Schultz Creek Trail

A whopping 17 runners showed up to run Schultz Creek. It was great to see so many new faces. In fact, for the first time, it was beyond me to remember all the new names! It was great to have a gentleman from Toronto, our first international runner! As we bolted from the parking area kicking up dust, we quickly got into the cool shade of the ponderosa pines. Several runners caught up in the beauty of the forest managed to trip and fall. We could not find the usual widow maker stumps or rock suspects and decided we had to blame it on the jumping trail sand pixies of Schultz Creek.

Dave pointed out the collapsed "Leaning Tower of Schultz Creek", a monumental snag (dead ponderosa) that stood mightily along the rock garden for as long as I can remember. On my first run up Schultz Creek in 1986, I remembered seeing the leaning tree and thinking that it could fall over at any moment. Well that moment came during this past year. The question is, did anyone hear it?! We took the obligatory runner under the fallen tree shot and moved on.

About 1.5 miles up the trail we encountered running water! What a sight to see and we wondered if there would still be some patches of snow near the Lincoln Logs. The further up we got, the harder the creek ran - well enough to hear the bubbling, flowing water, always a treat around Flagstaff! We made it to the Lincoln Logs (no snow) and notably, more than half the group continued on up Little Gnarly to Rocky Ridge. The rest of us only imagined the blazing hot sun those folks encountered on the rather open unsheltered Rocky Ridge Trail. We then returned to Tony's Seasoned Kitchen for some awesome Cranberry Muffins and Iced Cafe Lates! Download photos from today's run!