It was June 29th we left Ojito and dropped Phoebe off at By the Book. The wilderness and public lands cover a good-sized plotz in the neighborhood of Cabezon Peak, but this part isn't as well-known. The access road isn't easily seen nor is there a highway sign pointing to it. During the four days we were here we only had one vehicle go by. Yaaaayyy!!!
Arrived around 2:40 p.m.
Drizzling and warm, but nowhere near the 118.7 degrees up in British Columbia. Ah, well. Like some senator said, "Who needs polar bears, anyway." (I put a period at the end cuz I don't think he wuz really asking.)
I just noticed her tach isn't working. When did that happen?
We'll go to the carwash and get cleaned up b4 going down to By the Book.
Phoebe's clutch gave out. I adjusted it a couple of months ago but then it needed it again. I now have to turn her off, put her in 1st or reverse, then start her again. For some reason she doesn't start rolling until I let the pedal out, but then I have to shift by matching the engine speed to the transmission. She goes into the shop tomorrow.
I've been camping in the Ojito Public Lands (BLM). It's a pretty area with cliffs at varying distances and even an anticline.
Last night at 11:30 a large plane buzzed us; it was touching to realize they're thinking of me.
It started raining last night and has continued into the day. I'm reading Narcissus and Goldmund and listening to a series by Ram Dass called Conscious Aging. It's about dying and utilizing the process to access another level of awareness. It's surprisingly good.
Here're a couple of photos I'll submit to the BLM in case they don't know how (badly) over-grazed the range is.
The side with more growth belongs to Zia Pueblo.
It turns out the permittee, the person or organization leasing the grazing rights to the lands on the near side of the fence in the above pictures, is Zia Pueblo. I've heard talk of returning the National Parks to their (former) Native owners, but I ask you, Would you give land to someone who demonstrates this level of disregard for public stewardship?
Of course, this begs the question, Why does the Bureau of Land Management tolerate such disregard?
Maybe because I (you?) haven't complained?
Their timing was a little off as I was just prepping for my baahhth and had nothing on but my tighty-whiteys. But when I asked, they obligingly turned their backs whilst I pulled my pants on. It wasn't that I was embarrassed, it's just, you know, the 68-year-old "physique" could, actually, be offensive to some.
A vehicle is, to me, a conveyance; protection from the elements while providing an expeditious means of transferring one's body from one place to another.
In my youth I drove a variety of vehicles including a 1968 GTO (at 140 mph drag-racing on Colorado Blvd in Denver at 11pm)
a 1966 Triumph TR4 (practiced "drifting" through turns)
and I put our 1964 VW bug through its paces on one of the windingest roads through the hills of Tennessee where we (unfortunately) went to live after leaving Germany.
But every now and then, as with the Auburn in California or Phil Endicott's 1932 Dodge, I see one that is worthy of note. Such was the case with this Willys in Flagstaff.
Will you LOOK at that Patina!!
That's a tachometer stuck in on the left hiding behind the steering wheel.
Double-U...for Willys
It's been an exciting time here in Flagstaff.
I got some new hose for the bidet; the first stuff got kinky. I found Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages by Harold Bloom ("What're you gonna do with that?" you ask),
and Sacred Sexuality by A. T. Mann & Jane Lyle.
I got the food and water restocked/resupplied...and couldn't do the munch. Below is what I posted to my blog on Fetlife.
Title: Missed the Munch
Well, I just couldn't do it.
After driving all the way around the Grand Staircase-Escalante National monument -- instead of going back the way I came which was up through the middle from Big Water to Escalante and was what I had intended to do, but didn't FULLY trust Phoebe's repair -- to attend the Flagstaff Kinkster's Munch yesterday evening, when I saw all those people, none of whom was wearing a mask, and although there was a nice-looking group settling into a sortof separate area (it might be them!), everyone was seated shoulder-to-shoulder and I had to face the fact that I live the way I do because I prefer one-on-one interactions (and elbow room) and actually have an aversion to places like Taverna. (How's THAT for a Proustian sentence?)
But, of course, never having SEEN the place I had no way of knowing. As it was, when I got back to camp, the moon was out and the temperature was just right for enjoying some beer while making dinner and then a bit more WITH dinner. And in spite of missing out on making some new acquaintances and possibly a friend or two, it was a beautiful evening. But if you're out there...please don't hesitate.
Pathetique, eh? Ah, well. "One is what one is. The essential doesn't change." (From Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett)
Last summer I couldn't handle the elevation and took 89 (the northern route) from Kanab, Utah to Page, Arizona.
This summer I'm doing better and decided to take 89A up onto the Kaibab Plateau and see how I do at 8,000 feet (2438.4m). I have to stay on top of my meds (fortunately, less than a 1/4 inch of additional elevation), but unlike last year when simply being brought on headaches and debilitating fatigue, this time I was able to make camp (unload & load) and even do a bit of ambling about.
An inviting fire ring...
Location Shot
Vermilion Cliffs
Scouting for campsites I was enthralled by the florific profusion...and consternated by a nearby tableau.
In the road, from ground level...
Aerial view
Detail
Detail
I had my first experience with LSD when I was 15. I'd been brought up, starting at the age of 13, to use marijuana as a consciousness-expanding (the popular phrase of the times) tool and had been cautioned about experimenting with LSD.
In my early twenties I traveled to Mexico where the local children outside the town of Palenque
Photo from Britannica
brought us the magic mushrooms and gave us the correct amount. Over the decades as my career and partners took precedent, I rarely had access -- let alone the time -- to utilize psychedelics. An "average" trip usually lasts from 6-12 hours. I put the word in quotes since, with psychedelics, there is no such thing as average.
From 1968 to 1972 a friend was incarcerated in a Tennessee penitentiary for possession of two joints. So while the article below is about psychedelics, I'm incredulated and disgusted by the hypocrisy. It makes me wonder what other lies they're telling us.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/psychedelics-could-be-the-future-of-psychotherapy
For those of you who STILL have yet to get your shot(s), I'm writing to caution you about the Moderna vaccine. Since getting mine on April 24, 2021, I've had 12 incidents of Bell's Palsey of which the most recent was 7 consecutive days -- up until today, the 18th of June -- in which the numbness and pain subsided during the night then began anew the next day.
Aside from the painful numbness in the left side of my face, upper left jaw, including pain in my teeth, it sometimes triggers INTENSE pain in my left eye, the one that was blinded in an accident in 2008.
I personally know 7 people who died from Covid, including my sister, age 60, so though I wasn't EAGER to get vaccinated I decided to go ahead. I mean, what the heck?
Not that I'm that concerned about dying since I AM already, of heart failure, but it's the WAY of dying. The prospect of lying around suffocating and maybe NOT dying was a tad intimidating. And hey! It was FREE!
Prior to getting the shot I'd never had anything like Bell's Palsey. But after the shot I had several incidents before I was scheduled for the 2nd one and, as a result, decided not to get it.
The online articles trivialize the condition and say it usually "resolves" without treatment in 6 months. (Just like HPV! Unless, of course, you get cancer of the cervix, throat or some other form.)
The numbness and related paralysis have lasted -- each time -- anywhere from an hour to 24 hours and though they have "resolved" (so far) without permanent impairment, they have been/are EXTREMELY uncomfortable. The eye pain is TERRIFIC (not like Tom!) and doesn't respond to NSAIDs or aspirin.
Just For-Your-Information (fyi).
Don and Courtney at Cottam "66" Auto Repair in Escalante put a new waterpump belt on but couldn't figure out why the power-steering belt kept jumping off. Oh, well. I don't need no stinkin' power steering. So, for the time being, at least until I get back to Flagstaff, I'll be strengthening my arms.
I thought I was heading up into Nevada, but now I'm returning to Flagstaff, Arizona. As it says in my profile...it's by whim.
Currently a few miles west of Modena, Utah near the Nevada border.
A few miles out of Big Water you get a choice: Smokey MOUNTAIN Rd or Smokey HOLLOW Canyon Rd. I chose Smokey Hollow Canyon.
The road has had A LOT of work done on it. ALL the rocks, boulders really, have grooves showing where they've been ground away and made smooth. I've been coming to Utah for years and have traveled some of these roads before they've been worked on. Even AFTER the work, top speed is barely more than a crawl. At the end of the 3rd day I realized I'd set a new record: 7 miles in three and a half hours.
It was hot too. The day before I'd sat in the shade of a large pinyon for three hours waiting for the heat to abate. I'd found a campspot nearby but with no shade I'd have have had to set up an awning. And it was too hot.
While waiting, one car came by, going toward Big Water. We had a nice conversation about the small herd of mountain sheep I'd seen, livestock depredation in the west (not the mountain sheep) and they were kind enough to accept a Western Watersheds Project newsletter.
Yesterday, the 9th, was my 4th day and I was lovin' it! But as I reached the top of a hill in 4wd low, something told me to check under the hood. Doing so, I saw the power-steering belt was gone and the waterpump belt was frayed to a thin thread.
As I was leaning on the radiator thinking about the 15-mile walk (hike?) to Escalante three BLM range management guys in a side-by-side showed up.
After some discussion it was decided a wrecker was needed. Before I could say Jack Sprat, one of 'em was on the phone (there was SERVICE!) to their office where Janalee, another BLM employee, called the tow-truck company.
After the BLM guys left I thought it might be good to clean up a bit. I hadn't had a bath in 4 or 5 days and it'd been over 100 degrees each day. It wasn't long after my baahth that Klane showed up with a trailer. We loaded her up, he strapped her in, and off we went.
When the subject of cats came up Klane said they have three. He told how two years ago his wife'd found a tiny kitten up under the front fender of a truck. Its whiskers and the pads of its feet had been burned off. He surmised it'd been done intentionally. The kitten, a Smirket (black cat) took to him and mostly ignores his wife except -- every morning at 2 a.m -- when it comes in it steps on her neck....just to let her know he's thinking of her. Then, after greeting (waking!) Klane's wife, he curls up under Klanes chin for the rest of the night.
He also told about their two Jack Russell cross-breeds, both of which are rescue dogs.
By this time we were traveling through some beautiful canyons and I was realizing how far 15 miles is. When I mentioned how quickly he'd gotten to me he said he'd have been sooner, but the hitch on the company truck was too big for the trailer and he'd had to steal a 2-inch ball from his wife's.
It's the meds that're keeping me alive. But even with them stress can make things painful...and possibly deadly. HeIp arrived so quickly there wasn't a hint of pain.
Thank you to everyone! And an extra thanks to Klane "& Company" for rescuing the cats & dogs.
I've been wanting to go for years. FINALLY!!
Open Space to the Right
Open Space to the Left
The Wall
Toadstool
Toadstool Location Shot
(see it there in the middle?)
I find gate-latches interesting; I suspect it's related to my proclivity for (giving) bondage.
Nothing Fancy
I'd made my way up the hill, slogged through the sand in four-wheel-drive and was thinking about where to dig "the hole" when I heard a cry. Scanning the area I espied movement atop the hill. The camera is better than my eyes.
The next morning (note bidet)...
POWER ISN'T
BRUTE FORCE
AND MONEY.
POWER IS IN
YOUR SPIRIT. IT IS WHAT
YOUR ANCESTORS
YOUR OLD PEOPLE'S
GAVE YOU.
POWER IS
IN THE EARTH
IT IS IN YOUR
RELATIONSHIP
TO THE EARTH.
