Daybreak: Arizona Trail Day 8
August 8, 2026
After leaving a vehicle near the end of section 29, our friend, Mike, shuttled us on FSR 219, a boulder-strewn dirt road that eventually intersected the AZT, outside of Mormon Lake Village. We walked the last mile to the trail when the boulders got bigger than Mike was comfortable driving.
The birds started singing exactly at sunrise (5:40 am), although we could not yet see the rising sun through the old growth forest of pines, scrub oak, and cedar. But the birds knew. A mountain chickadee and western wood-pewee continued to sing the morning song as a brilliant orange sunrise broke through the darkness.
In the book, The Fullness of Time: Marking the Day by Birdsong, Blooms, Shadows, and Stars, author Cathy Haynes writes that an old English word for daybreak is dæg-wōma or “day noise.” The dæg-wōma on the AZT that morning consisted of only two singers, but they lifted their voices to welcome the light.
The trail was relatively flat, taking us through the woods and wildflower-covered meadows in Coconino National Forest, located along the Colorado Plateau. Once again, the trail intersected old railroad beds, including the Allen Lake Landing where a historical sign was posted. I documented forty different wildflowers, including a Torrey’s craglily (Echeandia flavescents), my first sighting.
Lupine, morning glory, Torry’s Craglily (Echeandia flavescents)
After thirty minutes of meandering through the forest, we passed a manmade dirt cow tank, an earthen basin created for watering cattle. In moderate weather, cattle need 7-12 gallons of water a day, per head. In hot temperatures, the water needs double. The dirt cow tanks are located all along the trail with warnings on the AZT website to not drink untreated water.
Eventually we came to a meadow filled with common mullein. The tall, yellow-flowering plants grew in all directions as far as our eyes could see. In folk history the leaves were known as “cowboy toilet paper” or “flannel leaf.” Pioneers supposedly used the large soft leaves to line shoes for additional warmth.
“Can we stop for a photo?” I asked, having never seen so many mullein plants before.
“Certainly, mullein-dy,” my pun-loving husband replied.
Unfortunately, the abundant mullein caused us to miss a critical turn on the trail. After about twenty minutes of no AZT signage, we turned around, retracing our steps through the tall flowering plants.
Once back on the trail, my phone pinged with a prayer request for a friend in the hospital. For the past three weeks, our friend has struggled with one medical emergency after another. Broken hip. Unknown bleeding. Blood clots. Pneumonia.
For forty years, our lives have inter-mingled with multiple generations of her family, through laughter and difficulties. More than a decade earlier, we sat at the hospital where her oldest son was on life support. He had been in our youth group when Kevin and I served in that capacity at the church. As I stroked his hand, all covered in wires and tubes, I did not see a grown man who had lived a hard life, rather, I remembered a boy at summer camp, laughing and playing with his friends.
When his mom stepped out for a break, I was overwhelmed by the beeping monitors doing the work of supporting a life. “Can you imagine if it were one of our kids lying there?” I asked my husband.
“It is one of our kids lying there,” Kevin replied as he bowed his head.
And now we keep vigil with our friend. Like her son, she is one of our own lying in that hospital. We speak her name before the throne of grace. We hold space for her as we walk on pine-needled paths.
Our voices join the dæg-wōma, as light breaks forth out of darkness.
Hiking Stats
Day 8. August 8, 2006. 5:33-9:05 am.
60-72 degrees.
8.24 miles (6.24 on AZT). 18,000 steps, with getting turned around.
Part of Section 29. FSR 219 to State Route 87, 5 miles South of the Mormon Lake Village turnoff.
For a list of previously posted stories of our adventures on the AZT, click here.
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