Wednesday May 15, 16.0mi/25.8km

W. End of Forest Lake Estates (206.7/7600ft) to Wilford Canyon (222.2/6760ft) (Arizona) +0.5mi to General Store

I slept in late, since I only had a mile to go and nothing opened until 9am. When I walked out of the forest, the first thing I saw at the edge of town was this ridiculous looking fake tree.

I got to the post office at 8:30, which was a little early so I sat on the bench outside and read my book while I waited.

Just after 9am I heard someone moving around inside so I opened the door and got my box of food.

I performed the usual magic trick of getting all of that food inside my little blue stuff sack, and then hiked down the road to the general store. There are two general stores in Forest Lakes, and I decided to hit them both.

At the first one, I got a ham egg and cheese croissant with a couple beverages, and sat outside at a picnic table while I charged my phone.

After sitting there for a couple of hours, I decided to hike a mile further down the street and stop at the second one for lunch.

When I was walking around inside, I saw they had a microwave but not much microwavable food. I picked up one of the few things I could find that I could reheat, pizza!

By 1pm I had enough of sitting around in town and there was nothing further to do, so I hiked out.

Most of the day was very easy walking on old roads, and occasionally following some herd paths, which I think were created by the wild horses that live here.

Some people have too much time on their hands…who hung a skeleton on a tree?!

I had been trending downhill for awhile, and I noticed through the trees up ahead there appeared to be a lake.

Yup, definitely a lake.

It was called Black Canyon Lake, and I saw a few people out fishing on it while I hiked around it.

I even got to get up close to the spillway, I love these civil engineering structures.

For the rest of the afternoon, I hiked down Black Canyon. There were wild horses everywhere!

It was easy following the old road through the Canyon, which had now become more like a deep valley.

The scenery was nice, and my mind would wander until I would randomly hear a “plbttttt” noise from an exhaling horse.

At the very end of the day I left Black Canyon, and started to walk up Wilford Canyon. I could see just to the west some dark storm clouds. It was still sunny where I was, which made for some very cool lighting on the hillsides around me.

It was very windy, so rather than continuing onto my planned camp spot which was at the top of a hill, I decided to camp in the valley just before it.

Even down in the valley it was kind of windy, so I tucked my tent behind some big boulders for shelter.