Tuesday October 31, 8.2km/5.1mi
Forest Road 1011 (488.8/2590ft) to Picketpost Trailhead (493.9/2400ft) (AZ)
We woke up a little later, since we only had to hike 5 miles by 9am. We had arranged to stay with a local Trail angel in Superior, and she will be picking us up at 9:00. It was a breezy yet warm morning hiking through the low desert.
The views are so expansive in this type of terrain.
After a couple hours we came to the crossing of highway 60, which we walked underneath in a tunnel.
On the other side of the highway was the Picketpost Trailhead, where we had arranged to be picked up by MJ. My friend Greg, whom I had met on the Colorado Trail, lives locally in Phoenix, and he had dropped off a bunch of goodies for us in the bear box. Thank you Greg!!
We walked over to a picnic table to sit and wait for MJ to come.
It was a busy little Trailhead with lots of day hikers coming and going.
At 9:30, MJ picked us up and drove us the short distance into the town of Superior. After picking up a box of new shoes from the post office, and dropping our backpacks at her house, we walked over to a Mexican restaurant for lunch.
A couple of other hikers who were already staying at her house joined us for lunch. Heiko and Little Jon were super entertaining to talk with. After lunch we walked back to the house, which was a lovely little place to chill out and relax in.
I walked with Beer Goddess to the grocery store, and we picked up 6 days’ worth of food for the next section. I also found a weird new flavor of Dr. pepper, which I thought would be good but was way too sweet.
With the addition of TopShelf, Beer Goddess and I, the house now had 7 hikers. It was also Halloween, so we had lots of fun handing out treats to the three dozen kids that stopped by in costumes.
We also walked around the neighborhood to look at all the houses with Halloween decorations. Some of them were pretty extensive!
Afterwards, Beer Goddess and I walked to an Italian place to pick up some calzones, and enjoyed a nice relaxing takeout dinner back at the house. An exciting day full of new faces!