The Grand Canyon was pretty stellar, I have to say. We lost Doug, though his departure for home had always been planned. He'll join us again in Santiago, Chile, when he's finished with the European leg of the Queen tour--if you don't know, he runs automation on the Queen and Adam Lambert Tour. For now, home and work called him back.
Josh and I spent another night in the campground on the north rim. In the early afternoon, I used the wi-fi at the general store to upload some pics to Instagram. But after about 30 minutes of trying to do so, I decided it just wasn't going to work. As I walked back to our campsite, I saw someone sitting at our picnic table who was neither Josh nor myself. To be honest, when I first saw him, I thought it was Josh. Though he was wearing the exact same shade of Kelly green shirt Josh was, one glance at his cute sailboat shorts, and I knew it was not. Josh introduced our visitor and said he wanted to share our campsite.
We all sat chatting for a bit and I got to know a little about our new friend. Since I neither speak nor write French well (who am I kidding...I mean NOT AT ALL) I will probably spell his name incorrectly. Demian is 26 years old, and was spending three weeks in the states and Canada with some friends, seeing the eclipse and a number of our national parks in the west. The day before we met him, his one friend asked the other to marry him, so Demian chose to split for a bit and give them some newly-engaged privacy.
Early in the afternoon, Demian headed for the showers, and we headed for the Kaibab Trail. I tossed my Camelback into the backpack, filled up our camp mugs, and off we went. As we headed down the trail, we passed a couple standing on the side of the trail, panting, exhausted from their hike back up.
The man looked at us and said, "I hope you enjoy that coffee! You're gonna need the jolt to get you back up!"
That's so cute. He thought we had coffee. Amateur.
I'm on vacation. I had wine.
We kept heading down the trail, and after a few switchbacks, we came upon Gus. His human was doing some trail maintenance, and to be honest, I just wanted to grab Gus's muzzle and give him a huge smooch. I have a soft spot for mules, and he was particularly curious and well-behaved all at the same time.
The trail was beautiful, and quite the workout. We followed it with dinner, then sitting around a campfire with Demian until it was time for bed. We left the next morning, spending a little more time on a different lookout, being awed and amazed by the views.
Walking back to the bikes from the lookout, we ran into a Kiwi on a KTM 950 Enduro. Well, not so much as ran into, as came around the corner and were surprised to see another person in riding gear. He was less surprised as he was coming from the parking lot--and by the line of our conversation had spent some quality time checking out our bikes--and probably heard us coming as my boots are still so damn squeaky!
We had a great conversation with him. He was at the end of a nice long tour around the western states and Canada. He and a buddy had flown their bikes over and started together, but after a fall that shattered his friend's leg, they split up--one for surgery and hospital, and one for adventure. I'll keep my squeaky-ass, protective boots, thank you. As we said good-bye, I handed him one of our travel cards.
He said, "Oh, you're Girl On A Motorbike? I've heard of you."
Yeah. So that was weird. I'm really still not used to what a small place the interwebs has made of this planet.
After checking out his bike, we hit the road. We were out of Arizona within an hour and a half, then out of Utah and back into Arizona--after a quick stop for groceries--in another hour.
It was hot.
And I mean HOT.
We rode into camp and it was 107.6 degrees, on a thermometer we have all determined reads low. A little while later, it spiked at 108.5. We jumped in the river and spent a restless, hot, night making a little dinner and experiencing the joy of scorpions. Or paper towels...I don't really know.
I just knew I'd be happy to move on to cooler climes...
Post tags: motorcycles, motorbikes, BMW, F700GS, Suzuki, DL650, Central America, South America, camping, Mosko Moto, Rev'it, Sena, Alt Rider
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