I leave the Grand Canyon reluctantly, not only because I am leaving behind such a natural wonder, but that I am going on to my last travel leg – heading south towards Phoenix and my return home. I had no plan beyond that, due to lack of internet signal. I decided that I would head towards my “plan B” site from my planning to get to the Grand Canyon, then south on the 93. Once I had some Internet, I could plan more specifically.
Returning to the rig from my Sunrise view of the Grand Canyon, I pack three bottles of water. I also pack my three heavy lenses, lunch, rain gear, map, bean bag tripod. Ugh, this pack is heavy. Ditch a lens? But it’s the Grand Canyon… Although my 70-200 F4 is a top notch lens, I’ve got a 18-135, do I really want to schlep this thing around for the little extra reach? But it’s the Grand Canyon! When am I ever going to be among this kind of grandeur again? The lens stays, we will see how much I like it when I’m hiking back up the canyon carrying all this gear.
I decided today that I was going to see the Grand Canyon at sunrise, then do my walk down into the canyon. One of the rangers had advised that Mather Point was a good place to see the sunrise. So I manage to drag my ass out of bed early, an extraordinary thing for what I hoped would be an extraordinary sunrise.
I woke up early, well, early for me. The inside of the RV was just beginning to lighten up, telling me it was around 7am. I lay there for a few minutes, thinking I might get back to sleep. Then I thought about what I was going to do today – I was going to see the Grand Canyon. There would be no more sleep for me, time to get up and go!
I had been camped for over a week at Bouse Y. I had hiked as many of the hills as I had wanted to hike. I had been with a great group of people. But, it was time to move on, at least if I wanted to get away from the impending race crowd. I had a general plan: head north.
You will note after my last posting, I turned right at the fork to head to the mines. The fork to the left led to something called a “Retort Oven” on the map. What could this be?
It occurred to me that I could use some topographical maps to see what kind of things of interest were in the area, and how I might get to them by foot. There is an app for that.
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Today I decided to do a little more ambitious hike, to a hill I could see in the distance. Since I had a whole morning, I figured I’d see what there was to see further on the horizon.
The area south of Bouse besides being full of hills is full of holes. Little test pit holes, that people prospecting in the past have dug. Larry told me that in World War II, the area was used for shelling practice, so the occasional hole may not be a pit. Evidently, brass shell casings are still to be found occasionally in the area. I never did get to the Bouse Military Historic Display, but I did see the tanks situated by the road.
After spending a day travelling, a day getting stuck, a day getting unstuck and a day scouting, I was happy to just stay put for a day. In fact, I was perfectly happy to stay put for the next several days. The spot I had found was a bit of desert concrete that has been turned into a parking lot – it is fenced off as to exactly where you can be. I’m level, and there are hills to the south I can hike to. Plus, three Patreons have shown up, giving me some socialization to do rather than being in solitude.
