Daily miles 19
Total miles 186.5
Camp elevation 7800 feet
Headed out of camp by 5:30am with our headlamps on. The morning was warm for being so early, but comfortable, probably 60ish.
We thought the day would be a scorcher because it was so warm when we started, but cloud cover came and stayed for the day. We were very happy as the climb was pretty serious and headed aggressively up the mountain. Pretty much our whole day was spent climbing Mt Lemmon. We dropped down to around 4000′ in elevation at the beginning of the day and around 9am started climbing…. for the remainder of the day, till we got up to 7900 feet.
Along our hike, we ran into a couple who were out overnight, a trail runner, and Rambling Hemlock and Jan. The latter two are hiking the southern 300 miles of the AZT. We are familiar with Rambling Hemlock from the hammock community and had followed her journey on the PCT last summer. It was great to meet her and Jan, and we hope the remainder of their journey on the AZT continues well.
Our main goal for the day was to get to Summerhaven town and especially the Sawmill Restaurant before they closed at 5. We made it into the place just before 4pm. It was great to sit in the cushy booth and relax and eat. SweetPea ate a salad and a bowl of chili…. Beardoh had the same and an order of chicken wings as well. It was a lot of food when it was all on the table, but we thoroughly enjoyed it and finished it all.
We hiked on from town to the trail head where there is a campsite nearby. We met four other AZT hikers at the campsite who are attempting the whole trail as well. We have been following their footprints for over a week now and it was good to catch up to them and meet them.
A lighter day of walking tomorrow as we head towards Oracle. It will be a lot of downhill.
Great meeting you all and hope you have a wonderful hike! Really enjoying reading your blog and seeing your photos! Happy Trails!
Hey Rambling Hemlock! We enjoyed meeting you as well. Just got into Phoenix last night and caught up with your southbound progress. Good luck with the Altras. Picking up our hammocks here for the last 500 miles 🙂
It sure was fun to meet our first NOBO’s! My blog is under https://jansjaunts.wordpress.com and I’m finally getting my blog updated from our 300-mile SOBO hike. I look forward to following the rest of your adventure.
Hey Beekeeper! Great to meet you 🙂 we’ll check out your blog!