“Two Rabbits in a ditch, Must be the season of the witch”
Donovan-1967
On the Esplinade of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon below Fishtail Mesa, two large rabbits were sighted in a drainage, running in opposite directions. Both maintained their sprint at exactly equal distance from our point of vision, rapidly widening the picture frame.
I commented that this was a bad omen. This scene turned out to be symbolic of the group’s wander.
Slawa and Lobo left Phoenix at 2:00 P.M. on Thursday and seven hours later, we arrived at Indian Hollow on the North Rim. The last fifty miles were driven on back roads.
We camped on the rim with Bob.
The following morning, Amy, Kelly and Trace arrived at 8:30 A.M. and we headed down the Thunder River trail. This was a first trip into the canyon for Amy and Kelly.
After a couple of miles we departed from the trail and went West, in search of Ghost Rock and various cowboy camps reported to be in the area.
Ghost Rock was located and we climbed up to find magnificent large pictographs etched into the rock.
A short while later we located under an overhang, an amazingly well preserved cowboy camp. This “hideout” included historic coffee mugs, coffee pot, axes, hammers and other tools. It was all very interesting.
We set up our camp close by.
The afternoon was spent searching for water at a local spring. Dripping water was sighted, however a safe passage was not found and limited daylight necessitated giving up the hunt for the day.
That evening, a storm system moved in. Bob left early in search of the Spring. He returned in a short period of time with full water containers. Due to the storm most of the group desired to retreat to the trailhead. Bob preferred to weather the storm and go out the following day as planned.
The storm intensified and we trekked out in wind and snow flurries. The canyon views in were splendid. The group maintained good spirits and thanks to Slawa and Trace’s navigation skills we arrived at the cars around 11:00 A.M.
On the return trip Slawa and Lobo stopped at Macey’s, an eclectic coffee shop in Flag and enjoyed a great lasagna dinner. We arrived back in Phoenix at 8:00 P.M. Saturday evening.
The always popular Men and Women behaving badly.
-Trace, Amy and Kelly for staying up late and consuming demon rum, laughing and telling stories late into the evening.
-Amy and Kelly for making loud cat and coyote like sounds while climbing out of the
canyon.
-Lobo for barking frequently
No comments:
Post a Comment