There was a couple sitting on a big rock fishing in the creek. Michael told us there were rainbow trout in the creek. I did spot a small fish in the water. In order to pass this trail we had a small ascent. Michael helped people get up to the spot. Everyone stopped at the intersection and waited for the people in the back to catch up.

We then resumed our journey. After passing a few small intersections I heard a loud noise ahead of us. In the beginning I thought it might be our fast group waiting for us, but then it became obvious there were lots of people. It turned out that a Girl Scott Troop was here for the adventures as well. I took a photo of them and went on to catch up with the first part of our group. Not long after, I saw a few members of the fast group gathered under the shades, talking.

There was a neat bridge on the right side, which was a surprise to me. What in the world was a bridge doing here? It turned out this part of the trail connected to the Bear Foot Trail by the bridge which would facilitate people crossing Pine Creek. We took a second group photo here. Everyone looked so happy on the bridge. I was afraid that with so many people, the bridge would collapse, though it held all of us just fine.

Michael knows the way.

After this point we started gradually our ascent. The weather started getting warm and people began shedding layers and trying to find shade, but there was none. When we reached the exposed forest, the scene had changed from a lush green forest to a typical desert forest scene. Alligator junipers greeted us on the path.

We did many switchbacks and reached a small hill. This was at about the 5.2 mile mark. I radioed Michael and Terry and confirmed that we needed to have a break, so we found a small shaded area and took our lunch break.

After about 40 minutes of break we continued on. The rest of the trail was typical Arizona forest, with many large and small alligator pines and other species of desert vegetation. There were lots of wildflowers on the hills, which provided a pleasant view for us. On the right side of the trail we could see the town of Strawberry. Many houses could be spotted from the upper hills. We met a few hikers along the way, but overall this is a rarely traveled trail. The end of this trail intersected with the Arizona Trail to the left, the Highline Trail in the middle, and the Pine View Trail on the right. People would have many options of where they would like to go, depending on how many miles they would like to do, which was great for many levels of hikers.