the trek home: day 7 kaibab national forest

hey, i wake up this mornin, and its not raining, pretty nice.

i decide to take my time today, i waiver between staying another night or heading out. i ended up heading out.

i make a few stops, nice sights, and on one i hike down to the lake with my grapes.

i head out and go to the hoover dam. wow. what a dam. i got out and walked all across it and then went back. after the dam i headed towards the grand canyon. not much between the dam and the canyon...lots of desert.

dadgum. talk about a ditch. the canyon was absolutely gynormous and humungo. i walked around here for a bit and then headed out...for it was also pretty touristy, and i felt like i was one of the few americans there.

on the east side of the canyon, actually in the forest area, i managed to find a spot to plop. if it would have rained this time, it would have been interesting getting out. so i set up shop. the ground was hard in two of the corners, so i ended up only putting three stakes in. it was a beautiful day so i didnt think anything of it.

after milling around i went to sleep only to awaken at about 23.30 by some stinking awful sound. it really sounded like a cyote but i dont know if it was injured or in heat...but it was weird. luckily the sound seemed to be going away. well, all by yourself, in the middle of the forest, not a nice place for a rabid wolf...but luckily it didnt come to any of that.

however, at about 0.30 the wind started picking up. now i didnt think much of it, only that my tent was plowing up and in around me. one corner of my fly had come off (and for those that dont know a fly is the extra covering that straps on top of the tent). so i get up and fix this. meanwhile, without much weight anchoring the tent down it started to float, but due to my cat like reflexes, i managed to squeeze back in and position my sleeping bag on one corner (although anchored it had come up, and the other unanchored corner. this wind kept on persisting, and went so far as to start pulling the other corners off of the stakes. well, i got fed up with almost blowing away, so rather than being anchor in the tent, i decided to pack up and sleep in the car again...first time in both the tent and car in one night.