Ellen S - Arizona Trail Journal - 2016

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Ta-Da!

Day 44

What a great campsite last night! Some ravens followed us yesterday as we

hiked thru the sagebrush. Last evening, they entertained us. They were

very curious about our tent and us. They did fly-overs every few minutes

to check us out, squawking to each other. Probably about a dozen of them.

They kept it up for hours, until it was too dark to fly. What were they

saying? "Yep, they are still there." "No new movements." "The guy is

wandering around (taking photos)."

We had a broad view across the sagebrush. Sunset, with the lingering

clouds, was beautiful. We laid in the tent talking about the day and what

the next day would bring. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Up early as usual. Not far to hike, but the dirt road our vehicle was on

could be impassable if it rained in the afternoon. It was still cold in

the morning (we were still at 6600 feet elevation). Clear skies, as usual

in the morning.

We quickly reached the forest boundary then Winter Rd. A surprise there: a

guy was fixing espresso for some thrus. The 2 hikers were a brother/sister

team whose journal we had been following. They had slowed down their pace

because they had a set date on plane reservations, so we caught up. We had

fun chatting with them and sharing stories of the trail.

We walked on. Pinyon juniper forest dominated the area on the plateau. We

dipped in and out of small drainages. As we lost elevation, we saw more

and more flowers. Reds, yellows, blues, strewn among thick grasses or red

soil. This was our third time hiking this passage and we had never seen it

look so beautiful. Needless to say, it took a while to hike thru this as

we both tried to capture the images.

Eventually, we headed down a drainage then out on open slopes for the first

of the endless switchbacks down to the trailhead. Happy to be done, sad to be

finished (does this only make sense to another hiker?).

We gave a ride to the brother/sister hikers to Page. Sat at a frozen

yogurt store and enjoyed our first taste of civilization with them.

Then off to Kanab for our celebration night. We cleaned up and went out to

the nicest restaurant we could find. Tomorrow we have to get back to

normal calories, but that's for tomorrow!

Entry 46 of 47
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