Cartour Spring 2017 number 35

Tuesday April 18th

Distributed camp in the National Forest outside G Canyon Nat'l Park

our spot's only amenity 

Our only neighbors - Lily and Tom

Omelette and fried toast, a trail bike and dip in the creek a mile or so upstream. Headed to Flagstaff and the south and later north rim of the Grand Canyon because why not? 180 and 64 out of Flagstaff. South Rim a metropolis - 10 minutes walk to canyon edge and make sure you remember your parking lot identification symbol, ours was Swallowtail 3, or you could go hypohydro and become even more disoriented than you already are. So we left but only after finding that the road to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado until May 15 was closed - we would have to wait a month to get a ticket at the gate. Every one knows the north rim is the coolest cause its higher, faces the other way and is hardly ever open. Plus the ‘copters.

So we took road 180 to edge of the park at Desert View and then dove into the distributive open camping concept from the National Forest Service which go off a paved road 1/4 mile and do what you can with only what you have -no water, no giant concrete picnic table, no ramada, no neighbors - except after a while we heard the arrival of another very faint motor in the distance and a faraway yap of a dog. I jumped on the bike to see what was up and found a good size rv and small white truck towed behind was setting up an eighth of a mile down the double track. The rig was operated by Tom and to some extent my his Mexican rescue pup, Lily. He invited us over so we came down and chatted a while in the straight-forward intimacy of complete strangers stuck in a elevator. Tom and Lily were new to the road life. It was good to have one neighbor on the lonely juniper steppes.