Wednesday May 22, 23.4mi/37.7km

Start of Railroad Grade Trail (337.2/9180ft) to Burro Mountain Saddle (355.4/9680ft) (Arizona) +5.2mi Greer resupply

I watched the sunrise from my camp spot hidden amongst the trees, and I felt the warmth as soon as it hit the tent.

I spent the morning walking on the Railroad Grade Trail through a bunch of alpine meadows.

There were even a couple spots on some north-facing slopes that the snow hadn’t quite fully melted away yet.

I also noticed that some of the puddles had a thin skin of ice on top of them. It clearly had gotten much colder out here in the open meadow than it had in the forest where I camped.

And for some reason, I saw not one, but two bathtubs along the side of the trail today.

And I would occasionally see meltwater ponds on either side of the trail, with the railroad grade cutting right down in the middle.

What was unexpected though, was when the grade had been washed out, and one pond was draining into another…very rapidly.

I took off my shoes and waded across the rushing frigid water. Brrr. The rest of the morning was less exciting, and was a relaxing stroll amongst the aspens.

There was even a neat little trestle bridge to hike over.

I departed the Railroad Grade Trail at a forestry road and then followed that for a little while. There was a turn off point, with a two and a half mile detour to get to the town of Greer. I turned off to the detour to go to town since I had mailed myself a box of food to the post office, and I could also stop at a diner for lunch. After almost an hour of downhill hiking I was in town!

It’s a very small town with only one main street, but they had this nice little walkway.

The post office was at the other end of town which didn’t take long since that was only half a mile away.

The woman working at the post office was very nice, but seemed to have made up her own rules. She said they only accept General Delivery boxes if you register ahead of time but she accepted this one as a “one-time courtesy”. I have been hiking for 10 years and have mailboxes to probably 100 post offices and no other PO has that rule. Oh well. I moved on to the diner, which even smelled delicious from the outside.

It was a nice little place, and they kept bringing me cold drinks which was much appreciated. I must be getting close to New Mexico, because I was able to order my elk burger smothered in red and green chile sauce.

After letting my food digest for a bit and charging my phone, I walked out of town and headed back up the hill. Once I rejoined the route, I followed a nice trail through another aspen forest.

There was a little snake hiding out in the grass on the ground. He seemed much friendlier than that rattler I had seen a couple weeks ago.

Eventually the train opened back up to an alpine meadow.

And soon after that I entered the Mount Baldy Wilderness!

It had been a while since I’ve hiked in a wilderness area on this trail. There were forested sections…

… And meadow sections too.

Even though Mount Baldy is like 11,000 ft, I couldn’t get a good glimpse of it from where I was hiking, it was kind of hidden behind the hills and the trees. So I just enjoyed the view hiking thru the wilderness.

It was around 6pm so I started looking for a place to camp, that was not in a meadow. I was intently focused on my search so I didn’t even notice when this herd came out from behind a little hill and surprised me.

We kind of scared each other, because they started sprinting away in a panic, and I just yelled out “ungulates!” I continued on, and it took me another half an hour to find a spot to camp that was in a forested area. The rising full moon was quite a sight to see!

I set up my tent in the trees, away from the wind, and the cold and condensation that typically accompanies meadows.