April 8, 2021
492.2
I slept really well last night. Rather than assume I’d be warm enough, I put on my thermal leggings and fleece and cinched the toe box on my quilt, then left my vestibule door half open to help with any possible condensation since we’re camped kind of low and right next to a creek. Woke in a dry tent and never woke in the night feeling uncomfortably cold. I think the sound of the creek helped me sleep. That and the Tylenol PM and gummy, lol.
We hiked out around 6am, our normal time, and passed Bass asleep in his tent about a mile ahead of us. It was a lovely day. I’ve decided I’m a huge fan of the Highline Trail. It crosses the Mogollon Rim, which is spectacular, and the trail itself is so well maintained I could cry. There’s water to be had every few miles and we spent a lot of time hiking alongside flowing streams of clear water along a clean, soft trail. Glorious.
Every time we took a break, the Kids caught up to us and took a break, too.
At the end of the day we had a long, steep descent about .8 mile long leading down to a wide, clear creek that we had to wade across. The next reliable water source isn’t for another 15 miles, so we took a break with the Kids at the creek and filled up our water bottles. I only grabbed 3 liters because I knew I wouldn’t be cooking dinner, plus we had a steep .9 mile climb out of the canyon and 4 liters of water just felt like too much.
The climb was definitely challenging for an end-of-the-day hike and being loaded down with water, so by the time we got to more level ground it was quite a relief. At least the trail is still pretty clean. The Kids passed us up and decided to take an off-trail detour to an alleged campground about a quarter mile off trail, but the comments on Guthooks made it sound like it might be more than .25 to find decent camping. Not wanting to risk it, Ghosthiker and I opted to hike on and camp at the first available flat area we found.
It was dusk by the time we found anything remotely suitable, and shortly after we got our tents setup, Bass arrived and decided to camp with us. He’s kind of a lone wolf, so the fact that he pitched right next to us was a little surprising, but we were happy to see him. He’s usually really fast and passes us easily on trail, but today he didn’t catch up to us once and we were wondering if his foot is still bothering him. He seems to be doing fine, though. We apologized in advance for most likely waking him tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 4:30am, which is when we typically start getting up and around. He just smiled and said he knew what he was signing up for when he opted to camp with us, lol.
I heard a coyote just as it was getting dark. One lonely coyote howling very close to where we were camped, but no answering howls. That was enough to keep me awake in my tent for quite a while. Poor fella. Please don’t eat my food while I’m sleeping.
Sarah Hikes 
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