Tuesday October 17, 18.7km/11.6mi

Old Weatherford Rd (197.2/7740ft) to Flagstaff Urban Trail Jct (198.3/7810ft) (AZ) + 10.5mi Urban Trail

We left camp at 7:15, and walked the quick mile to the junction where there is an option to hike around Flagstaff or through it.

We had decided earlier to hike through Flagstaff, which makes the resupplying easier. The trail was pretty easy and we saw a few mountain bikers.

At one of the trail junctions, topShelf saw a small cave, so we decided to stop briefly to explore it.

We scrambled up some steep slabby rock, and into a small cave!

It made me a little claustrophobic when I had to duck down to walk through it, but it was pretty neat. It connected thru, and there was an exit out the backside.

We left the cave and went a little ways down the trail when I saw a snake! It was just a little one and it was very quick to leave the trail.

We hiked another hour, eventually making it into the outskirts of Flagstaff, where we walked along a neighborhood road for a mile.

We diverted to a small shopping center for a Safeway grocery store, but ended up skipping the Safeway and going to a cafe for an early lunch instead.

The food was pretty darn good, and after an hour we were pretty full. We still had another hour to hike to get to the main part of town.

The Flagstaff Urban Trail system was pretty impressive, it was well signed, well maintained, and had some pretty epic views.

Eventually we dropped down to a big road, which was actually historic route 66, and then crossed some big railroad tracks.

We checked into our motel 6 just before 3pm, which was a modern but very small hotel room.

I dropped off my stuff in the room and immediately headed back out to the post office to get a package. Gossamer Gear had shipped the wrong size hipbelt when they mailed me a new backpack, and I had to go pick up the new one they shipped me. After I got back we went to REI, since TopShelf needed new shoes. After that we walked downtown to dinner. Flagstaff is full of little pieces of artwork scattered throughout the city.

We went to a wonderful little place called Asia Station. So good!

We finished dinner at 8:30 and it was cold & dark outside, so I decided to use my free Lyft credit to get a ride back to the hotel, rather than walking for 30 minutes. Fun day!