Daily miles 21
Total miles 390
Camp elevation 3500 feet
Normal start of around 6:30am.
First several miles of the day were on forest roads. These are not maintained (apparently) roads that exist in some pretty backcountry places. Similar to fire roads or jeep trails typically. What we were on for much of the morning, was a road that often followed the ridge line of the mountains giving us wonderful views quite often. Additionally, there were lots of water seeps coming it of the land around the road. The easy walking made for easy miles. Additionally, we were going down hill for much of the day through the Mazatzal mountains.
We had our final views of Roosevelt Lake before beginning our decent in earnest. Once we had dropped a couple thousand feet, the landscape changed to one of grassy fields surrounded by the mountains. It was quite beautiful.
We took a long break at Sycamore Creek, where the water was moving strong. We washed up, as well as rinsed out our socks and clothes. Very refreshing.
Around 4:30 we got to the Sunflower Trailhead, where our friend Purple had dropped off a few days of food for us. Caching the food broke up the longer section so we’d only need to carry 2 and a half days for each stretch. It worked out well, since Purple was driving through this area to bring the hikers from Wisconsin that we met early to Roosevelt Lake. We also had our pre-planned treat of a big bag of tortilla chips and some salami sticks that Purple had added. The break and the big snack was great.
After the snack, we walked another mile and a half till we found a campsite where we could hammock and Qball could setup his tent. We are hanging between two large Juniper trees. It should work well. We can listen to a podcast since we are hanging close together. 🙂
Tomorrow morning we climb!
Questions or thoughts on this article? Please leave them below: