Thursday May 2, 20.2mi/32.5km

Jct road FR258 (7.9mi/3810ft) to MRT official Start (13.8mi/0.0mi) to Taylor Cabin (14.3/4400ft) (Arizona)

The Sun rose so early at like 5:45am, I slept in until 6:30 and hiked out at 7am. It was a nice relaxing couple of hours along some disused dirt roads.

The only activity I saw on the road all morning was this sunning snake. I think it’s a northern Mexican garter snake.

At the end of the road, I came to the Parsons trailhead and immediately descended into Sycamore canyon Wilderness.

After just a few minutes I was at Sycamore Creek which was impounded by beavers in this area.

I crossed a little further downstream and had to take off my shoes since it was almost a foot deep.

It was the last reliable water for about 20 miles, so I took some time to fill up my bottles and also wet down my clothes in the hot weather. Eventually I left the creek and had a big 1,000 foot climb uphill to a plateau. Along the way I saw some massive prickly pear cacti.

And since it’s springtime in the high desert, I saw heaps of different wildflowers.

As I climbed higher and higher above Sycamore canyon, the views became quite expansive.

I gained the top of the plateau and even at this higher elevation it was still pretty hot. I hiked for a few more minutes, looking for a big shady juniper tree, where I stopped for a lunch break.

I took a pretty long lunch break since it was so warm I was in no hurry to leave and I was able to get out my solar panel to charge my phone. Eventually the state of the tree covered my solar panel and I decided it was time to leave. I meandered along the plateau all afternoon with pretty amazing views in all directions.

The view of the dead cow was less amazing.

I can see straight ahead to a giant rock formation with a cool notch in it.

Yep it was pretty warm 29C/84F.

I took way too many photos of the surrounding canyons.

The trail slowly dropped off the plateau, and the meandered along a sidehill above Sycamore canyon. Every mile or so it would cross a little wash, and in one such crossing I found a very strange tool. Sledgehammer!

I don’t know why someone would bring such a heavy thing out in the middle of nowhere, this spot is at least 10 miles from any trailhead. At the next little wash crossing, I was on the lookout for water, and I found some about 100m downstream in some little pools in the rock.

It was a nice surprise to get that water, since it was considered an unreliable source and I wasn’t expecting any water for 6 more miles. My pack was a little heavier again with water, but I walked along enjoying the setting sun on the redrock cliffs.

A mile later, I came to a junction to an old historic cabin. I wanted to go check out the cabin, and also figured that there would be a flat spot to camp nearby.

It’s called the Taylor cabin, and it had an information folder inside on a table but the papers were so old they were impossible to read. All I could tell is that it’s on the national historic register. I found a flat spot 100m away and set up my tent. I got setup pretty quickly, but then I had to deal with an exploded cheese package from the afternoon heat. Gross. I’m in bed early tonight as I hope to get an earlier start tomorrow.