Raft group assembles

Late yesterday afternoon we had 4 of the hearty rafters over for a cool one at the RV before dinner at the El Tovar. I know some of the group from High School. Jenny met the non school participants at a get together in Dallas sponsored by the instigator of this adventure, Cindy shipley, a lifelong friend originally from S.A. We got back to the campground so late. (It was dark) that I pretty much conked out immediately upon arrival. No blog post. This morning we biked pretty much all of the Greenway trails east of the rim lodges. It was 2 1/2 hours and 14 miles. It's now after lunch and we're doing laundry again. Jenny and I have been trying to come up with a name for the RV. She thinks "money pit" I like that one but we're certainly open to suggestions. Tomorrow we leave the campground and move into the Maswick lodge. A 1 night stay is included in the rafting package and anyway we have a 5am showtime at the trail head on Tuesday morning. We can stumble out of the lodge at 4:45 and make it on time. This is a pic of me using my time efficiently. Simultaneous blogging and laundry.

Another Grand Canyon bike ride

Watch "Yaki point Greenway" on YouTube

Tusayan AZ

RVers have a AAA service called Coach-Net. When I discovered the outboard left rear tire was flat I called them. It took a while but they finally found someone who could come to our assistance. It was a gas station 80 miles away. He showed up on time and very efficiently put on the spare. We determined that the guys that put on the valve stem extensions in Albuquerque screwed things up. I think we fixed it but it's now the spare. We now have 7 fully inflated tires I think. Hope. This morning I rode my bike on the Arizona trail. That trail spans the State from the north to the south.  I saw the sign on the previous post while I was on the ride. Tomorrow we move back to Trailer Village in the park.  Also tomorrow, the rafting group begins to arrive. We are going to have a cocktail hour in the RV for the arrivals, and then dinner at the El Tovar. Jenny is drinking some local "Kokopelli" champagne tonight.

Reasonable in AZ.

Royal Arch Route day 3 & 4

There is a lot to cover here. We got up at 4:30 and got going soon afterward. After filling up our water bottles we only had 1 gallon of the stash left. I was counting on a spring about 4 miles into the hike. I found it, but it was only dripping about 15 drops/minute. It wasn't enough. We pressed on anyway knowing there was water 4 to 5 miles ahead. The problem was that the trail deteriorated and our progress slowed to a crawl. We were hot, drinking our water rapidly and barely moving. I couldn't risk running out of water. We had a gallon behind us. We turned around. We had used ALL of the water we carried in our packs by the time got back. A gallon wasn't going to be enough for us to spend the night. We left one pack and did the climb to our car where we had water. We made it to the top at 6:30. Long day. I hiked down this morning to retrieve the pack that we left. The drive back was just as exciting as the drive out. There was no room at any of the park campgrounds so we're just outside the park. Oh, one more thing. We have a flat tire. We're working on that now.

Royal Arch route day 2

We weren't in a big hurry this morning because we didn't have to far to go. We did the steep descent with our backpacks so it was pretty slow going. We made it to the water stash around 11 and made camp under a couple of pinon pine trees. Today's goal was for me to climb a mountain that I noticed the last time I was here. Mt. Huethawali. Good luck pronouncing that. I did climb it. It took 2 1/2 hours round trip. That is now off my list. Here is a pic of that peak taken from our camp last night. 

Royal Arch Route day 1

This was a transition day. We went from RV camping to tent camping. Transition days are tough. We parked the land yacht at the back country office and began the drive to the South Bass trail head. The road isn't really a road in places. There are 3 feet deep ruts that run for 1/2 a mile and you are forced to straddle the damn thing. I'll just say that the 30 mile drive here was a challenge. There were no tracks in the road and we are here alone. I hauled 3 1/2 gallons of water down to where we will be camped tomorrow. The round trip took nearly 3 hours. We are a long way from anywhere. I'm sitting on a ledge watching the colors change as the sun sets. I absolutely love this place but hiking in it is just so extremely difficult.