We woke up to a very cold morning – we think it was in the low 20s. Got a late start (9:05 am). It was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies. The ground was frozen solid and any standing water was frozen. We continued up the Hoolie Bacon trail for about 4.8 miles. The trail was very rock steep climb up. After a little bit the trail was above the Saguaro cactus line and we got our first glimpse of Four Peaks mountains.
Around 11:30 am we made it to the Tortilla Flat trail-head and the junction of the Peter’s trail. We ate a quick lunch as we still had a long ways to go. This section sucked! It was a rocky, lots of ups and downs, ankle twisting and seldom used trail. However, it was beautiful. In the beginning we were still in a canyon with lots of water and water crossings. At one point we had to scramble through a couple of boulders to bypass a deep pool.
After a very rough 6.3 miles we got to the Charlevoix and Lower Labarge junction around 5:30 pm and it was time to look for a site. Another 45 minutes later we found a nice flat, soft site close to a stream right at dusk. We quickly set up camp, filtered water and cooked dinner. We ate in the dark by the light of our head lights. We crawled into our sleeping bags by 7:30 pm anxious for the day ahead.
Journeys with Jeff and Ellen 