“While walking through life I would never fall
If I could be close to it all and all,
If I could be close to it all.
If I had my dream it would not fall down
If I could live high on the ground,
The sound of high is a good one to many around
When they wanna be close to it all,
And I wanna be close to it all and all,
I wanna be close to it all.”
~Melanie Safka
The early part of the week was quiet and mostly uneventful. The chigger bites I got last week are slowly healing, but in the meantime, the itching is driving me crazy. Chiggers are definitely something to be avoided.
I was parked relatively close to a forest road near Mormon Lake, and over the weekend, there was some traffic. Lucky for me, the spots closest to me on either side were occupied with quiet campers, and they were far enough away that I could barely see their rigs through the trees, and I never saw the occupants.
The night sky is dark again. The crescent moon did a little dance with Venus just after sunset and the stars at bedtime were pretty spectacular.
I still haven’t seen the Milky Way, although I suspect it is once again visible in my night sky if I am willing to wake up at about 3:00 a.m. to look for it. So far, I’ve slept through the night. With the dark skies, the silence of the forest and the high altitude and cool nights, I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and stay asleep until the first light of dawn (shortly after 5:00 a.m.).
By Tuesday, I realized I may not have enough dog food or coffee to last through the entire holiday weekend. If I ran out of either before next Tuesday, I’d have to drive into Flagstaff on a holiday weekend. I couldn’t bear that thought, so on Wednesday I decided to drive into Flagstaff pre-emptively to pick up those two items and some fresh veggies. I topped off my fresh water and propane tanks and then the big decision: Do I stay nearer to Flagstaff at either Marshall Lake or Ashurst Lake, or return to my spot near Mormon Lake. I quickly ruled out Marshall Lake. In summers past, it proved to be pretty sketchy on any given weekend and downright torturous on holiday weekends due to the influx of weekend campers from Phoenix wanting to escape the heat. Ashurst Lake has many wonderful spots in the woods and seems to be nicer than what I’ve (so far) explored near Mormon Lake, but it too can be tricky on holiday weekends. As I drove toward Flagstaff, I had time to ruminate, and decided that all three choices were relatively close, and I opted to check out Ashurst Lake. If it seemed crowded, I could easily continue on and return to the other side of Mormon Lake from where I’d been staying. I had to head down the road past Ashurst Lake anyway to get propane and water.
When I got to the Forest Road leading to Ashurst Lake, I saw only one trailer parked close to the road. After entering and taking one of the many smaller tributary roads, I found it completely deserted. I drove several of the loops and did not come across another human being. I drove to my favorite spot and took half an hour to get level in a clearing that would allow me the most access to sun for my solar power. When I finally got leveled up, I realized that I had no cell signal. No internet. I let out a sigh, and Cosmo and I walked the back roads checking the cell signal as we came across alternate clearings. One spot was beautiful, had a good signal, but was dense with trees. I would only get sunlight for my solar panels when the sun was directly overhead for a couple hours a day. Most of the time we’d be in the shadows of the pines. I walked to a spot I’d occupied last year. Good cell service. Good light due to a large clearing. Seemed fairly level. We returned to the van and drove to the new spot and settled in. Even though I was tired and hungry, I did the full setup, putting out table and chair, rolling out my awning and hanging the colorful tie-dye side.
I set up all my solar lights and put out my wind chime. Exhausted and shoulder throbbing from overuse, I made lunch and fell asleep. When I woke up, it was just after 2:00 p.m. The sun was directly overhead in a cloudless sky and radiated through the branches of nearby trees. There were still no signs of other humans, and the forest was eerily silent except for the occasional breeze through branches or the call of a stray crow. Paradise.
I made myself a cappuccino and sat outside. The weather was absolutely perfect-72⁰, sunny with a light breeze. The air was cool, the sun hot and the clean mountain air smelled of pine needles. I went to bed early and slept through the night, waking shortly after dawn at around 6:00 a.m. It was chilly. I opened my back door and took in the forest.
I actually found myself giggling out loud. The expression “fallen on hard times” came to mind. I realized I have fallen on EASY times. Another giggle. There were still no other humans in sight, and I couldn’t believe my luck in finding such a beautiful spot in the middle of the forest. I was so glad I’d done all my chores in one day and I had everything I needed for the next week to 10 days. I drank my coffee in bed, looking out the back door, Cosmo snoring gently across my lap. If life never got any better than this, that was OK.
Thursday afternoon a truck pulled in down the road and set up a large tent. I could see it in the distance through the trees. Then another SUV joined them and another. My heart sank. I was so enjoying having the entire forest to myself. But even as more vehicles joined and set up tents, I could not hear them. They were quiet and went to bed early. I breathed a sigh of relief at having good neighbors. But on Friday, a caravan of 3 trucks pulling U-Haul trailers came in and parked on the other side of me. They were far enough away that I could only see fragments of their tents and vehicles through the trees. But through the evening, half a dozen more vehicles joined them. They too were mostly quiet but by Saturday morning, they had unloaded 3 off-road vehicles and spent most of the morning taking turns driving in a loop around this part of the forest. Unfortunately, my little “road” was part of that loop. It was annoying but compared to the crowd last year on 4th of July, it wasn’t bad.
Lessons From The Road: With all my planning, plotting and deliberating, in the end I realized that holiday crowds are just a part of life in the wild: No matter where I choose to stay, on holiday weekends I will have to deal with the influx of annoying and inconsiderate campers. Like when I lived at the beach, I realize once again that this is just going to be part of my life and I should be extremely happy that these invaders probably work at jobs they hate, and save up all year to spend 3 days out here in the wild where I am lucky enough to live full time. My best self knows that I should be the gracious host, and wave congenially as they speed pass me over and over, stirring up dust and polluting the forest with their noise and exhaust. I cannot. The best I can muster is to not throw rotten fruit at them as they pass by for the umpteenth time. This too shall pass and I take comfort knowing that on Monday they’ll pack all their shit up and go back to wherever they came from and I will once again have the forest to myself with the exception of perhaps a couple other full-time nomads.
That’s all I got
Love you like a dog.
See you down the road,