Ooh-Tah!

Flagstaff Pt 2

Being broken down at a car dealorship is not the best way to visit a city.  We had spent a long weekend broken down at the Scottsdale dealership and now we were doing the same thing in Flagstaff.  Not a good way to visit the city sights.  The only plus I see is that Flagstaff, from what I've researched, is severely RV unfriendly.  Living on the dealership parking lot prevents us from being woken up in the middle of the night by the police and being told to move along.

While at the dealership, Vanessa and I watched a pretty neat movie titled "Craigslist Joe", a story about a guy who decided to see if he could travel around the US with nothing in his pocket besides a laptop and a cellphone, subsisting only on the generosity of people he connects with via Craigslist.  This got Vanessa and I thinking that we could help out others on our journey by offering them rides if their destinations coincided with ours.  Plus, it'd be interesting to hear their stories.  We found a few people wanting campanionship on hikes and dogwalks, etc but the ad that caught our eye was from a brother and sister who were travelling the US on foot/bus and would be arriving in Flagstaff shortly and was asking for a ride to the Grand Canyon. I immediately shot them a response saying that we were heading over to the Canyon as soon as the RV was fixed and they were welcome to share a ride.  I also mentioned that it would include a hike on Mt Humphreys as well as a hike down to the bottom of the canyon.  Not too long after that I got a response that they were in and so we arranged a meetup for the following day.

We awoke Tuesday morning with a little bit of joy in our hearts.  Today was the day that our parts would arrive and hopefully we can hit the road and slowly make our way to the Grand Canyon.  Late afternoon I was handed the bill and the keys and Vanessa and I took off to the Lumberyard Brewery where we were to meet the siblings.  We ordered some drinks and waited for about 30 minutes for "the twins" to arrive.  (I don't really think they are twins but have taken to calling them this anyways).  We share a few drinks over the storeys of our lives and then head over to show off the Summit Seeker and then call it a night.  We decided to park at their hotel so that we can leech their wifi, snag some free breakfast in the morning, and get an early start to our trip.

Mt Humphreys

Our first stop with the twins was to try to summit My Humphreys, a local mountain that peaks out at 12,637' and is the tallest mountain in Arizona.  Vanessa and I had tried to summit it the last time we were here but missed it by a few hundred feet due to the gusty, freezing winds at the top.  This time we didn't make it to the top either due to all the snow on the trail.  At a little over 10,000', I noticed that Ginger's paws were looking pretty red and decided I'd turn around with her.  Charlotte decided to join me while Eddie and Vanessa wanted to go further up.  When Charlotte and I got back down, we got into dry clothes and then hit up the bar to wait for the others.  It turns out they only made it another 500' or so due to the amount of snow on the trail.  After a couple of beers we decided to move on to our nexst destination.

Sunset Crater Volcano

Around 900 years ago, a volcano erupted right outside of where Flagstaff currently resides.  Since it is a National Park and we now have a pass, we decided we'd stop by for a quick look since it was along our route.  The lava trail is a .5 mile climb and barefoot friendly too I might add.  Reaching the top led to spectacular views.  The only letdown is that visitors aren't allowed to go to the crater itself.  

Grand Canyon

Driving to the canyon via the East entrance is a great experience and one that I recommend to anyone visiting the area.  The roads are fairly empty and the views are magnificent.  We made it to the park right after the sun set and tried our hardest to figure out how to get to the S. Kaibab trailhead since we knew of the campground right outside there.  The maps and road signs for the park really suck and offer little help.  And my Garmin Nuvi doesn't offer much assistance either  But we eventually found it and got a nice parking spot to call home for the next couple of days.  The twins decided they'd like to sleep outside and so we loaned them our tent and helped get it set up.  I was a little jealous, wanting to sleep outside myself, but I am not a fan of being cold and stayed indoors where I could snuggle up against Vanessa and Ginger if extra warmth was needed.  The night sky and the brilliance of the stars here are simply stunning.

The next morning, we put everything away, locked the doors, said goodbye to Ginger, and hiked over to the trail.  We gave ourselves a 6-8 window to get back to the vehicle, figuring any more time than that and then Ginger's bladder may explode.

The Grand Canyon never ceases to amaze me.  It's just one of those things where pictures don't do it justice and you have to see it in person in order to truly appreciate it.  At the Snow Bowl bar on Mt Humphreys, the bartender told us that the average time spent at the canyon is 7 minutes.  People drive up, take a snapshot or two with the kids, and then head back home.  Can you imagine?  Given my wish, I would like to stay here for at least a month if not more.

Charlotte and Eddie aren't runners or hikers by any means, and Eddie smokes a lot as well, but they have been travelling a lot by foot and I was hoping they'd be able to make it down to Phantom Ranch and back in the allocated time.  At the S Kaibab trailhead, we said goodbye to the twins, wished them luck, and took off down the trail, stopping every once in a while to snap a photo or two.  The weather was perfect, the sun was newly risen, and we were having a grand time.  There wasn't that many people, unlike the last time we ran this.  We'd encounter an occassional hiker making the trek out with their huge backpacks, returning from what I assume was a lovely weekend camping adventure at the bottom of the canyon.  We'd nod one to another and continue on, delving ever deeper into the canyon.  We arrived at the Ranch and went in to cool down.  Beer and lemonade was in order and we relished the cold.  I grabbed another beer to take with me in case we encountered the twins, figuring they'd enjoy a cold one. Leaving the Ranch, I noticed that it had now been two hours since leaving the campsite.  Well on target since we had assumed 2hrs down and 4hrs up.

Incredible views all the way down!

Cooling down

The trek up is a serious haul.  It's tough, it's hot, and it kills your calves.  But we were still surprised everytime we'd look down and see how far we'd climbed back up.  About 2 miles up we encountered the twins talking to another hiker.  They were a little low on water and curious if they should continue or head back out.  After seeing us, they decided to head back up with us.  I offered them the beer which they declined, reasoning that it would dehydrate them and cause them to run out of water before making it to the top.  We continued on with the climb up, lagging slightly behind the twins and admiring their perseverance   We'd catch up to them when they would stop for some shade and immediately hop back up to continue on, leaving the shade for me and Vanessa to enjoy for a few brief moments.  This went on and on until we arrived at the Oh Ah Point.  The trail started getting really crowded with the "family hikers".  Everyone was in great spirits, no one carried water with them.  Why not, this was just a 2 mile hike for them with a picnic thrown in.  The four of us must of looked pretty ragged in comparison.  I offered Eddie a few sips from my spare bottle which he finally accepted after a lot of convincing.  He had been hiking hard and was dry, and I still had plenty in my main bottle.  Not much later we all arrived at the top, did a few high fives, and made it back to the campsite where Ginger was elated to see us again.  

The next morning, we packed up, drove over to the local coffee shop, and then headed back to Flagstaff.  We had heard about the Black IPA made by Mother Road brewery and went there to have a round and say our goodbyes.  The beer didn't disappoint.  Saying goodbye to Eddie and Charlotte however was sad.  But our two groups have our own journeys to continue and they happened to be in opposite directions.  Vanessa and I needed to head back North to Zion and the twins needed to go South to Phoenix.  Thus our entwined journey came to a close.

Hurricane, UT

That night, we parked at a Home Depot in order to watch some television and were interrupted by a security guard informing us that we could not spend the night there and would have to move along.  City ordinance.  Vanessa wanted to go back to the dealership but I had had enough of that place and chose to head over to one of the Walmarts instead, one that we had stayed at the previous year.  They have signs posted all over stating no overnighting but there are always RVs and campers there parked in the very far corner of the lot.  

The next morning we made the drive up to Hurricane, taking the 89 towards Page.  There was a road closure leading into Page due to a recent rockslide, but we were heading West on the 89A right at the closure.  The trip was a little boring, being very desolate with just minor little towns along the way, if you could even call them towns.  We rolled into Hurricane (pronounced (her-kin) just as the sun was setting and called it a night at the local Walmart since I needed to do a little bit of shopping anyways.

The next morning we found a nice little park to throw the ball with Ginger.  We were approached by a young boy who threw the ball for Ginger for about 30 minutes, all the while telling us about his life growing up in this lovely town.  Afterwards, we walked around town for a bit and then parked at a local fast food joint blasting free wifi and called it a night.  The next morning we headed to Springdale which is right outside Zion National Park.  Springdale is a pretty awesome town.  There are a few boondocking sights, a nice dog park with trails and river access for Ginger, a couple of great restaraunts, and trails galore to hike on.  All within view of the wonders of Zion.  And the best thing is that we get to stay here for over 3 weeks!

Stuck in Flagstaff

Sedona, Az

A lot of friends have expressed how awesome the trails of Sedona are and Vanessa and I were excited to finally be on our way to experience them for ourselves.  But as luck would have it, the Summit Seeker started have problems about 5 miles from town.  Climbing up the hill the check engine light started flashing and we lost power and immediately dropped down to about 20mph.  This was also accompanied with misfiring and I released we had problems with our ignition coil once again.  I found a little side road to pull off onto and parked to cool the engine down in hopes of being able to continue onto town under our own power.  After a short while I started the engine back up but the problem was still present.  Power be damned, we're going to limp into town regardless how slow we have to go.

We parked at the library in hopes of getting some wifi but as we have found out before, the free wifi found at most libraries completely suck and so we limped down the road to a place called Famous Pizza that offered free wifi where we could park for the night and enjoy some pizza and beer and then surf the net all night.  The pizza wasn't so good but the beer selection made it worthwhile.  In the morning we drove over to a lovely coffee place called Java Love (excellent coffee!) where we called Good Sam for a tow truck.  Before starting our journey I had purchased a Good Sam membership, including roadside assistance, just in case.  The problem with Good Sam is that they will tow you for free to the nearest shop of their choosing.  If you need to go someplace different, you will have to pay for the tow yourself.  Earlier I had called the Scottsdale VW shop to see if they would cover the work and the said I'd have to go to the Flagstaff dealer, about 25 miles away, where they would assess it and see if the work and any parts replacement would be covered.  Of course Good Sam wanted to tow me to the auto shop around the corner where none of the work or parts would be covered.  This meant we would have to pay for the tow truck ourselves.

Seeing the Summit Seeker being hooked up to a tow truck was an interesting experience and not in a pleasant way.  Vanessa and I, according to law, had to sit up front with the driver but the dog and cat had to stay in back.

The ride from Sedona to Flagstaff was not what I had in mind when we first set out as I had hoped to run along the Red Rocks and stop at Slide Rock State Park to wash up.  I chatted up the driver to talk about the area around us while Vanessa slept.  Some day we will definitely have to spend some time in the area in more favorable conditions.  I'm almost tempted to backtrack on our journey but we must keep pressing onward if we wish to make it to Zion in time to do some training runs before the big race.

Missing out on Sedona - 

 

Flagstaff, AZ

We made it to the Findlay VW Dealership too late to get any work done but in the early afternoon the following day we were handing the keys back with an explanation that a couple spark plug wires were not properly attached thus causing our problems.  Damn those Scottsdale VW people!  Vanessa, Ginger, and myself piled into the RV and left for the local brewery.  About 5 miles later the check engine light started flashing once again and we pulled into a hotel parking lot and requested a tow back to the Findlay dealership.
Later on at the shop, it was determined that we either had back plug cables or a faulty ignition coil, neither of which were immediately available with the earliest arrival being Tuesday.  We asked if we hang out on their lot until Tuesday and now here we still sit.  But at least we have spotty wifi.  And there is a Safeway as well as a few other places to spend money about a half mile away.  

 

Meet Humphrey's Peak.  At 12,637', it towers over Flagstaff and is the tallest peak in Arizona.  It is also the reason we wanted to visit this city.  Last year Vanessa and I attempted to summit this beast but the winds were too strong and cold forcing us to turn around just a few hundred feet from the top.  If we can ever get the Summit Seeker running properly again, we wish to attempt the summit once more.