Friday, April 23
10 miles.
Woke up soaked. The exposed spot we were in was a condensation trap and all of us were drenched. At least it wasn’t just me this time.
This morning was super boring tbh. At least compared to the past few days. We were on flat dirt roads all mornings. We passed by a tank full of water that was fed by a spring we didn’t see. There were also a few gallons of water that someone left public.
We decided to split up so we would have an easier time hitching. Jordan and I went ahead while Jack and Rowan ate breakfast. The roads were so long and exposed but we had service and could zone out. We had about 16 miles to the highway and a few hours in we were really in a slog. Did see some cute cows running around at least.
A few cars passed by. Jordan half-heartedly stuck his thumb out and one car pulled and offered us a ride. Yellow blaze forever. The guy was a local who was building a house in the middle of nowhere and had a bunch of tools with him. Jack and Rowan were not too far behind us and saw us get the ride. There wasn’t much room in the car plus they wouldn’t have taken the ride since they’re purists but I still felt kinda bad for leaving. At least I did until I saw the shitty road we would have been on for several more hours.
The driver was initially going to drop us off on the highway but then let us know he needed to get groceries and offered to drop us off at a new grocery store. Turns out the new grocery store was in Colorado City.
I had just finished listening to Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer yesterday and I did not want to stop in Colorado City. In case you don’t know, Colorado City is a city inhabited and run by fundamental Mormons, people who believe the modern Mormon church strayed from the original tenets of the church, namely from polygamy. There’s been a ton of cases of incest, rape, pedophilia, and abuse. The town has been raided a few times by the feds. Fundamentalist mormons also believe Black people are “beasts of burden” and a bunch of other racist shit that was a fundamental part of the original Mormon church. As a brown guy, I didn’t really want to spend much time there and I sure as fuck didn’t want to support any business. I got major bad vibes from the town, a few “scamdemic” bumper stickers in just the grocery store parking lot, so we nope’d outta there onto the road and hitched out.
We got a ride within 5 minutes by a dude in a truck who took us all the way to Hurricane. Hurricane is maybe the biggest town we’ve been in so far with 3 Mexican places right next to each other (if we count Taco Bell as one). Got burritos then found a bakery with vegan cinnamon rolls before checking in to the hotel.
Laundry, shower, bad cable, loads of Thai food for dinner. Finally found a TV with wrestling, praise be and have been watching too much TV. Jack and Rowan finally showed up too. They weren’t far from us on the dirt road and saw us get in the car, oops. The guy didn’t have enough room for two more but they wouldn’t have taken the ride anyway.
Jack and Rowan are zeroing tomorrow and Jordan and I might head out so it’s our last night together probably. Been fun hiking with the two of them, especially through the hard af Grand Canyon section, but we gotta get a move. Although Jordan got some bad news completely out of nowhere tonight he’s processing that might change our plans so not sure.
It’s 1am and we’re watching Rocky and should probably go to bed but the training montage and fight scene haven’t started yet so I guess we’re never gonna sleep.
Plants Outside 