The Arizona Trail took us immediately to the Kaibab plateau at elevations over 8,000ft. The day following our joining of the Arizona Trail we arrived to a much anticipated resupply stop in Jacob's Lake. The one lodge/store/restaurant at this stop had been holding our packages for us, but the packages were not what we were excited about, we were excited for town food. Our hiker hunger had fully kicked in at this point and our trail food was getting hard to swallow. We hiked in from our camp on the outskirts of town in time for breakfast and while we waited for our hot food to arrive I purchased a bag of fresh baked cookies and pastries from the bakery for us to enjoy as a breakfast appetizer. Once our bellies were full we picked up our boxes and set up at a nearby picnic table to explode our packs and reorganize for the next stretch. We also used this time to digest our breakfast so we could return for lunch in a few hours. Not only did we order lunch, but we also ordered grilled cheese sandwiches and blue cheese burgers to take on the trail with us for dinner and breakfast the following morning.
We hiked out of Jacob's Lake that evening and found a flat spot to set up camp just before dark. Before jumping into our setting up of camp "chores" Goose suggested that we sit for the sunset and enjoy a beer that we had carried out from town. While we were sitting he pulled out a long slender wrapped package that had been rolled in his sit pad and handed it to me. I opened the unexpected gift and found a gorgeous hand carved Native American wooden flute. We both excitedly played with the flute creating a mixture of beautiful tones and high pitched squawks as we figured out how to create music with our new trail toy. We played until after dark and finally set up camp once it was too cold to remain outside of our sleeping bags any longer.
The following morning the skies were blue but the strong winds were icy and there was no denying that fall was shifting into winter. Tall slender pine trees filled the landscape at these elevations and they sang to us with loud creaks and groans as they bent and and danced in the powerful gusts of air. Occasionally we would hear the far off crack of a hunters gun at the end of deer season and we would play our flute during our breaks in hopes of scaring the wildlife away from the hunting grounds. We continued to revel in the easy hiking trail and tree filled vistas as we made our way across the plateau to the Grand Canyon.