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| Hiking | 14.03 Miles |
1,085 AEG |
| | Hiking | 14.03 Miles | 6 Hrs 26 Mns | | 2.32 mph |
| 1,085 ft AEG | 23 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Got on the trail just after 6am, with just enough daylight to not need a headlamp. I started from the Horse Lake TH off of Ashurst Road and headed south. The temperature was 33 in Flagstaff when I woke up there, and the ground was frozen and all the grass and ground vegetation had frost on it. This created an annoying issue as the ground warmed up and became moist because the wet dirt and pebbles kept sticking to my boots and on the way in I was constantly getting pebbles in my boots and digging into my feet. ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") Once the ground was dry, that issue went away.
I hadn’t charged the battery on my camera in a while, and it ended up dying within a few minutes of starting the hike. Murphy’s Law being what it is, I saw probably more wildlife on this hike than I can remember.  It started with seeing 2 doe near the trailhead, then near the Pine Grove campground I saw a small herd of deer. Shortly after that, there was a herd of antelope. A mile or so after that I spotted some elk running across a meadow, about 3 or 4 cows and a bull. Not long after that I could hear bulls on either side of the meadow in the trees bugling at each other. All the animals I saw were too far away to get decent pictures with on my phone. I was able to get one picture of an elk cow as it ran out of the trees. On the way out I even saw two tarantulas to add to the wildlife. I don’t think I’ve seen more than one on any given hike. 
South of the Pine Grove Campground the trail parallels the old railroad line of the Flagstaff Lumber Company, which is now mostly removed and demoed, with the piles of rocks remaining in a continuous line for miles. At one spot there’s an interpretive plaque that gives some basic info as to what this is.
At the 7 mile mark I turned around and headed back. I was wanting to go about another mile further, but my legs were still a bit sore from the big hike the day before and it was still a long drive back home. My time per mile was an extra 5 minutes more per mile, so I was a little slower than the day before.
There weren’t aspen trees in this area, but there was still a lot of color in the other trees that weren’t pines.  Very clear skies made for great lighting as the sun shone thru the trees. 
After my lunch break I took of my sweatshirt. The early morning chill was gone once the sun was out and it must have been close to 70 degrees. It was a nice weekend to spend 2 days hiking thru the pines. After completing this hike, I have officially crossed the threshold of completing 2/3 of the entire trail, keeping a tally of the total miles hiked on a spreadsheet.  |
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