I woke up at 7 o'clock, although I'm not too sure what time I woke up considering that I am now finding out that I might have set my clock to head prematurely.Just as I am losing track of the day of the trip, the day of the week, and the day, I seem to be losing track of the time, too. But the truth is, it really makes no difference. I am on this trip in a time warp.
My hope was to get off early and try to make it to the south rim of the Grand Canyon tonight by 5 o'clock, although I knew it would be difficult to do 368 miles. About 20 minutes before we would have set off, the gentleman in the RV across from my humble tent site stopped by to offer some comments about the Defender. Usually, in circumstances where I am trying to get on the road, I would have been courteous but brief. But I could tell right away that they were something very special, something very good about this particular man, so we talked for at least an hour. The first part of the conversation was on the Defender, my road trips, Donner, and other such things, but then, the conversation turned to him and his own travels. He was in the park with his wife and three daughters. One of them, he told me, the six-year-old, was seriously handicapped. The details of his daughter's handicap are not important here, but what he told me choked me up in a way I cannot remember before. Now I see why I saw great deal of goodness in this man as soon as he approached me. On this trip, more than 6000 miles so far, I have been moved by some of the most spectacular displays nature that exist on this planet. But none of that moved me as much as the story of this man, his wife, and his two older daughters and what they are doing to bring joy and happiness to their six-year-old daughter and sister. What brave people. I use these trips to strengthen my values, discipline, and outlook on life. But meeting this man and hearing his story will affect me more than anything else that I've experienced on this trip..
We got on our way at noon, 11 o'clock really, and travelled through Nevada, Utah, and now Arizona, and the views were absolutely spectacular. The road was relatively empty, although it seems that every time a tailgater behind me speeded up and passed me, another one would pop up and take his place behind me. This prevented me from pulling over in the turnoffs which came up pretty quickly and madevalmost impossible for someone doing 60 miles an hour to stop abruptly with somebody tailgating.
At 3 PM, I pulled off into a rest up to try to plan my campsite for the night. As it turns out, it seems that the only campsite between where we camped last night and the south rim of the Grand Canyon was about 240 miles at Lake Jacob. Great, I said to myself, that's, that's just about all we will be able to do today. But when I tried to call like Jacob Lake to find out if they were open, there's was no cell service available. So, I reasoned, since it's the only campground on that entire stretch passing through the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, it had to be open. But when I got online to see if I could reserve a campsite for the night, the first dates available were in April 2019. And when I finally tried to call the phone number I found on the Internet for the camp, the calls was constantly disconnected. Oops, I thought, I think I may have a problem. Little did I realize that I was going to have a big problem.
Three miles or so before reaching the Lake Jacob camp, I spotted a National Forest sign next to a dirt road on the left side of the road and figured that that was a National Forest camp. I made a mental note of precisely where it was so that if indeed I had to return back there I would be able to find it easily. In retrospect, i should have pulled in there and bivouacked, but there was no place to turn around. A few miles up the road , at 5:45 PM, with the sun already disappearing behind the mountains, 8500 feet above sea level, we came to the entrance of Lake Jacob camp. Indeed it was closed. Fortunately, as i am wont to do, I had been doing some contingency planning and had been asking my Garmin for all upcoming camp grounds. The information it had been giving me was really not very helpful as all the camps seemed to be behind me and not ahead of me.However, Garmin did indicate that there was a Lake Jacob RV camp just about a mile and a half up the road. So, despite the fact that I was hoping to avoid an RV camp, I punched into Garmin to take me to that camp.
Let me see at this point that after I left the Lake Jacob camp and set my mind for the RV camp, I ignored the instructions that Google Map was given me to get to the south rim, which is what my goal really was. In the space of just a few minutes, as I drove on, the road turns into a Y. I must've ignored Google Maps instructions to turn left because the camp was reached by turning right and Garmin was taking me there. I reached the camp a few minutes later and was again greeted by a closed sign. That's two for two. Now what do I do? I asked no one in particular. When I returned to the highway, I saw a big sign on the side of the road for the Demotte campground, 25 miles up the road. I reason that the sign was as large as it was and qualified by no other sign, such as close, I decided to drive 25 miles to the camp since it was in the direction that I was heading to the South rim, or so i thought. Little did I realize that I was heading down a road that was essentially a dead end about 35 miles up the road. It was the road to the north rim, and the north rim was closed.
I drove this road while there was still usable daylight and 25 miles down the road I reached the campground and, once again, was greeted by gate blocking the entrance and a sign saying that the camp was closed. At this point, I was running out of options, drive back to that National Forest camp about 30 miles behind me, or continue in the direction of the South Rrim and take whatever opportunity came up first, whether it be a camp, a motel or a bivouac. I drove on for about 10 more miles and came to the entrance of the north rim, but it was closed, although the gate was open. I punched into Garmin South Rim and it told me to drive another 20 miles and turn left. At first, I believed what i heard and drive on. But then I convinced myself that I had no reason to believe that Garmin knew what it was talking about, so I abruptly stopped the Defender, turned it around and headed back to that intersection 35 miles back on the road, and i would search for that National Forest opportunity that I saw a few miles before closed LakeJacob campground.
Fortunately, the road back to that intersection was a good road, but it was completely dark at this point, and you know that I hate driving in the dark on strange roads. But I drove on. Finally at 7:30, I reached that intersection and discovered that there was a lodge there. So, I went in to inquire about the whereabouts of the National Forest Campground just to be certain I knew where it was. The clerk was not helpful at all,m saying that that whole area is National Forest and all you need to do is to pull the vehicle off the side of the road and pitch your tent some minimum distance from the road. I have to admit that I inquired about the availability of a cabin at that lodge and was it a relief when he told me that they were completely booked. Frankly, I was glad to get out of that place because it was too fancy for my taste, and look like a typical tourist attraction with all kinds of Grand Canyon paraphernalia for sale, people walking around with their finest cowboy hats, probably bought just for this visit to the Grand Canyon. It looked like a circus and I got out of there as fast as I could, got into the Defender, and headed in the direction of that National Forest campground 3 miles back on the road.
As I drove back on the highway, it was impossible to see where I had seen that National Forest sign earlier. The road was completely dark except for my headlights, and the headlights only point in the forward direction and not off to the side of the road, and it was impossible to see where the cut offs were from the highway. Moreover, the tailgaters were right on me the whole time and there was no way that I could stop abruptly even if I found that sign.
I could swear that when I saw that National zforest sign I mentally made a note that it was 3 miles before Lake Jacob. But I drove 3 miles, and there was no sign. And then I drove 4 miles, 5 miles, 6 miles, etc. I keep telling myself maybe I made a mistake and it was a little farther down the road. But I had very few options because turning around would get me nowhere. Finally, about 12 miles down the road I saw a cut off for a scenic view, not the National Forest area. I pulled into that cutoff and decided that this is where we were going to spend the night.
The very first thing I did about 8 o'clock and completely dark, was to feed Donner. But as I was carrying out this chore my Petzel headlamp battery died and I was without a headlamp. So I pulled out my back up headlamp and within two minutes the batteries died in that. So, I used the light on my vehicle battery starter to carry out the evening's chores quite normally, and then put new batteries in my back up headlamp. I then took a stroll into the forest to figure out where we would set up the tent and found a cozy spot in a pine needle-covered forest. It Took me an hour to unload the Defender, move all of my needed gear 100 feet into the foresr, and then set up the tent. Much to my delight, as soon as everything was set up, I turned around and saw that the spot that I had chosen was cleared so that the travelers could get a wide view of the scenic valley below. There wasn't much to see in the dark but right in the center of that opening, which probably occupied a 90° span, there was a bright full moon shining down on us, surrounded by more stars them ever appear in Washington DC.
Donner and I are now settled into the tent as I write this, and tomorrow we will get up early and continue the 162 miles down to the south rim and look for campground there. After that we will head north back to interstate 70 for the long journey home. But I can tell you one thing, we're not going to come back this way on route 89. Then again, if we do, at least I know where one good campsite is.
What happened tonight was the most challenging experience I have had at finding a campsite. However, the stress and anxiety that I had to go through was rewarded by the view that we have at our front door and the setting in which we find ourselves tonight, completely alone, except for the moon and the stars.
If light of my experience this morning in the camp, and the reward that we just got through that experience of finding the campsite, all in all it was what I would call a good day on the road, despite the uninvited challenge.
Ed and Donner.
PS...just heard some cry from the forest.
PS ... i find it amazing that i can get cell service here, but no camp in this wide stretch.
