12 DAYS: DAY ONE, PHOENIX TO FREDONIA

I knew it was going to be a long day. 

And I knew it was going to be a warm day… I just didn’t really realize how warm it was going to be up at Marble Canyon and Cameron.

Scorching hot. My water bottles got too hot to drink and I really went too long without hydration. But it cooled off nicely when I got to the Kaibab Plateau and I spent an hour soaking in the cool pines of Jacob Lake.

An ueventful morning to Flagstaff (where the traffic was horrendous… really, what’s up with that?), and the coolness of the rim from Payson uo was simply gorgeous.

Looking for some camping spots? Check out Clint’s Well and the adjacent one across the street. Lovely and fairly deserted.

I met a few guys in Cameron who were from Denmark, and we chatted a bit. Every year they bring their motorcycles over and ride the US for 90 days. They had about 15 days left so they were heading up to I75 and then east to eventually end up in Florida. Nice guys, lots of miles on those machines.

When I got to Marble Canyon the north side was open. I have never seen that side open so I stopped and did a little rearranging of my gear.

And left my electronics bag sitting on the bike.

It was not there when I got to Jacobs Lake.

Untold fortune lost including iPhone Gimbel, 8 new SD Cards, every charger I brought, my Nikon battery chargers, and three Nikon batteries.

Well, we live and learn.

Don’t try to repack when it is hot, miserable and you have not had enough water.

So travel has changed now and I go west to Hurricane in the morning (yeay, Walmart) for chargers and batteries.

Then up the freeway for about 20 miles to Cedar City and off to Ely. It won’t slow me down, but it is not the route I wanted to take.

Traveling alone can be a real twist sometimes, and although I love it, I find myself missing the opportunity to share what I see.

Got to Fredonia and looked for an iPhone charger… nope. So I more than likely will not have service tomorrow morning. I’ll get the phone charged in my trunk charger, but dang… this is a problem.

Oh wait… I have a charger on the bike. I can indeed charge my phone tonight. That is all I was really concerned about.

So on to some images from today.

Just outside of Flagstaff about 30 miles on Lake Mary Road.

The sandwiches at McAllister’s Deli were superb. I recommend it, although when I think of the Navajo Res, a ‘deli’ is not what comes to mind. It is just as you drive into Cameron from the south. Great prices, amazing food.

Sometimes I think taming the west can be summed up into one word: Barbedwire.

Is that two words? Grammerly is OK with barbedwire so we’ll go with that.

I didn’t shoot the Vermillion Cliffs this day. There was quite a bit of haze in the air and I will be back up in a few weeks hoping for better views. But I did get some shots of the valley and the Kaibab Plateau with some major thunderstorm clouds. 

These storms will brew up in an hour or so, blow wind like crazy and dump a ton of rain… then just dry up like nothing really happened.

I rode through the remnants, but never had to put my rain gear on.

And this is how we are rolling this week. 

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