed that some of the puddles had a thin skin of ice on top of them. It clearly had gotten much colder out here in the open meadow than it had in the forest where I camped.

And for some reason, I saw not one, but two bathtubs along the side of the trail today.

And I would occasionally see meltwater ponds on either side of the trail, with the railroad grade cutting right down in the middle.

What was unexpected though, was when the grade had been washed out, and one pond was draining into another…very rapidly.

I took off my shoes and waded across the rushing frigid water. Brrr. The rest of the morning was less exciting, and was a relaxing stroll amongst the aspens.

There was even a neat little trestle bridge to hike over.

I departed the Railroad Grade Trail at a forestry road and then followed that for a little while. There was a turn off point, with a two and a half mile detour to get to the town of Greer. I turned off to the detour to go to town since I had mailed myself a box of food to the post office, and I could also stop at a diner for lunch. After almost an hour of downhill hiking I was in town!

It’s a very small town with only one main street, but they had this nice little walkway.

The post office was at the other end of town which didn’t take long since that was only half a mile away.

The woman working at the post office was very nice, but seemed to have made up her own rules. She said they only accept General Delivery boxes if you register ahead of time but she accepted this one as a “one-time courtesy”. I have been hiking for 10 years and have mailboxes to probably 100 post offices and no other PO has that rule. Oh well. I moved on to the diner, which even smelled delicious from the outside.

It was a nice little place, and they kept bringing me cold drinks which was much appreciated. I must be getting close to New Mexico, because I was able to order my elk burger smothered in red and green chile sauce.

After letting my food digest for a bit and charging my phone, I walked out of town and headed back up the hill. Once I rejoined the route, I followed a nice trail through another aspen forest.

There was a little snake hiding out in the grass on the ground. He seemed much friendlier than that rattler I had seen a couple weeks ago.

Eventually the train opened back up to an alpine meadow.

And soon after that I entered the Mount Baldy Wilderness!

It had been a while since I’ve hiked in a wilderness area on this trail. There were forested sections…

… And meadow sections too.

Even though Mount Baldy is like 11,000 ft, I couldn’t get a good glimpse of it from where I was hiking, it was kind of hidden behind the hills and the trees. So I just enjoyed the view hiking thru the wilderness.

It was around 6pm so I started looking for a place to camp, that was not in a meadow. I was intently focused on my search so I didn’t even notice when this herd came out from behind a little hill and surprised me.

We kind of scared each other, because they started sprinting away in a panic, and I just yelled out “ungulates!” I continued on, and it took me another half an hour to find a spot to camp that was in a forested area. The rising full moon was quite a sight to see!

I set up my tent in the trees, away from the wind, and the cold and condensation that typically accompanies meadows.

Tuesday May 21, 21.4mi/34.4km

Pierce Spring (315.8/8120ft) to Start of Railroad Grade Trail (337.2/9180ft) (Arizona)

Surprisingly I had very minimal condensation on the inside of my tent when I woke up. I packed everything up and walked over to the spring to get water.

It looked pretty gross, and then I realized that was the cow trough, not the spring which I found hidden in a wooden box nearby. I hiked for about a mile on trails, and then I left the White Mountain Trails network.

The rest of the day was walking on dirt roads or some short XC sections. And now that I was up over 8,000 ft, there seemed to be water everywhere.

It was nice weather, and hiking in the Sun felt nice but it was a little chilly in the shade.

On one of the shaded north-facing slopes, I even found a little patch of snow remaining from the winter!

Next, I hiked through a burn area which of course had very little shade.

There was a massive fire here in 2014, and even 10 years later it looked like it had barely recovered.

Near the edge of the burn zone I noticed that some young pine trees had started to take root. It was cool to see the juxtaposition of the very small trees against the very tall older trees.

The databook for this trail lists every waypoint, turn, junction, and water source. Today there were many more water sources than the guide had listed.

Just before lunch I got to an area called CC Meadow, which was simply stunning.

I could see for miles in every direction and even some snowy mountains in the distance!

This one tree grew by itself in the meadow and it reminded me of the “Lonely tree” in Wanaka NZ.

I stopped and had lunch in the meadow and enjoyed the views all around me. It was a little windy and cold, so I didn’t stay very long. Soon I entered the forest and hiked XC along a fenceline which was the boundary to the Fort Apache Reservation.

It was a fun little section of navigating through the brush and fallen trees.

I emerged out of the woods onto a different road, everything was so green out here!

I passed by a few more ponds and refilled my water bottle. I never carried more than a liter all day, it was great. The next section of XC was a bit easier, it was just walking in a straight line across a giant meadow.

I even got to watch a herd of animals cross the meadow, it’s amazing how fast they can run.

I came to my last good water source for the day, and refilled my bottle one last time for dinner.

I noticed that nearby, somebody had installed what looked like… horseshoe pits?!

I crossed highway 260 again, and I think for the last time. I had been following this highway since the start of the trail in Cottonwood, 335 trail miles ago. I see that the road took 379 miles to get to this point, so I think I came out ahead on distance.

After crossing the road, I started on the Railroad Grade Trail.

Of course it was perfectly flat and went directly across another alpine meadow.

My map showed it would be crossing a meadow for about six miles, and I wanted to camp in the trees, so I decided to stop here near the start of the trail while I still had a forest to camp in. The rising moon looked great from my tent.

Tomorrow I plan to get an early start to hike the 8mi/13km into Greer, which I think is the last real town on this trail.

Monday May 20, 22.5mi/36.2km

Timber Mesa Trail (293.3/6950ft) to Pierce Spring (315.8/8120ft) (Arizona)

It was a nice warm night, perfect for sleeping, and as usual I woke up when the sun hit my tent at 5:30. I hiked all day on various trails in the White Mountains trail network, The first one was the Osprey connector trail.

I dropped down off the mesa into a little meadow and these irises were everywhere.

I crossed a little stream, which is the first one I had seen on the trail in a long time. It looked like a good clear water source but I didn’t need water.

A mile later I came to a little geological oddity called Ice Cave. This whole area has volcanic geology, and this is a little lava tube that goes beneath the surface.

I couldn’t really explore it because it was blocked off by a fence, but it was interesting to look at and feel the cold air coming out of the cave. I had some uphill hiking for the next hour to the top of Blue Ridge Mountain.

While I was at the top I had a phone signal and made arrangements for my food box to be mailed to the last trail town in Blue, AZ. The top of the mountain also had a water guzzler so I visited that and refilled my bottle.

While I was sitting there recharging my phone battery with the solar panel, I noticed these two birds kept coming over to the guzzler and getting a drink.

On the hike down the mountain it was starting to get warmer and I noticed all these little lizards were scurrying across the trail. This one actually stayed still long enough to get a photo.

I came to a trailhead where a guy was doing some trail maintenance. He said he was with Tracks, which is a local volunteer hiking group. I also noticed at each trailhead they had provided a lot of information with different colored binders for each of the trails, and also some waterproof maps.

Despite how windy it had become, it was still a really nice sunny day for hiking.

Some of these trails have the funniest names.

I stopped and had lunch at the junction to Pat Mullen Mountain, a popular short day hike with locals. I chatted with a few of them as they walked by, nobody seemed to understand how I could have walked here from Cottonwood AZ, about 300 miles away. After lunch I had a couple hours of gradual uphill walking and I noticed it was gradually becoming cooler. And then the clouds moved in and it got legitimately cold it was probably only 45°F / 7C.

The trail emerged at a dirt road crossing, and I noticed I was at the boundary of the Fort Apache Reservation.

I stopped and put on a bunch of clothing layers and continued walking down the cold and windy dirt road.

I even felt a few sprinkles of rain, which was the first time this has happened to me during this hike. But an hour later the sun came out and it was no longer windy.

This might be my favorite trail name yet.

I noticed I was starting to see Aspen trees around, and I looked at my map and noticed I was over 8,000 ft elevation.

My goal was to make it to a little spring, so I hiked until 6pm through some very nice pine forest.

I found the little spring and it had some nice looking water. My next task was to find a flat campsite, ideally under some trees, which was much harder to do. But eventually I found a spot under some old junipers, which should give me a little protection from the condensation that will likely happen up at this colder elevation.

Sunday May 19, 6.3mi/10.1km

Hwy 260 (287.0/6600ft) to Timber Mesa Trail (293.3/6950ft) (Arizona)

Since I’m usually awake with the sun at 5:30 in my tent, I also woke up early out of habit in the motel. But I had plenty to do, including washing some gear, planning my next few town stops, and troubleshooting the glitchy Garmin app on my phone. I packed up all the food I bought from the store yesterday, it looks like it will be plenty.

I checked out the motel at 11am and walked down the street to McDonald’s where I knew I could sit for a couple hours and finish all my phone chores while I enjoyed a milkshake and a snack. Eventually by 2pm finished everything and got a short taxi ride back to the trail. (Unfortunately the bus system doesn’t run on Sundays). The first half mile was on pavement…

… But pretty soon I was leaving the developed area behind, and entered Show Low Lake Park.

Like pretty much every lake in the arid southwest, it’s a man-made lake, created by a dammed-up river.

I enjoyed walking along the lake short for a mile and then I turned off into the woods where I saw something that felt a little creepy. There was this wind chime hanging from a tree in the middle of nowhere, with no reasonable explanation for its existence.

That was quickly pushed out of my mind though, when I had to jump a short fence.

Usually the transition from civilization to wilderness involves linking together some unusual features, like powerline corridors. It’s easy navigation though!

I enjoyed a short section of cross country through some meadows.

And then pretty soon I was on a real trail, the Timber Mesa Trail.

It climbed uphill a little bit, to (unsurprisingly) the top of a Mesa.

I hiked this for a couple miles and then around 6pm I decided that was enough for today, and started to look for a camp spot amongst the trees, which were glowing in the orange setting sun.

It was a little windy all day, but it seems my tent is well protected here in the trees.

Saturday May 18, 18.1mi/29.1km

Near Joe Tank Rd (268.9/6590ft) to Hwy 260 (287.0/6600ft) (Arizona)

I was awake earlier than usual, knowing I had 18 miles to do to get to town today. I wanted to get to Show Low by 4pm so I could do my resupply shopping and get the last bus at 5:30 to my motel. So I was hiking at 5:45, passing by more of these trail signs.

That one had come off a fallen tree on the ground, it was cool to see the font up close. It was a pretty easy day of walking on old dirt roads and well it was a pretty easy day of walking on old dirt roads, and the routes are well-marked by those signs.

Fortunately I still had plenty of water from yesterday, so I could skip all the gross looking cow ponds.

The next cow pond was so big, it even had an island in the middle of it! That’s a first.

I also walked by this ancient Toyota pickup, which looked like it had been resting in the Arizona desert for half a century.

The Show Low hiking community is known for keeping good trails, and they are all marked at the junctions like this one.

I had finally exited the massive burn area and was back in the Ponderosa Pine Forest. I was on the lookout for the Chihuahua Pine, which I think I saw a couple but not sure.

The miles came easily, and before I knew it I was crossing under highway 60 in a massive culvert.

The last 6 miles of the day were on a bunch of trails that were clearly used by mountain bikers, since they were very rutted and worn in.

At one spot there was a low-hanging branch over the trail, and somebody had cleverly written the word “quack” on it, ha!

I stopped for a short lunch and ate a bunch of my remaining snacks and then continued on toward the town, since I only had a couple miles to go. Eventually I emerged on a road in a neighborhood called “Starlight Ridge estates” or some such pretentious name.

I was on pavement for a little over a mile, but soon came to the main highway. The neighborhood had put up some unique decorations at the intersection!

I was in town and it was only 1:15, I made much better time than I thought I would. So I did my resupply shopping for this next section, which I think is only about 3 or 4 days long. I decided to experiment a little and buy some different flavors of things.

I finished shopping and I had about 45 minutes to wait for the next bus to come. Fortunately right next to the bus stop is a Wendy’s, where I got a 4-for-4 deal and enjoyed the salty food.

The bus system is great, it was on time and it was only $1. I rode it for a couple stops, like 5 mi up to my motel in the main part of Show Low.

After doing laundry and showering, I went next door to the Domino’s and got a cheap pizza and wings deal for dinner. After dinner I did some more trip planning on my phone and then relaxed with some TV. I love that SNL is on at 9pm here.

Tomorrow, I start section 5 and cross the 300-mile mark of this trail!

Friday May 17, 23.9mi/38.5km

Williams Ranch Bdy (245.2/6600ft) to Near Joe Tank Rd (268.9/6590ft) (Arizona) +0.2mi water searching

I could tell it was going to be a hot day when I left camp at 6:30 and it already felt warm. I hiked along the Williams ranch for a little while, noticing their gargantuan fence to keep out the wild horses.

I came to Cottonwood wash, my first water source for the day. While it wasn’t silty, the water seemed a little thick with aquatic life.

It was nice to hike in the shade of the trees as I made my way up Cottonwood wash.

But pretty soon the trees ended, and for much of the day I would be hiking in a massive burn area from 2002. This is also when the roller coaster started. I would hike uphill…

… Only to come right back down within a mile.

As I hiked westward and got closer to Show Low I noticed trail quality improved. There were signs too!

And then of course I climbed another uphill, which also had a nice set of trail markers, “White Mountains Trail System”.

After another downhill to complete that cycle, I came to my first good water source for the day. It was a piped spring, and I was able to fill my bottle directly from the hose which was nice.

Since it was almost lunchtime, I decided to eat there and drink as much water as possible since I didn’t want to have to carry extra water. The afternoon was full of scenic hiking, but without the tree cover it was pretty warm.

Some small pockets of forest had escaped the 2002 fire but mostly it was in the sun.

After another climb I descended through this nice grassy valley.

And finally I came to my last water source for the day. It was a nice little riparian area with some pretty decent water.

I don’t expect to see any good clear water between here and town tomorrow, a stretch of about 25 miles. I filled up a third liter and made my backpack heavy. Hiking back uphill, I soon arrived at a trail junction, the signage was a little confusing. A shortcut to what?

I had one more roller coaster bump for the day, I hiked uphill for a while to the top of Juniper ridge.

Still going up. I could see the tower in the distance.

At the top of Juniper ridge, I was at an elevation of 7,000 ft and it was nice and cool. I took a break in the shade of some short trees and enjoyed the views.

I still had about 2 miles ago before I could get to a spot where the terrain looked flat enough to camp. I made my way back downhill, following the trail through a pretty severely burned section. Someone had some fun with this dead tree and decorated it with smooth stones, ha!

In the distance I could see a little copse of pine trees, and I aimed for that to camp. The strategy worked out pretty well, and I was able to find a flat-ish spot underneath some trees and get setup before it got dark.