Saturday, May 04, 2013 – 12.6 km

I’m excited to be leaving Pine today as herein begins my hike up the Mogollon Rim onto the Colorado Plateau! ‘Mogollon’ is pronounced something like ‘Mow-gi-on’, for those people who are, like me, tempted to pronounce it ‘Mow-go-lawn’ or ‘Mongolian’. Temperatures on the plateau will be cooler than those in southern Arizona, and I need cooler temperatures. I was having trouble sleeping because of the heat in the last few days before Pine, and would probably have dropped dead when hiking if not for my umbrella. Then some rangers would have found me and said ‘There goes another Canadian’ and exchanged a creepy smile.

So the excitement level was high. The scenery was pretty but nothing special, just forest walking with distant views of the Mogollon Rim. For the entire day the AZT followed the Highline Trail, which was well marked with white diamonds. Nonetheless, I took a wrong turn at a junction and walked three kilometres in the wrong direction before realizing that it was wrong. Wait, you mean that I can get lost when I’m not in the Mazatzals?

Tents were pitched at Weber Creek, which was flowing well.

Nearby I tried to rescue a caterpillar being attacked by ants by transferring it to a plant, but it looked half-dead already. After collecting water, I continued up the slope until I found a nice campsite.