Day 25…..20 miles…..AZT mile 612.8

Our stay at the Travelodge last night gave me all the rest and strength I need for this last stretch of trail(I hope). This morning a couple of our friends, Hoho and Chicory, who had recently moved to Flagstaff had us over and cooked us an incredible breakfast. These two hiked the Arizona Trail last spring as well as both of their dads who were in town, Van Gogh and Pops. Hoho and Chicory have hiked a bunch of the same trails as us and usually the same years so we know lots of the same people and it was fun to talk trail for a few hours with all four of them. They gave us a ride back to the trail around noon and armed with new pairs of sneakers that we sent to their house, QB and I put a good beating on the trail all afternoon and evening. We hiked through a beautiful ponderosa pine forest then saw the first aspen trees of the trail as we got up to 9000 feet. This I think is the high point of the trail but that’s not based on much. While we were up around 9000 we walked by the Arizona Snowbowl that people are still skiing into April and there was still a bunch of patches of snow on the trail. This must have inspired QB to start and then quickly lose a snowball fight. We walked into the evening and as the sunset produced an alpenglow in the sky we found a place to camp in the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks.

Day 26…..30.8 miles…..AZT mile 643.6

Queen B saw a bobcat this morning. Or a lynx but let’s just say bobcat. She was about 50 yards away and had a stair down for a full minute with the beast. Look at the picture below to see the blurry image she captured. I’m so jealous, I was ahead of her for about an hour and had just stopped to dig my morning cat hole when she got out ahead and had this awesome wildlife sighting. I mean I’m happy for her and everything but I really wish I saw it too. I’ve yet to see a big cat in the wild, and I know a bobcat is more like a medium sized cat but still. I guess I’ll just keep walking until I do.

The rest of the day was fairly mellow. Early this morning we got out of the pine forest and dropped into a high desert with juniper trees and scrub bushes. Eventually we were out in a wide open range with big views of the San Francisco peaks whenever we turned around. All day was spent on flat fast forest roads which made the miles easy and by the time we got to the last water source of the day, a cow tank, we easily had 30+ miles. Blurry bobcat

Day 27…..31.3…..AZT mile 674.9

No bobcats today, we did see a coyote though, probably my favorite animal. Once again the trail was pretty mellow. We crossed into Kaibab National forest first thing this morning then followed a combination of single track and forest road for the rest of the day. It was a relatively uneventful day, we saw a couple horses that might have been wild or just lost. They didn’t have any saddles on them and there were no people nearby but sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not I’m on the outskirts of somebody’s ranch or way out in the wild.

We’re getting seriously close to the Grand Canyon. This afternoon we came across Grandview Lookout which is a 7 story fire tower that we climbed and had our first views of the canyon. I was disappointed to find the top of the tower locked and closed but still had a pretty good view from up there. From the tower we took a left and the rest of the afternoon pretty much walked parallel to the GC but in a forest and far enough away that we didn’t have any views. Right as we were looking for a campsite, we saw a little coyote running through the woods then out of sight. I wish I had a frisbee with me, or at least a tennis ball.

Day 28…..20 miles(est)…..AZT mile 690.6

This morning we walked for a few hours until we got to the little town of Tusayan Village. This place is just south of the Grand Canyon and seems to exist solely to cater to the National Park visitor. It was good for us because there was a breakfast buffet at the Mexican restaurant in town. The food wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either, this was definitely a quantity over quality situation and we did our part in putting a dent into their food supply. After breakfast we walked another couple hours into Grand Canyon Village. We picked up a box of food at the PO that we sent a month ago then secured ourselves a site in the hiker/biker section at Mather CG. From here we took a bit of an alternate from the AZT. Since we’re planning on doing a rim to rim hike of the canyon starting at the South Kaibab Trail tomorrow, we figured we would set up our stuff and take light packs south of the trailhead and walk along the rim for awhile today. This probably added 5 or 6 miles but was well worth it. Walking along the rim of the canyon is awesome, the views are indescribable to anyone who’s never seen it. As much as the natural beauty of the canyon is so incredible, sometimes the people watching in the park is the real national treasure. I’ve never felt more like an adult than today when I had to tell these three knuckleheads to cut the shit because they were throwing rocks over the side of the canyon. It’s not my favorite role and I’m sure I’ve been on the opposite side of similar conversations more than once but seriously how stupid could these kids be? Anyway a more entertaining thing we saw today was this full grown man intensely practicing tai chi right next to the trail, just behind him was(I can only assume) his wife and 4 kids hitting a dead log on the ground with sticks. It was quite a scene. After we tried not to stare at this martial artist we walked past the South Kaibab trailhead out to Yaki Point for the main event of any day at the canyon, sunset, and it was of course spectacular. From Yaki Point we had to walk back a ways to catch a bus and then another bus that brought us to the supermarket where we ate a bunch of food and charged up our phones and batteries for the next section. Like any of the big National Parks, Grand Canyon is an amazing natural wonder but the village here is very commercialized and draws lots of people. I’m a person too so of course I can’t complain about too many people being here(since I’d be part of the problem), but it’s always weird to go from being almost all by ourselves in the middle of the woods to a major outdoor tourist mecca. Still though, I encourage everybody to see the Grand Canyon at least once.