Hiking with the sandeled one (minus the sandels today), and armed with driving directions out of the google maps provided by HAZ, we headed off the wonderful pavement of AZ69 on to Pouland Rd and our last view of the pavement for awhile.

After 10 or so miles we stopping to ask a nice lady if we were close to the next turnoff we were looking for (see men do ask for directions). We were informed that the turn we were looking for, for what she called the severe 4X4 road was just ahead. So we kept going in my 2wd Pathfinder. After reaching the ridge with another decision point of unmarked roads, we once again asked directions from a guy on a quad (prefered mode of transportation up there). He said we had two choices, the shorter rougher road, or the longer smoother road. We were in no great hurry.

The hike was nice, we made it up to the top of Spruce Mountain and the ranger tower in pretty good time. Joe took a nap in the ranger tower, while I watched the Ranger deal with a fire on her watch just down a mile or so from the tower (see pictures for both). After Joe woke up, and a short break we headed down to meet up with the loop portion of the trail. This portion of the trail had a bit of deadfall taking us up to the saddle where we reached another decision point, that we didn't realize was a decision point. We walked and ran down 1.1 miles from this point, trying to keep ahead of horses coming down the trail. When we got close to the creek that we didn't cross on our way up, I decided I didn't want to see it anymore. We headed back up the mountain, back to what we now saw was a decision point (They need to cut that tree down across the trail). I enjoyed views, great pine smells, and laughs on this hike.