This was my third and final leg of the AZT passage # 30. I parked at the Marshall Lake TH and headed south. After a third of a mile you enter the woods and climb a little bit to the observatory. There's another TH here with room for a bunch of vehicles. The trail now is very flat. This is the flattest section I've been on so far of the AZT. You only climb 319 feet over 22 miles! After a mile so you get some great aerial views of Mary Lake. The trail parallels Lake Mary road. Then you start hiking on an old forest road. The road looked decommissioned to me. There was only mountain bike and book tracks. I made it to the Horse Lake TH and turned round. This is where I ended last year. Soon after I turned around the sky darkened and it started to sprinkle. I quickly ate lunch and hurried back. The sprinkles stopped after a half hour. When I made it back to trail, it was just damp enough to stick to my boots. I was growing 6 inches every ten steps, so I started hiking in the grass. I came across a herb of elk, but by the time I got the camera out, they were pretty far away. When I got back to the Jeep, the sun came out. I had a nice warm drive back into the valley. This was another rare occasion where I got back into the before sundown.