AZT 2019 Day 37: Campsite north of Bismarck Lake (mile 606.4) to campsite near Chapel Mountain (mile 633.5)

27.1 miles

It was certainly a cold morning. At 8,800 ft in elevation,  it was just going to happen. It wasn't, however, as cold as I thought it would be. I was perfectly cozy in my sleeping bag and z-lite. So cozy that it was really hard to get up. It was much lighter in the sky than it usually was when I pack up, and it took me longer than usual to do so.

Once I got my body moving on the trail,  the temperature was much more comfortable. I was headed down the mountain though alternating area of pine and aspen. I even spotted a friendly deer, who didn't seem to mind me coming down the trail.

The trail moving through aspens.
Hello, deer.


Eventually the trail flattened out, and I joined a forest road. I happened to glance back and saw I had a great view of the snow covered peaks I just passed.

Looking back at Humphrey's Peak.


The trail branched off on a footpath that paralleled a road, then joined roads the rest of the day. I saw a gopher snake on one stretch of road.

Road walking.

Gopher snake.


At one point, I passed a resupply box. Trail angels leave water caches for hikers who are supposed to pack out the empty containers. What has been happening is that people will take most of the water, but leave a small amount on the jug so that they do not have to carry it with them.

Resupply box.

The typical sight at a water cache. A mostly empty jug.


Usually, this really bothers me. Today, however, I was looking for one of those jugs to take with me. At least one of the upcoming water sources is out of arms length. I found one of these mostly used jugs in the resupply box, topped off my water, and carried it out with me.

Then, I went back to forest roads. Later in the day, the road dipped into a valley. While in this valley it was time to fill up with water again. I took a side trail to East Cedar Tank. I was a little wary when I approached and saw a metal tank overflowing with algae. Luckily, as I got closer, I saw that there was a pipe with clear flowing water. I filled up, then headed back to the road, seeing a coyote just past the tank.

East Cedar Tank.
Coyote.


I road walked for several more hours, passing many cows. Finally, at the end of the day, I chose my campsite for the night. It was nestled in some trees with a view of both the sunset and snow covered mountains.

Sunset light on Humphreys Peak. 


Comments

  1. Hello Susanne.....I ran into some of the foul weather today that you encountered a few days ago. Driving between Sedona and Flagstaff on 89A the road was covered in snow and ice and the snow plows were out in force......I then ran into snow on I-40 East of Flagstaff off and on all the way to Albuquerque, NM. Happy to read that all is going well in spite of the weather problems you have encountered.....

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    Replies
    1. There have been some unexpectedly bad storms the past couple weeks. It is definitely not what I expected in May. I would have packed differently otherwise.

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