Smiles Not Miles

So it’s Tuesday and the plan is to arrive in Pine on Friday morning. The dudes will probably get there a bit after me since I need to charge a little bit ahead and then ensure I make the post office. It is an important resupply because my second pair of shoes, insoles, and fresh socks along with other goodies are included.

But plans have to change. Because if anything is true it is that certainty is uncertain.

As we were having lunch today by a beautiful creek, see picture, Swede informed me that there is some serious snow happening in Flagstaff and a major bottleneck with hikers trying to get out up for the canyon. There is also snow in the canyon.

Long story short, snow, ice, rain, wind, etc. are all on the horizon for Pine to Flagstaff to Canyon. And I’m already a warm weather guy, so plans are changing.

We have decided to hit the brewery in Pine, naturally, and then Shower has a friend who will take us to Payson where we booked two nights at the comfort inn in a grand suite with enough bed, Jacuzzi, bathroom, laundry, etc. to take care of us for Friday night Saturday and Saturday night. At that point we will reassess our strategy for getting up to Flagstaff and based on my calendar may mean it is the end of the AZT for me because of my hard finish on April 9 to meet friends in Phoenix on April 10.

We loosely touched on the idea of shuttling back to Mount Lemmon to walk the 13 miles down into Oracle that were skipped after the memorable snowstorm a little while back. I guess I’ll keep you posted.