AZT 28 – Mormon Lake Lodge

Daily miles 17
Total miles 550
Camp elevation 7000 feet

It could be a cold night. We are all in our sleeping bags at 7pm. It’s still light out, but cold. Qball has his fly on his tent, and we have our hammock tarps up in an effort to hold some heat, but mostly block the breeze.

Last night was pretty cold. Over the course of the night, all of us put on all the clothes that we had. Our water bottles were still frozen even after an hour of walking. We are not completely surprised, but the coolness can be uncomfortable at times. We are going to be at high elevation for the rest of the trip… So we are hoping for a warm front 🙂 it’s possible that we will see snow, but hopefully not much. Forecast looks good with regards to precipitation.

We got rolling at 6am and did our 5+ miles into Mormon Lake by a little after 8am. Our resupply packages were held at the Mormon Lake Store, and we were all looking forward to get out of the cold and get a warm drink. The store had a table so we hung out in there till 11. We had a nice chat with a woman from Ashland, Wisconsin whose son had hiked the trail a couple years ago. At 11, we headed over to the pizza place and got lunch… The food was good and it was good a place to relax. We weren’t planning to get in and out of town quick, and wanted to relax a bit… That is what we got.

Mormon Lake is interesting in that the lake is really just a big field. At some point it was a very large lake but that is not the case any more. It is all dried up. The area has a good number of second homes and cabins…. Probably for folks looking to escape the heat from other parts of the state in the summer, as well as cross country skiers and snowmobilers in the winter. Pretty accessible trails for hiking and running up here as well.

Funny moment during the day when Beardoh tried to take off his long johns (which were under his running shorts) without taking off his running shorts. Wolfpack had done this in the PCT and Qball had just done this successfully 5min before.   Beardoh ended up in a tangled mess on the ground… SweetPea and Qball tried to catch their breath from laughing.

We hiked our miles in the afternoon, largely on or around a railroad bed that hadn’t been in use for 60+ years. In the afternoon the temps felt excellent for hiking. Pretty flat day of hiking except the trail leading down to Mormon Lake Lodge. Tomorrow, we will push on to the outskirts of Flagstaff.