Day One of 2017 road trip: to Flagstaff

I didn’t wake up until 6:20am.  Kevin never wakes me up when I’m sleeping unless I ask him to.  He was  on the back porch when I finally got up for coffee.  I was still tired from being up till almost 2am, getting things organized.

I cleaned up the front yard, added some last minute touches to an already packed van, and at 9:35am we were off.  Temperatures were already 85F and it only got worse once I was on the road. Even the dogs were miserable. Both of them decided that sleeping on the platform was more comfy than on the passenger seat or at the base of the platform like I had planned. By the time I got to northern Phoenix after noon, it was 107F and my van couldn’t keep us cool enough.  Rest stops for the dogs were painful because of the heat radiating off the asphalt. The heat made me too sleepy but I forged on to Flagstaff, my destination for the day.  I always enjoy coming to this town.

I drove into town at 3:40pm.  What a relief that was to make it! The city was green and I could still see some snow on the northern slopes.  I stopped at Fry's Foods for raw meat for the dogs, and at Taco Bell for bean burritos and a Facebook update.  A former SV Hiker, EricT, who now works as a trucker out of BullheadCity, said he was in town after dropping a load.  We agreed to meet for a snack after I got a hike in the way.  After 352 miles we all needed to move a bit.  The Arizona Trail comes into town via the north side of Mt Elden.  I parked at the trail head and headed north.  The dogs were offleash and I pulled off the trail when several people from the opposite direction came toward me.  The dogs were well behaved.

I started the hike after 5pm but there still was plenty of sunshine to make the grasses glow.  I began with the Sandy Seep trail, a 1.5-mile spur trail that joins the Arizona trail and the Mt Elden Loop trail.  This spur trail starts as a fairly flat jeep trail at 6810’, spotted with Ponderdorsa Pines.  The devastating 1977 fire still leaves vast sections of the hillside baren.

The further into the forest I walked, the more lush everything became, and the only reason I turned around was because of the waning sunshine.  I wanted to be off the trail before dusk.

more later