Monday October 23, 18.5km/11.5mi

Red Rock Spring (332.6/6020ft) to Pine Ridge (341.9/5860ft) (AZ) +2.2mi Pine roadwalk

We woke up very early, and hiked out at 6am, with the plan to make it to a diner in town at 8am. It was pretty dark for a few minutes.

It slowly got brighter, and we were able to turn off our headlamps.

I love watching a sunrise slowly spill light over the valleys and mountains.

After 5 miles, we arrived at the road to Pine. It was a short 1 mile roadwalk, too short to hitch.

The Early Bird Cafe was highly recommended, and it didn’t disappoint. I ordered something called the “Big Bird breakfast” and it was probably around 2000 calories.

We spent an hour eating breakfast and charging our phones, and then we walked a little further into the main part of town, to the laundromat and grocery store. Along the way there were some friendly welcoming signs.

And a funny bumper sticker too!

We stationed ourselves in the town park, at a pavilion with shade and outlets. We took turns grocery shopping, so the other person could watch over all our stuff at the pavilion.

I spent over 30 minutes shopping, as the little store was kinda disorganized. I brought back my haul, and spread it out on the table to make sure I didn’t forget anything.

After the grocery trips, we went across the street to the laundromat to wash our socks and underwear in the sink. At that point we ran into Beer Goddess again, and the 3 of us went to “THAT brewery” on the edge of town.

A few beer samplers and pulled pork sandwiches later, and it was time to leave. We headed out at 4pm, and it was a short walk back to the trail. After the chaos of town, it always feels relaxing to be back in the forest.

We only walked a couple of hours, slowly climbing back up into the mountains.

The fall colors had definitely arrived to this little gully.

The sun set just before 6pm, and we were close to our planned campsite.

When we arrived at the spot, Beer Goddess was already there, ha! We all think alike for camping. Even though we hiked only 10 miles, it felt like a tiring day.