High Plains Thrifter : Boondocking an Arizona Paradise
well I'm now above 6,000 FT elevation and there are a few patches of snow that I can see but it's nothing like that snow storm that I encountered in New Mexico this is pretty easy Flagstaff Arizona it's cold and my engine's thirsty I'm not expecting good gas mileage this one there's a lot of uphill climbing it was a nice change to see trees again after spending time in the Southern Arizona desert but soon the trees disappeared and the golden grasses turned to red soil once I reached the Navajo Bridge the transition was complete now I know for a fact this is going to be a rough road I've uh been in the area before and uh I think I'm prepared for it but I guess I'm going to find out for sure I just got to inch a little bit at a time just got to crawl through here don't want to break an axle on the truck or on the camper well I think I'm finally through the worst of it but I can't guarantee that I just know that it's back to gravel not rock oh yeah woohoo this definitely takes it up a notch now before I even set up camp I want to make sure there's no damage I mean the pickup should be okay in a situation like this that's what it's used to but what I am concerned about is the trailer after all the frame has broken in two in the past here's the new weld right here I don't see any cracks I'm just going to get a little closer here and here now that looks like a crack right there but it's actually if you look up close it's a clamp Mark same with the one on this side it's just how he uh held it in place when he welded it the weld is all good the other weld is right here looks fine but how about all the stuff inside that's been bouncing around well there's a box of Kleenex on the floor a flashlight cushions a little out of place however look at that even everything's still up on the bra up there looks like everything survived it great now I can set up camp I'm adding a strap in the middle so I can keep it open let the light in but if the wind does pick up it's can to keep it just a little bit more secure that's what I need okay all ready set up but what I really want to see is the view oh yeah wow if there was ever a campsite that deserved a 360° panoramic this is the one kind of cool isn't it lunchtime what a great place to have lunch right by the Colorado River without a tour without any national park fees I like that Grand Canyon's down there but unlike Grand Canyon this spot is free and no tour you can be out here for 14 days and just enjoy the space there is nobody here whatsoever at the entrance there was a I think a van and a car but uh few people were willing to Brave that really rough rocky road but hey that's how I find out these places you got to explore and you have to have a vehicle that'll do it and I think the truck's done pretty good now some of you might have noticed I have a map of North America on my closet door and I use it to document my travels so on this trip I started off right here New Brunswick Canada I went down the first night and made it to Connecticut then I made it to Roake Virginia way across over here to just south of Nashville Tennessee and then finally I got somewhere warm in Florida and uh that's where I got bitten by the armadillo that's Pensacola around there uh made it to Louisiana for night went through Houston and went down to South Padre Island near Brownsville Texas uh I went to Falcon Park here and then worked my way up to to Amastad across to uh New Mexico and finally ended up in Phoenix Arizona right here where am I right now? get out my trusty pen I am right there so if you thought I was going to keep going down to California well I fooled you there it is my ebike there snap it together and put the kickstand down now I wouldn't say it's super light but it's not super heavy there we go and I couldn't think of a more perfect place to go for a bike ride than here however I bought some accessories I need to put them on first I bought two uh saddle bags for the back and uh these are the kind they're like those bags you get for kayaks they're waterproof and you just sort of twist them around and then you lock them in place and that way they're waterproof protects your stuff and they're expandable so I really like this I also have a carrier on the front I've got a Gamsod uh camera right here I've just wired it to the uh to the carrier and I have my GoPro on a stick right up like this so the camera is not right in my face so you can see my nose hairs and whatever else is up there little further back I like it that way one two three Off to the Races here we go yeah I got a few bugs on the selfie stick it's just flying around there okay now I can go a little bit faster wow what a view all although I like this carrier I can't uh fold it up and put it in the truck like this I have to take it off every time I think what I'm going to have to do is come up with a another way of fastening it so that uh it just can come on and off really quickly like right now I've got to unscrew these four screws and it's a bit of a pain and probably going to wear them out pretty quick having to do this every time something to work on see if I can find a better way there we go it's off there whoops no don't lose the screws little SPF 100 a hat some sunglasses and I'm all set to get a few Rays I just love this place I mean look at it it's it's like it's made for me it's like all the things that I like in a boondocking site look at the wide expanse look at it's just and there's no trees you can see forever you've got the cliffs you got the colors you got the gorge and listen it's dead silent except for a little breeze I mean it's the perfect place for uh for an ebike for a bicycle um you can hike there's there's so many places to explore it's incredible and all this sun um perfect for solar I'm not going to run out of energy there's no generators just silence I love it here about the only bad thing I can say about this place is it's just too far away from New Brunswick Canada oh did you see that butterfly? I mean as the crow flies or the butterflies it's about uh 3,000 miles I think about 5,000 km but I didn't take that straight route I went around you know in the South around the Mexican border and then I came up so it's closer to 4,000 miles that it took me to get to this spot but a lot of people prefer Yuma or Quartsite but one thing you got to remember this is March and those places are pretty hot because they're a lot lower elevation uh here is uh about 4,000 ft above sea level so it's a lot cooler and if I look over at the Grand Canyon over there I actually see snow because that's I think five and 6,000 ft so the nice thing about this if it's too hot you can go a little higher if it's too cold you go a little lower I mean that's one of the great advantages of a state like Arizona well tonight I want to be creative but it may not be the best meal because my purpose is simply to get rid of some of the stuff in the refrigerator that was going to go bad um I've got this mystery bag I'll talk about later I've got a sweet kale chopped kit it's a chopped salad with h broccoli cabbage uh kale brussel sprouts papitas radisino and cranberries okay I've got some uh snap peas some sugar snap peas that are going bad hopefully if I heat them up that'll sterilize them cauliflower always goes bad so I don't even know why I get it except that it goes to me with anything and uh four tiny little tomatoes and some noodles let's see what I can come up with first I heated up the pan and added a little water this will soften the larger vegetables next come the rice noodles once it's all tender I add a little oil and my mystery bag of jalapeno poppers finally in goes my chopped vegetable kit stir for a minute or two and that's it for cooking okay the meal is ready and the salad kit has some other stuff in it little package of nuts why not and some dressing I think it's I don't know what it is doesn't matter it's going in in goes the goo oh yeah yeah yeah yeah look at that now that's a full meal I'm pretty sure there's something healthy in here and I've cleared the fridge out of all the stuff that was going rotten win-win although the day started off calm the winds picked up and the skies filled with threatening clouds the animals knew it and seeked shelter fortunately the storm didn't last wow it's changed a little bit I was actually going to uh do some star Shots tonight however it's cloudy not going to happen change of plans but it is very very peaceful and calm right now I think I'm just going to take it all in before the sun goes down this is just such a magnificent place there's many but I've been here before well not exact place but in this area I was here about 5 years ago and it was one of my favorite camping spots of all time I loved it and I wasn't sure if I was going to come back here I was looking for different places to explore but I ended up here anyway I got in here and uh something just wasn't right um I just wasn't into it I I was tense I uh I kind of had like a Creator's block you was like well what kind of ideas do I have to put on the on a video? and uh I was here for like a day or so nothing was happening and I was uh it was giving me a little bit of anxiety and that's when thoughts come into your heads like well what am I doing here why am I traveling what do I plan to do next? what am I doing with my life? all these you know and not always positive these stressful things and I didn't know why why was I not getting into it when I was in just such a gorgeous place and I think what it was is because I was just in Phoenix I was just in a big city you know the hustle and the bustle and the traffic and back and forth the noise I got out of my groove! I was no longer at peace and when I came out here I was still tense I had to I had to unwind I'm I was actually going to leave nothing's working out let's just get out of here but I stayed and uh you know what I thought just letting it you know breathing in that air letting this beauty these surroundings just sort of get back into your soul and I was okay again my mind cleared I was happy and as far as what's my future just let it happen don't worry about it if you can clear your mind if you can clear your brain if you can cleanse your soul those opportunities will present themselves and you'll be ready for them uh I just love it and uh you know why am I here? it's because I appreciate Beauty I appreciate nature and this is exactly what I like why shouldn't I be here? why shouldn't YOU be here? you know if if the city messes you up if all you have are bad thoughts and Hate and fear then get out of there come here find a spot you don't have to go 4,000 miles away you can probably find something in your own State your own Province your own town just let the Wilderness embrace you and you'll find that Clarity you'll find that that Awakening it came back to me and I can I can work on a video again tomorrow actually I am leaving I just wanted this one last moment of Peace Quiet and tranquility and I wanted to share it with you is that okay? I hope so eventually the sun returned the lizards came back out and I paid one last visit to the Canyon Rim uh I think for this trip this is a one I'm really going to remember but I do want to show you something that'll really take your breath away if you're afraid of heights you might want to miss the next couple of minutes but for me this is so cool just when I thought it couldn't get any better something magical happened watch closely this is a California condor the largest bird in North America and one of the rarest to even see one let alone film it was the icing on the cake for this incredible Adventure although it was hard to get perspective in this massive gorge an adult condor has a wingspan of close to 10 ft to see it soar above a 500t cliff of the Colorado was truly a blessing as the sun prepared to dip below the Horizon it painted the distant Hills red on its return the next morning I was already packed well I hope you enjoyed this video check out my others as well The road's calling me "Slim you better hit the road" okay okay I'm going who needs to hike you just have to keep going back for your camera
2024-04-19 11:00
