Bicycles, Backpacks, Thumbs, Mountains and Canyons

Summer time in the desert is a special thing. I took a large group of people camping up in the Pineleno mountains a few weeks ago which was a lot of fun. We played horseshoes, sat around campfires, stayed up late and talked to trees.

When it was time to go, I got dropped off in Safford where I started my next journey: hitchhiking to Canyon de Chelly just below the four corners. I had my bicycle, but it was a secondary form of transportation given that I had three days to get to the canyon, as I intended to meet some friends from California there. The first day was hard, which was my fault. I inadvertently chose a route not commonly traveled, given that I only saw maybe 8 cars that first day. This made getting a ride next to impossible, and I only made 30 of the 370 miles I had to go. Luckily, the next two days, my luck turned around and I made better time. I had to forgo this section of highway during my bicycle tour as it was closed in winter snow, but riding through it now in the back of an open pickup, the forest gleamed white and green, packed so tightly with aspen you could hardly see the sky, freckled with dream like meadows every now and again. It was worth the wait. Day three I made it to the canyon by 10 in the morning. I met up with my friends that afternoon and through a series of fortunate events, was able to backpack into the canyon that night. Our guide showed us a handful of the canyon's ruins, before we set up camp on his family's land. After we hiked out the next day, he prepared the sweat lodge for us before we departed. To this day, I have never felt something so cleansing. You know your warm when you walk out into the the 100 degree desert and it feels like early spring.  As my friends planned to visit the grand canyon before heading further west, I rode south with them before going our separate ways.

A little while later, over the 4th of July, Sean Campbell, Sean Saleh, and myself decided to climb Mount Wrightson where we could watch the fireworks from the summit. Being the tallest mountain in southern Arizona, it provided us with a good perspective. We watched fireworks from Tucson, Sierra Vista, Nogalas, Saughrita, and Sonoita (among others) at the same time. Spent the remainder of the night drinking coco around the fire before we passed out like little babies. I suppose that's what summer is for.