Friday October 13, 35.6km/22.1mi
Near road FS2709 (110.2/6820ft) to 1mi South of Russell Tank (132.3/6970ft) (AZ)
It was a cold start to the day at 7:15, and I was happy to have a gradual steady uphill to get me warmed up. This section of the trail has these old wooden signs, it’s always a nice reminder to see how far you’ve come.
By 9am the morning had warmed up to a comfortable temperature, and I stripped off a few layers and enjoyed the morning in the ponderosa pine forest.
I almost tripped over some bones in the middle of the trail…I think they might belong to a cow but I’m not sure.
Just before lunchtime I arrived at Grandview Tower, so I decided to take a break and wait a few minutes for TopShelf to catch up and have lunch together.
I had been to this lookout tower a few years ago on a car camping trip, and it’s a pretty nice view above the Coconino rim. Unfortunately this year it was closed off, and no sign to explain why. So after lunch we continued south, heading into a section of forest infected by dwarf mistletoe.
There were quite a few interpretive signs along the first mile of trail explaining how dwarf missile toe interacts with the ponderosa pine Forest. It took us a little while to read most of those, haha. An hour later we started to have some good views from the top of the Coconino rim. Looking north towards the Grand Canyon:
And looking south:
After a nice snack break at a viewpoint, we hiked on a little ways until I was surprised to see this very strange tree.
It was a green, living, seemingly perfectly healthy tree, other than the fact that it was growing at a 45° angle. Bizarre.
Our last water stop for the day was off trail about a half mile, at an old tanker truck with a large basin underneath it.
The water sources on the AZT are so interesting! We made our way back to the trail, and continued another hour into the forest.
As it neared 6pm, it started to get dark so we started looking for a campsite for the night.
We passed by Russell tank, which is really just a large muddy pond. I could tell some people had camped there in the past, but it looked like a cold damp spot, so we continued another mile to a nice flat place under some ponderosa pines.