MRT 3 – April 14 – Loy Canyon

Daily Miles: 20

Total Miles: 40

We all slept pretty good last night…probably because we were so worn out. But, we were ready to go again when our alarms went off at 6am. We managed to pack up a bit fast today. Hopefully we’ll keep getting quicker as we get more into the routine.

We started the morning by finishing up the climb we had started yesterday afternoon when we left the rocky wash. Luckily the climb was pretty gradual…enough of a climb to warm us up, but not to make us tired.

We stopped at the cabin to pick up water and continued to the top of the ridge. Once we were on top, we walked on easy forest roads for awhile before starting the descent which would give back all the elevation we had gained since yesterday afternoon.

The descent started out pretty rocky and at times steep. It was slow going as the trail skirted along a steep drop-off. After a bit, we came into Loy Canyon which was nice and forested and even had soft dirt trails. We started seeing some day hikers as we got closer to a trailhead, and with the nice trail, we were able to make good time.

The bulk of the afternoon was spent either on dirt roads or walking cross-country between dirt roads. It was relatively flat terrain, so it was just nice to still feel remote, even as we saw signs of the touristy nature of Sedona that we are getting close to.

We ended the day walking on immaculate trails around Sedona. They seem to get heavy bike and foot traffic, but we were coming through in early evening, so we only saw a few people.

We are currently camped up a wash, a few hundred feet from the trail. It is very quiet, and it seems like it will be a warmer evening than the previous two nights. We got to camp around 5:30pm, which is our earliest stop so far. We didn’t need to do more miles since we will hang in Sedona tomorrow awaiting our friends, Ace and Mtn Man who are joining us for the next 5 days of hiking. It is nice to have time for our evening “chores” before it gets dark. We are all in bed before 7pm.