Off-trail hikes appeal to some but not to me. So when the only other club hike this weekend was off-trail, I scheduled this one so I could keep up my summer weekend Flagstaff ritual.

At one time ten hikers were signed up, but three backed out Saturday morning and then there were seven. And I must say, the hike was easier to manage than one with twenty-five or thirty hikers. It had kind of a cozy feel to it.

I picked the trail because it was my target mileage (ten) and it didn’t involve a lot of climbing. It did rise 1,000 feet, though, so it wasn’t flat boring either. I’d hiked parts of it before but not all, but the entire route was part of Arizona Trail Passage 31 and I was pretty sure it would be well-marked. It was.

One-way hikes usually involve at lot of waiting at each trailhead to jockey cars and drivers. But with seven of the original ten hikers meeting us at the trailhead, and only three driving up from the valley, we had enough car seating for a masterful plan that required no waiting at either end. That sort of fell apart when three people from flagstaff dropped out, but there was still no waiting at the start of the hike and only a half hours and the end.

Temperatures ran about 66-75°, there was a nice breeze, skies were sunny, the trail was mostly shaded, and the trail itself was in great shape. What a great hike!