AZT 33 – Into Kaibab National Forest

Daily miles 26.5
Total miles 660.5
Camp elevation 6700

Wind died down last night as we headed toward sleep. It became so still, and so quickly still. Chilly enough night, but not any colder than the past few nights. Water bottles had ice in them.

Right at 5:30am, a group of coyotes were howling quite close, and then all the howling ended on a dime. We didn’t see any coyotes today but saw 6 antelope. 5 were in a group together, and one came out of the tree line and moved with us a bit, keeping an eye on us. We had view of him for 20 minutes or so.

The first half of the day was spent on roads continuing through Babbitt Ranch. The roads are in good shape, so we made decent time. Temps were pretty mild… May have hit low 70s. The sky was clear all day, and the wind determined how many layers of clothing we hiked on.

Our first water source of the day was at 17 miles which is also where we stopped for lunch it was at a water tank in the area where the steers are kept on the ranch. Just as we got to the tank, a water truck came up to fill the tank. The driver (Jim) sat and talked with us for 40 minutes while the tank filled up. Nice guy who was semi retired and had worked on the ranch for 9 years. He was a 12 generation Arizonian. We had a very nice time chatting with him and learning about the area. The Babbitt Ranch is over 700,000 areas.

After lunch, the trail entered the Kaibab National Forest and we were in the woods on single track trail for most of the rest of the day. It was very pleasant walking with some shade from the trees and in a more forested area, rather than the open plain of the morning.

Late in the day, we came across a water cache from last year. We topped off our water and continued on. We had planned to camp near a livestock mud tank and get water here as well…. But no water. Nice that there was some water at the cache.

Our camp is much different tonight than last night. There is a meadow about 70yatds away, we are camped at a very flat spot with great trees, and the air is unmoving. None of us have our rain flies up, so we should be enjoying the stars tonight.