Saturday May 11, 8.0mi/12.9km

Pine Trailhead (138.9/5460ft) to Highline Trail at Geronimo Trail Jct (146.7/5640ft) (Arizona) +0.2mi Pine TH connector

I was up early at 6am since I’m on my usual camping schedule. I caught up on my journal entries, took another shower, packed away all my stuff including my tent (that I had washed last night), and made a few phone calls. I packed away my food last, since I was trying to make sure I didn’t have too much.

I checked out of the motel and walked up the street toward the north end of town where I started hitching for a ride back to Pine. Within 10 minutes a nice gentleman named Ted picked me up, he says he’s always picking up AZT hikers. He’s a super interesting guy, originally from Australia, and we had a fun conversation all the way back to Pine. Once I was back at THAT Brewery, I ordered some food and waited for a friend to show up.

I had never had a grilled cheese with roasted green chiles, pulled elk, and 3 cheeses on Texas toast, it was amazing. After I finished my meal and topped up the charge on all my devices, I hit the trail at 3pm. I’m back on the Arizona Trail!

In this section the Arizona trail also coincides with the Highline Trail, which is a National Recreation Trail.

The local trail organizations have spent the last few years drastically improving the Highline trail and regrading it completely.

It’s really a very high quality trail now. After I climbed a few long switchbacks, I was halfway up to the rim again. Pretty great views to the east up ahead:

And to the South, back toward Payson.

The Highland Trail really is a very nice trail. I think it goes for almost 60 miles just below the rim.

I passed by a large bush that was blossoming with thousands of flowers, and when I looked closer I saw that it was a Manzanita.

I had never seen a Manzanita blossom before.

The Highline Trail is cut into the side of a slope almost its entire length. It makes for excellent views!

It also makes it difficult to find a camping spot when everything is on a hillside. I ended up hiking until after 6pm, which is late for me. I found a nice little spot under a couple short juniper trees. I can see the wildfire smoke in the distance, I hope the wind doesn’t shift during the night and bring it down here.