Sunday October 8, 34.0km/21.1mi

Navajo Trail Jct (16.3mi/6740ft) to 1mi South of Murray’s Lake Trailhead (37.4mi/8580ft) (AZ)

We woke up before sunrise (around 6:30am here), after a nice cozy night under the juniper trees. The sun rose just after we left camp, and there was an amazing view across the desert meadows.

It was an enjoyable morning, and despite it being a cold night, everything was dry, even the tall grass.

This section of trail had some special trail markers, showing the Kaibab squirrel. I hope to see one of these unique critters in the next few days.

After a couple of hours of gradual uphill hiking, we took a nice break at our first water source for the day, at a guzzler.

This one had really cold water, and it was actually pretty clear. The day was starting to warm up, which was perfect timing as the trail soon entered a ponderosa pine forest.

I hiked along, daydreaming, and lost the trail when it split off from a dirt road. Oops. I quickly backtracked the half-mile, and now TopShelf was way ahead of me. I tried to catch up, and made slow progress toward that goal. After awhile, I lost sight and asked a hiker who was headed the opposite direction if they had seen anyone ahead of me…nope. So I hiked to the next major landmark at a highway crossing, and waited there. I waited 10 minutes, and we reunited there, and then had lunch. It started to rain and thunderstorm, but luckily there was a bathroom building where we could sit under the roof. The storm passed after 30 minutes and then we returned to the trail.

There was another gradual uphill climb in the afternoon, following an old two track road.

We hiked side by side, chatting about various trail things, and then we noticed a group of deer.

It’s so cool to see this trail again in the autumn when the Aspens are changing color.

When I was here in the spring the trees were just starting to bud. After a couple hours of gradual uphill, we stopped at another water source which was a large tank.

The cover was a little hard to remove but once it was off, it was unlimited cold clean water. We took a nice long break there and then decided to continue on another four miles to camp. The Aspens continued to show off their colors all afternoon.

We passed by Murray Lake Trailhead which was a nice place to take a break. It was 5pm but we decided to hike only another mile since it gets dark at 6pm. For this last part of the day we exited the forest and followed along a small highway that leads to the North Rim.

The terrain was very sloping and also very open, so it seemed like it might be difficult to find a good camping spot. But pretty soon we found a tiny ponderosa forest, and setup our tents under the trees.

It was a good second day, and I feel like I’m starting to get back into the rhythm of things.