We now sit in the comforts of the Jame's household with 200 miles of the AZT complete. The section from Grand Canyon to Flagstaff included a wonderful warm week in the Canyon with Bob's brother Jesse, a couple of frigid nights in the pinon pine and juniper woods of Babbit Ranches, and some very snowy nights near the San Francisco Peaks.
Jesse made his way down to Phantom Ranch in the big storm that left even the pack mules out of work for 2 days, the trail erroding too quickly too safe travel. We left the Ranch with a tear in our eye and big bag of cookies (thank you Vicki!). We hiked to the Grandview trailhead for the next week. The snow was down below the tapeats in some places, a rare occurance. The AZT officially goes up the Bright Angel, south to Tusyan, and east to Grandview Lookout Tower. We prefered hiking inside the canyon over to the Lookout Tower, instead of on Forest Service roads. It was warm and we had a lot of fun exploring the drainages and teaching Jesse about the Canyon on our way to Horseshoe Mesa.
Out of the Canyon, Jesse took us around to shower, do laundry and pack for the next leg of our journey. 4 hours and a wonderful meal later, we were camped in the snow ready to head to the San Francisco Peaks. By day 2 we had left the Ponderosa forest behind and were down lower in the pinon pine and juniper country. This was very cold, with a bitter wind and rough walking. Some nights, we felt like giving in, but when the sun shone on our beautiful faces the next day, we once again found the courage to keep going. We soon got our first glimpse of the Peaks. With our goal in sight, we ratched on our bonnets, buttoned up our dresses, and kept on truckin'. So we walked like this for a couple of days, nothing but the coyotes, roadrunners (watch for falling anvils), and some cattle.
By day four we were back in the Ponderosa forest, with the Peaks now larger than life. This is my journal entry for that night: "Tonight finds us at a campfire in a meadow as the waxing moon shines down upon us, reflecting off the snow on Mt.Humphrey. I'm not worthy of spending an entire night in such a beautiful setting. Ahhh. Today we entered the land of basalt and lava flows, ponderosa pine, owls, turkeys, and racoons. It was a warm sunny day, we hiked with short sleeves! We did put the snowshoes on toward the end of the day. The bright moon has been a pleasure to hike under, as the transition from the golden glow of the sun to the blue light of the nearly full moon happens so smoothly that one barely notices night has fallen."
The next two days we put our route-finding skills to work as we hiked up and around the mountain. This section of the AZT is one that in not complete, and the going was slow in over 5 feet of snow. But what an adventure it was to hike from one sight to the next, making sure to keep on a southern heading. We did get a bit off track in one of the mountain's canyons. It was a tricky snowshoe around fallen trees and truck-sized boulders, trying not to step in holes that would swallow you up to your waist. But we found our way up and around before nightfall, and only 2 miles short of out destination, Arizona Snowbowl, the ski area atop the mountain. We hiked across Hart Prairie on day eight, with stunning views of the country's second largest lava flow to the west. Snowbowl welcomed us with the best-tasting poor quailty hamburgers and beer we've had in a long time! We got a ride down the mountain to resupply (we were too short on fuel to continue), buy a tent (quick easy setup and extra warmth), and prepare for the rest of the trip.
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