Orientation
Manchester, NH to Flagstaff, AZ
Thursday, May 5 and Friday, May 6, 2016
Nancy built an extra day into our travel schedule to hedge the possibility of travel delays, but we sail through TSA security checks using her TSA Pre-Designations. Flying Southwest for the first time, I learn about lining up and general seating. Nancy, a frequent Southwest flyer from NH to Denver, CO has early boarding privileges so we board the plane fairly early in the process. Sweet… She gives me the window seat for the journey out…my favorite place to sit when I fly. I haven’t been on a plane in a few years and remember the crowded and cramped seating in coach. I’m not looking forward to the flights.
The first leg of the trip is from Manchester, NH to Baltimore/Washington. We load up on healthy and unhealthy lunch food and snacks for the trip and off we go. The plane is full so I am hoping for an empty seat between us am dashed when someone stops and asks if it’s free. Nancy moves into the middle seat and gives him the aisle. We arrive in Phoenix at 3:30 pm and make our way to the transportation area to pick up the shuttle that will take us on the 3 hour drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff. I really like that drive…
Once we get out of the city, the land becomes empty of people and buildings very quickly. This is Reservation land – bleak, dry, wheat colored earth, occasional shrubs, isolated trailers and small houses dot the landscape. The Navaho people who live there are poor. There’s no way around it. I don’t know anything about reservation living, but I do know poverty when I see it. I make no comment except that I know injustice was done to these native peoples a long time ago.
Early on the drive we come to Saguaro cactus country, huge tall cacti that you often see drawn in cartoons set in a western area. Tall and thick with branches like arms growing out of a spiny, green body. Some of them are in bloom with a splash of white flowers growing out of the end of a branch. The band of land where the Saguaros grow is thin by Arizona land area standards, and I enjoy looking out the window and watching them go by. As we gain elevation, we enter cattle country, miles and miles of open flat land up on a plateau that hosts just enough grass and shrub growth to sustain cattle herds. Here and there I see trailers with large water tanks sitting in the backyard. Cattle guards protect the roads that serve as driveways for these ranchers. We climb up to 4,000 feet, onto the high plateau and down toward Camp Verde. Steadily we gain altitude as we drive north. Soon the terrain becomes slightly hilly and shrubs turn to the Ponderosa Pine which are native to the northern areas. As we near Flagstaff we see the snow covered tops of the San Francisco Peaks, including Mt. Humphrey, at 12,000 feet, the highest point in Arizona. Climbing it would be a challenge and an accomplishment. I love the look of the northern land.
We arrive at the Little America Hotel around 7 pm, check in, and have dinner at the hotel restaurant. Afterward we head to bed for a fitful night’s sleep. I always sleep with difficulty my first night in an unknown bed/place.
The next morning we eat breakfast and decide to grab a cab and head to the old town shopping area of Flagstaff. We land a young, very voluble cab driver who tells us lots of stuff about the area and drops us off smack in the middle of old town. Nancy knows the area better than I and first we stop at an outdoor store and buy a t-shirt to use as our hotel sleep shirt since we have only brought one sleep shirt and that’s for the backpacking trip, and it’s not going to be nice to sleep in after 7 nights of backcountry smells. We stop at a store that sells rocks, geodes, gems and I buy Nancy a Fuchsite with Ruby which is supposed to promote “Follow your Bliss” while she returns the favor buying me a Tiger’s Eye. We both buy each other an Epidote in Quartz which has properties that are supposed to aid with physical endurance. We know we’re going to need all the help we can get.
We stop in other shops and wander down Beaver St. to the Beaver St. Brewery where we have lunch. A delicious chili and salad for me and a salad for Nancy. Afterward, we walk south to stop in at an outdoor store, then head to Barnes & Noble for some browsing. When we are done, we call a cab and head back to the hotel to prep for our 5 pm orientation meeting. The online information for the trip said to bring all the stuff we’re going to actually bring on the trip to the orientation meeting, so Nancy and I, like good do-bees, put our stuff in bags and haul it all to the hotel lobby where we’re supposed to meet. The lobby is full of Wildland Trekking Company trip goers waiting for their orientation or preparing to leave on their trip and at the far end I see Stefan walking toward us. We shake hands – he has a very firm, strong handshake – and he introduces us to Haley.
Haley is a 20-year old young woman who wants a chance to explore who she is in the wilderness before entering the Air Force. She has really never hiked before and her training for the trip was limited. I’m a little concerned, but it’s not my place to judge anyone so I only share my thoughts with Nancy. As we sit around the picnic table, we each talk a little about ourselves and why we are on this trip. I don’t remember what I said; I mention my hiking accomplishments in NE, my friendship with Nancy, but don’t recall the important part – why I’m on this trip.
Stefan takes out a map and shows us in detail the route we are going to take during our 7 day trip. I love maps. I’m fascinated and absorb all his words, asking the occasional question. He speaks about tomorrow’s schedule: up, backpacks packed, luggage stored, and ready to hop into the van at 6 am for the drive to Sowat’s Point on the north rim. He shows us how to pack our backpacks, which contain a sleeping bag, tent, sleeping pad, a bowl, cup and spoon, a baggie with a roll of toilet paper, a couple of empty baggies, and a water purifying kit. He brings over three large containers full of “snacks”, the food we are going to eat for our snacks and lunches on a hike day…Peanuts, Payday bars, M&Ms, all sorts of protein and energy bars. He tells us to grab as much as we want for our 7 day trip so we begin filling Ziploc bags with snacks. In hindsight, I should only have taken food I knew I liked. Instead I take a bunch of food that I have not tasted before, looked healthy, and I think will be worth a try.
Orientation lasts a little over an hour before he packs up the remaining stuff and walk back to the hotel. Nancy and I eat dinner in the hotel restaurant and then head back to our room to organize and pack our backpacks. I don’t know much mine weighs, maybe 35-40 pounds, but it feels awfully heavy. Both of us look at each other with some anxiousness and then I stop looking at my pack at all. Time to wind down and find sleep.