I was up at 6:00am, got my things organized and packed into the car. Then I had a little breakfast and coffee at the hotel and then I left for Prescott. When I arrived in Prescott I went on a two mile hike on a trail that I had wanted to hike but didn't have time when I was here a couple of days ago. I had a nice morning hike and then made my way to the place where I had agreed to meet Mark and Sue. They arrived at around 9:20am and then we drove to the trailhead for the Salida Gulch Trail #95.
We were on the hunt for a 17 box series called Fallen Heroes - Granite Mountain Hotshots by SnakeDoctor. This series was planted to honor the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters that were killed in the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30, 2013. You can go to Granite Mountain Hotshots to read about the program and you can go to The Last Battle of the Granite Mountain Hotshots to read about the fire and how the firefighters lost their lives. I think Mark and Sue were really excited about these boxes because one of their sons is a firefighter. So we hiked the 4.5 mile trail (which is a loop) and found the 17 boxes of the series that are planted (the placer still needs to plant three more boxes). Some boxes were easy to find and some gave us a little problem but we managed to find them all. The hike was a moderate one and we took our time and took frequent rest breaks. One of the issues is that the clues pretty much rely on steps between boxes. Some have less than a hundred steps but others have as much as 700 or 800 and one has 1490 steps. Thankfully the placer had put a landmark to look for as you got to the number of steps. This is where we had problems - there were three of us counting and none of us ever matched the placers steps. We were consistently off between 50 and 150 steps. So a few times we had to backtrack and look for the landmarks. Originally we had figured on a three to four hour hike to find all the boxes, but it ended up taking us almost five hours due to having to retrace our steps. 
All in all it was a good time - I loved visiting with Mark and Sue and the trail was beautiful with a few nice views along the way. We even encountered some petroglyphs towards the end of the trail. But I think we were all glad to see the car at the end of the hike. There are also three other boxes hidden near the trailhead so Mark and Sue got those (I had already found them when I was here last week) and then they took me back to my car. Mark and Sue had gotten a recommendation for a restaurant from the concierge at their hotel and they invited me to join them. So I met them at El Gato Azul for a bite to eat. We arrived at a time between lunch and dinner so we had tapas. Everytihng we had was delicious. So after a great meal and a wonderful visit I said goodbye to Mark and Sue and left for Flagstaff.I hadn't made reservations at a hotel because I wasn't sure if I was going to stop for the night or try and drive home. But it was already late afternoon and I was tired after the 4.5 mile hike so when I arrived in Flagstaff I went to the hotel where I had stayed last week and thankfully they had a room. I got checked in and took a shower and decided to just relax. I wasn't hungry so I didn't need to go out again so I just watched a little TV and worked on this blog. It is still early so I think I will go to sleep early so I can get on the road and back to Santa Fe early.
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