What a great hiking day! After.9 mile walk to the trailhead from the B&B we did a "little warmup" on the Pine Trail. Then we got headed the right direction, spending the day headed up and towards the Mogollon Rim, the 1500' escarpment that divides low hotter southern AZ from high cooler northern AZ. It's been a milestone for us this entire trip.

Added to our excitement at reaching the Rim was the spectacular Ponderosa forest that we were climbing through with birds calling the entire way. Trail, even though it climbed, was smooth, making changing easy and enjoyable. It changed character frequently from duff to rocks to dirt.

We call the slabby, slanted rocks "sidewalk" because they are so fast and fun to hike. We had "red sidewalk" today.

The day ended with the 1200' climb onto the Mogollon Rim. That trail started on red sidewalk that steepened and faded to orange rocks. The orange paled to peach, the peach gradually changed to gray with gorgeous purple flashes that entertained as we puffed our final very steep way up. Ken reached the top just ahead of me. As he was silhoutted against the sky he saw elk fade into the pines.

We walked a little further to General Springs Cabin but couldn't use it. Our camp nearby was excellent.

The Rim climb with the great rocks and nearby creek ranks in my top hikes list. What an outstanding day!

Our hands were pulled up in our jacket sleeves for warmth this morning. Clouds built up this morning, were solid overcast by lunch, cleared by tea time and rolled back in as thunderclouds by evening. We took the extra steps to camp dry and were set when rain started pattering on the tent. It didn't last long and later we enjoyed a star lit night.

We are in the largest remaining Ponderosa forest which stretches from here to up near the Grand Canyon. There is practically no understory; bits of grass or tiny plants grow. We wonder how much the Forest Service has to do with the sparse understory.

Even though we are in the forest surface water is still infrequent: Our dinner water and water for tomorrow was a spigot at Blue Ridge Campground. The spigot had a sign that read "no water until Friday". Ken guessed that it meant the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, tried the spigot and we were in luck! There are cow tanks along the trail. A tank is a low area in the earth constructed to hold water for cows. Some tanks hold less murky water than others but they are the very last choice for water (Filtered cow water still tastes like a cow pies smell. Drink with a candy in mouth to counteract flavor.) The edges of these lakes/tanks are very muddy making getting water nearly impossible.

We hiked fast and constant today to get set up close to Mormon Lake. Terrain is still high and flat in the Ponderosa forest. Trail traded off with some hiking on primitive roads that are as enjoyable as trail. This afternoon we hiked several old railroad beds. Trail, rail beds, and road change from smooth to rocky and back again. The tricky part is remembering to watch for trail leaving the side of the roads. We tend to speed down the road past the trail exit and thus get extra distance coming back.

Late in the afternoon we saw our first pronghorns on this trip. True to form they ran away, then stopped and watched us as we hiked along. A little later we watched elk grazing in a meadow. As soon as they saw us the ran into the ever present Ponderosa forest.

Water has been a long carry from the campground yesterday afternoon through the entire day today.

We could have taken a side road into Mormon Lake tonight for dinner if I had accepted an offer of an ATV ride. It was tempting but I wasn't sure how we would get back to the correct spot on the trail.

We camped in an ATV camp site with a fire ring, rocks and logs. Lots of "amenities" but not as cozy as a wilderness site.