Schulz Creek Loop hike is in a wonderful area north of Flagstaff. All 11 of us on this hike were glad to get out of Phoenix for the day, where the projected temperature was over 100°F. The club has done this hike just about every year for several years now, but it never ceases to be lovely. Each time we’ve done the hike, the mileage seems to vary. But this time, I was sure I had it figured out at just over 12 miles (what we did last year), but no, our actual mileage was 15.13. Oh well, the most important thing is that it was a fantastic day and everyone enjoyed the hike. This was a team hike in every sense of the word. While I organized it, Monika was sweep, Jim was the primary navigator out front.

We started the hike at 9:00 AM from the Schulz Creek Trailhead when it was 75°F, and the last one of us finished up at 3:50 PM when it was 88°F. Luckily the last 4 miles was mostly in the shade, with beautiful trees and wild roses.

We went counterclockwise. This was planned to do the elevation gain in the morning, while we were fresh and it was coolest.

We climbed up Rocky Ridge Trail to the Brookbank Trail. Partway up the Brookbank Trail we had the option to continue on the Sunset Trail, or go left on the Schulz Creek Loop. We opted to continue on to the Sunset trail. If we had turned left towards the Schulz Creek Loop, this would have been a 9 mile hike. Continuing to the Sunset Trail as we did resulted in the 15 mile loop.

Up on the Sunset Trail the scenery was lovely with more open fields, grass and tall pine trees.

It was a long hike and warming up, so we all needed to take a break. The group naturally split into two sub-groups. It all worked out fine and we took breaks along the way.