Monday October 16, 33.5km/20.8mi

Borrego Trick Tank (176.4/7440ft) to Old Weatherford Rd (197.2/7740ft) (AZ)

We woke up to another dry sunny morning. I left camp at 7am and topShelf wasn’t quite ready but planned to leave within 10 minutes. I walked thru the ponderosa pine forest for an hour, enjoying the morning light.

I took a break at a water cache, which had no water but had a little beanie baby.

I wrote in my journal, and TopShelf caught up and we continued on thru the forest.

It was cool to see Humphrey’s Peak getting very close now.

We slowly climbed in elevation all morning and the temperatures remained cool.

And a random spot in the forest, I passed by this little roughly made shelter. Strange.

By late in the morning we were at an elevation of over 8,000 ft and the Aspen forests reappeared.

Yup, it’s definitely autumn here.

Just before lunch time I stopped at a junction to a water source. A few passing dayhikers had told me that it was dry, so I decided to wait for topShelf here, to meet up and continue on. We’ve come pretty far from Utah!

The view of Humphrey’s peak in the autumn.

Half an hour later we were reunited, and we found a lunch spot in the shade nearby. After lunch it was just a blissful stroll through a bright yellow aspen forest.

At one point the forest opened up, and I could see a controlled burn happening in the distance.

It seemed like it was making quite a bit of smoke.

The amazing views continued for a while.

We stopped at a pond water source, and we saw another hiker come over to the pond also. He looked fast and after talking to him, we learned his name was Right-On and he was hiking the AZT in 21 days unsupported. Amazing! The three of us hiked together all afternoon all the way until our camp spot. It was exciting to talk with him about all the different hikes and we forgot to stop and take breaks, or even photos. I only got one more photo of the Aspens.

When we stopped at our planned camp spot, he still had another four or five miles to go, and it was already 5:30pm. He and TopShelf had hiked the PCT together in 2014 (small world) so I got a photo of them together.

He said goodbye, and we wished him luck for the rest of his speed hike attempt. While we were setting up camp, I tried to get a photo of the sunset, which was made extra red by the smoke.

It was a pretty easy day today, and tomorrow we have only 11-ish miles to get to town.