Friday May 10, 9.3mi/15.0km

Pine Creek (131.1/5920ft) to Pine Trailhead (138.9/5460ft) (Arizona) +1.5mi roadwalk into Pine

I was out of camp at 6:30am, and since I was camped right next to this little spot I decided to check it out. Tiny cave!

It was very small, the inside was like the size of a clothes dryer. I continued down the pleasantly flat and rock free trail, and then I noticed somebody had built a new road right where the trail used to be. Sad.

Fortunately that only lasted for half a mile and then I resumed on a normal trail, climbing up onto a hillside.

Normally a trail just continues down the valley into town, but since there’s a tiny parcel of private property blocking the route they had to make the trail go all the way up and around. A couple miles later, I noticed a funny junction that signed a “good enough exit”. Ha!

I hiked for a couple of hours along the hillside, and I could see the town of Pine down in the valley below me.

I came to the Pine trailhead, where the Mogollon Rim Trail intersects with the Arizona Trail, where I had hiked last fall.

I signed into the trail register, and even found my entry from last October when I was at the same spot! I immediately continued walking into Pine, and my first stop was at the Early Bird diner.

After eating breakfast number 2 (it was 10am by now), I went across the street to do my laundry.

It was very cheap, only $2, but you could tell the laundromat had not been taken care of in years, as half the machines were broken. After my laundry finished, I stood out front and hitchhiked to Payson, which only took about 5 minutes to get a ride. This was probably the oldest driver I’ve ever gotten a ride from, he was 88 years old and driving his Toyota pickup down to the casino in Payson. He dropped me right in front of my motel, which was conveniently located between a Denny’s and a Chipotle.

The guy running this motel is very hiker friendly, he gave me a special discounted rate and I settled into the huge room.

After relaxing for a few hours and taking a shower, I walked down the street to the Bashas to buy my groceries for the next section. Good timing, all the dehydrated dinners were on sale!

The store was out of a few items, so unfortunately I had to walk across the street to Walmart, which I generally try to avoid shopping at. After doing some more trip planning on my phone, I finished the evening by watching some Stephen Colbert before I fell asleep. Nice relaxing day!