Hello Everyone! First and foremost I wanted to thank you for all of the kind messages and comments you sent this week. Each one made me feel a little bit better and they were all appreciated. I do believe that my bout with Covid is over and while it was not a fun time, so many of my friends are currently infected that at least I didn’t feel as isolated as I could have. The illness was bad, but the loneliness was difficult as well. I’m used to being alone and I’m comfortable with being alone, but I always have the option of going to a bar or a restaurant and at least being among people. With this I wanted to minimize contact as best I could so I got take-out and sat in my room or my van. It’s also been hard not being able to exercise as much as I’m used to, but I have read too much about people pushing themselves through Covid and doing permanent damage to their lungs through scarring and didn’t want to risk it. But it seems to have passed at this point and I am ready to get back to some of my routines which I’m really looking forward to. This won’t be a long newsletter this week as I’ve spent most of my time recuperating and driving, but there have definitely been some cool moments – most notably the two days I spent on the North Rim of Grand Canyon.
When I left off last week, I was recuperating in a hotel room in Flagstaff. Flagstaff was a godsend to me last week, with its walkable downtown, Whole Foods and especially the cool, clean high-desert air. It was also one of the most photogenic towns in all of Arizona, but sadly I didn’t take any photos as I just wasn’t really in the mood. I will return in the future though, and I look forward to getting some photos when I do. I did make it out to Walnut Canyon while I was there, a small National Park site about 20 minutes out of town. It’s a beautiful little park where an oxbow bend in a seasonal river has left an island of land surrounded by a deep valley. This landscape provided a nice protected location for a small Sinagua village site about a thousand years ago. The ruins in the park became a hotbed for looters and tourists in the late 19th century, prompting government protection of the site. Most of the ruins there are reconstructions, but it’s still a lovely canyon to stroll around. Back in Flagstaff I also enjoyed a wander through the old Weatherford Hotel which has been lovingly restored after being threatened with demolition. Despite my illness, I did have a nice stay in Flagstaff.
I left Friday morning and after a short stop at the Navajo Bridge, which is one of the major crossings of the Colorado River in Arizona, I headed on up the Kaibab Plateau to the North Rim of Grand Canyon. I have been to Grand Canyon no less than a hundred times in my life, but always to the more popular South Rim. The South Rim has always been the centerpiece of the park since the railroad arrived over a century ago. The North Rim is higher, averaging almost 9,000’ above sea level, and far less crowded. I spent two days there - taking photos, doing short hikes and just sitting on the rim and reading my book -and I loved every minute of it. It was beautiful, cool, relatively quiet considering it was a holiday weekend and a perfect place to wind up my stay in Arizona. I enjoyed two sunrises and two sunsets and found some wonderful viewpoints along the canyon rim. There seemed to be quite a few rim-to-rim hikers and it is a pretty serious 21 mile hike from the South Rim down and then up the Kaibab Trail. After dark, the talk seemed to all focus on those hikers who hadn’t yet made it out of the canyon. Some made it out later in the night and many finally emerged the following morning admitting they had either underestimated the hike or overestimated their own abilities or, most likely, a combination of the two. It was fascinating to see and listen to and I provided what reassurances I could, knowing all too well how easy it is for hikers to struggle up out of the canyon. All-in-all, I really had a great time up on the North Rim and will definitely return there in the future.
After sunrise and breakfast at the lodge on Sunday, I headed on down the road. After a brief stop at Pipe Springs National Historic Site, I drove on to St. George, Utah to catch up with my friend Jenny. Jenny worked at the same tour company that I did for a number of years and has continued guiding with other companies since. Right now she guides hiking and llama-packing tours, primarily in the Desert Southwest, and is also in the process of building out a small school bus to live in. I haven’t seen her in years and we spent the day catching up and talking about old times and new adventures and about our mutual friends and what they’re up to. I always enjoy her company and it was nice to have someone to chat with for a while. We had some tasty tacos and then went to a trailhead parking lot outside of town where we parked our vehicles side-by-side for the night.
Jenny left for work early on Monday and I headed out of town and out across the great state of Nevada. It was a beautiful, cool, sunny day with big, puffy white clouds in the sky, and the breathtaking mountains of the desert were glorious. I made a short stop in Rachel, Nevada, a tiny town on the Extraterrestrial Highway and the gateway to Area 51. I used to bring tour groups to Rachel many years ago, but haven’t been there in a very long time. I had a quick beer at the Little A-Le-Inn which is the main gathering place in Rachel for locals and tourists alike. The bartender was incredibly friendly and welcoming and perfectly suited to the job and I enjoyed all of their UFO photos and tchotchkes. I had a nice chat with a part time Rachel resident who spends his summers in Washington State and his winters in southern Arizona with a few weeks in Rachel in between. He told me he “follows the butter” – if the butter is so hard your knife goes through the bread, he heads south. On the flip-side, if the butter has turned to a liquid he knows it’s time to head north. From Rachel I headed on to Tonopah, one of the bigger towns in that part of the state and one I’ve been to many times over the years. I spent my afternoon wandering around town, getting a beer here and a snack there and enjoying some of the old buildings and casinos. I could have pushed on from there, but wasn’t in much of a rush so I spent the night and took off in the morning. Gas in Tonopah is always expensive, but at $5.25/gallon it certainly was a bit of a gut-punch. That being said, I enjoyed my afternoon and evening in this old mining town.
Yesterday I stopped in for a delicious breakfast at Tonopah Station (there is something magical about casino breakfasts), and then headed on out across the state. I stopped into the old El Dorado Casino in Hawthorne for a bit and enjoyed some views over Walker Lake before dropping on into Carson City. I’ve been through Carson City a number of times, but have never had the opportunity to stop and stay a while. I checked out the State Capitol yesterday, but it is undergoing some major renovations to the exterior so it wasn’t very photogenic at the moment. Then I wandered around the historic district, checked out some of the historic bars and played a few games in the casinos. I had a really great dinner at a spot called Red’s Old 395 Grill, which was friendly and fun, and then spent the night in the Carson Nugget parking lot. After so many overnight parking woes in Arizona, it’s nice to be in Nevada where you could probably park just about anywhere.
This morning I started my day with a nice long visit to the Nevada State Museum. I absolutely love big state museums, and this one was pretty good. There was a great exhibit on the Native Americans of Nevada and another I really enjoyed about the Chinese woodcutters who supplied the mining towns with firewood. The museum is situated in the old Carson Mint, one of only six U.S. mints in our history. They also had some interesting displays on silver (Nevada is nicknamed The Silver State for a reason), an old ghost town section and even an underground mine exhibit. It was definitely a great way to spend my morning and I learned a lot about Nevada that I didn’t know before. From there I headed over to the nice central library where I am going to finish up this post before heading up and over the mountains to Lake Tahoe.
I’m headed up to Tahoe this afternoon to spend a few days with my buddy Rob who I used to live with many years ago back in Washington. He moved out to California a decade and a half ago to pursue a career in the solar industry, and lived in the Bay Area for many years. During the pandemic, he spent more and more time at their vacation house in Tahoe until he and his wife decided to sell their house in Albany and move up here full-time. Rob and Tara and their kids are a huge part of my west coast family and have been tremendously supportive over the years. I’m looking forward to seeing them all and spending some time hanging out over the weekend. While they are working during the days, I plan to clean out Shadow Catcher and get her ready for the summer in dry dock. I will also have to start packing and getting myself ready to begin my tour season in earnest. I’ll be in Tahoe until Sunday morning and then I will drop down to Sacramento to catch up with my old guiding friend Dave Flood for a couple of days. On Tuesday I need to be back in San Francisco and I’m back in the office on Wednesday. I definitely plan on getting this newsletter out next week and will hopefully even get some more Arizona photos edited and published this week as well. As long as all of the pieces fall into place, that is what my week will look like, but the details will largely depend on what my friends have in store. I’m really looking forward to some good company and a lot of laughter in the next seven days. Have a great week out there wherever you are and I hope to see you right back here, same time next week. Thanks, as always, for reading.
-Mike
Sunset From The Bright Angel Point Trail
From The North Rim