Sagebrush personal hiking blog
A light snow last night is slow to melt in the cold morning, and patches of mud on the road stay frozen until mid-morning.
Getting close to the town of Pine, tall pine forest has been thinned, presumably for fire defense.
Red Hills Trail shows off mountains with exposed red rock outcroppings, and hillsides covered with small broken pieces of the same rocks.
After going down and up a couple of canyons the route plunges down to East Verde River on Brush Springs Trail, losing 3k altitude. Storms threaten all around, but other than a freakish snow flurry, no rain. When the sun is blocked by clouds, the temperature plunges to new daytime lows.
On Sheep Creek Trail are some little ravines cut by a creek, often not wide enough at the bottom for a creek and a trail, so they have to share. Sometimes it widens a bit, with an isolated stand of tall pine trees where all nearby plants are no taller than a shrub.
We are now half-way done on this 800 mile trail!
