I didn't sleep as well last night as I did the first and I could have slept longer, but I got up at around 6:30, in part to get the ball rolling in the direction of packing up to go. Since we stopped short of our goal yesterday, we'd have to put in more miles today, and since we'd be dropping in elevation, we be moving into warmer temperatures, so I wanted to get an earlier start today.

We left camp at around 8:30, which was a little behind my hope, but it was at least our earliest start yet. The trail continued to drop more or less straight down the mountain. Not far down the trail, I looked back up the mountain and was surprised to see rather ominous looking clouds obscuring the top of the mountain. As we monitored them through the first part of our descent, the clouds seemed to be chasing us down the mountain. They never caught up to us though, and the shade they provided was welcome. I think they quickened our pace a bit, too.

After a couple of miles we moved into welcome shallower terrain as we approached and passed Tanque Verde Creek, which was flowing clear, though very shallowly. As we crossed the creek, a cowboy approached from the opposite direction looking for some stray cattle. We chatted a bit before going our separate ways. Continuing on we crossed rolling terrain that, while pretty, was arguably the least scenic part of the passage. We reached Italian Trap and the end of Passage 9 at around 11 o'clock, and started up the first 2-3 miles of Passage 10 towards Cheetah's car parked at Redington Road. By this time I was in full-steam-ahead mode and, except for the occasional brief stop to look at a horned toad, bug or new species of wildflower, just kept on motoring up the hill.

We reached Redington Road at noon and celebrated the completion of another passage before driving back to Loma Alta Trailhead to pick up my car. It was nice to get Passage 9 under our belts, as it is one of the most difficult passages on the AZT. It's not at all unreasonable to include it on the short list of the most beautiful passages on the AZT as well It's certainly on the list of most ecologically diverse passages. It ranges from Sonoran Desert, to Pinyon-Juniper, to oak woodland, to Ponderosa Pine, and back down to desert grassland. Just about the only things missing were sand dunes and arctic tundra.

I was home by three o'clock and took a much needed shower before sharing the weekend's adventure with Shannon.