Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Bogged down in Sedona, AZ

Thanks to all for the comments on these posts. Forgive me for not responding to all individually. I'll try to incorporate answers to questions...I started in Austin, and have been driving to the various jumping off points. After the Gila Wilderness, I last hiked for only about 6 miles in the Apache national forest in eastern Arizona. I camped last night in a campground just outsided Payson, Arizona. Then a front started blowing in. I was fine, toasty in fact all night, but I continued northward today to Sedona, but weather has worsened. I am in a cheap hotel on the southeast side of Sedona, waiting out the cold front. They say it should lift Friday or Saturday. To worsen things, there are no vacancies in any campsites inside the park at Grand Canyon. So it doesn't look like I'll be able to do my original plan of hiking to the bottom, staying overnight, and then hiking back up. Lack of foresight on my part....it is the Grand Canyon after all. But, I'm still going to go up there and just look over the edge along with the rest of the Freddy tourists. Then may upwards for a couple of days to Zion or Escalante. I don't know, as Fagan said, "I'm reviewing the situation"....reviewing my planning process. People have always reminded me that one has to be flexible when one travels.
Sedona is crawling...absolutely crawling with tourists. I've only been here in the winter before, but it is much more crowded now. Only, nobody was expecting the cold front with temperatures dipping into to 20s and the possiblity of snow above 6,000 feet. There are a LOT of people in the library right now, and they are not all locals!
At about this time of day I start to miss Tommie a very great deal and my heart gets heavy. Just to defy my agitation and let down, I will go out tomorrow, if it is not icing, and hike Long Canyon for old time's sake (for Sissy and Gene). I'll be checking the weather, and if it clears any, or if the predictions have proven false, I'll continue northward and then westward.
Love to all

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