Sat 9/20-Tues 9/23: Trail Angel captivity (lol!), Sedona, Wooden Tepee

Saturday morning I met up with my awesome Trail Angel ladies Sisol and Dorothee whom I met at Gila Hot Springs and then again in Silver City! They have an amazing house here in Tucson, I’m so stoked to see them! They are truly absolutely amazing people. 🙂

We went to the Tucson airport to pick Kyle up. He finished his hike the day before I did. Yay Kyle! He finished in a snow storm at Glacier National Park Montana/Canada border, and I finished in flash flood conditions. The Continental Divide did not let us off easy….lol! So we’re rendezvousing here in Tucson where we’re gonna go do some not physical dirt bagging (in a car! Road trip!), before we have to reintegrate into normal society again.

Sisol and Dorothee are the most awesome hosts! We basically ended up in what I call a “Trail Angel Hostage Situation”. Lol! Kinda like when I started in Banff and my trail angels up there kept me for 3 days, and we did all kinda of awesome adventures. Lol! Dorothee and Sisol showed us around Tucson and fed us and it was absolutely amazing. We saw an awesome kid-prodigy guitarist play at his CD release party, and had dinner at their friend’s house while they discussed wedding catering plans for another friend. It was just such an incredibly random and awesome day. Lol!

Sunday I picked up my rental car. A trick for renting cars that I’ve learned is, you pay for the class you reserve for, not what you actually get. I always reserve economy class, and I try and pickup at a non-airport location. Reason is, they usually run out of economy cars, and they’ll give u whatever they have left. Sure enough, I ended up with a pretty spiffy ride. Fire-engine red 2 door mustang. Lol!!

Impressively, I still fit Mochi in there, all my crap, Kyle’s backpack, as well as a cooler full of craft beers. Whoop whoop!! 😀 Ready for a road trip! Squizzle agrees. Squizzle is kind of like Kyle’s version of Butterstuff. But way more travel-sized. Lol!

First stop was Saguaro National Park. Those cacti are so cool looking!!! They’re HUGE! Saguaro can grow up to 40 feet talk and live over 150 years old! Wow!

The next day (Monday) we get into Sedona. Oh my god the place is so beautiful!!!

Did some trail riding too. It’s so pretty. Yay rocks!!

And some hiking.

End of trail indeed. What better way to celebrate the end of a 3,000 mile cross country journey, than a road trip? 🙂

Of course a trip to Sedona would not be complete without going to one of these… Lol.

All in all, Sedona was absolutely beautiful. The landscape and scenery is so incredibly dramatic and stunning, in a way I’ve never seen before. As for the actual town of Sedona. Well, let’s just say I think this entire area would have been way cooler if the town wasn’t there. It has a super rich yuppie feel to it which I’m not into.

Coolest thing that happened to me in Sedona: at the end of a hike, coming back to the trailhead parking lot a random stranger gifted me a small heart shaped rock along with a little blessing. Super duper awesome! 🙂

Onto the next destination! So, we’re pretty much flying by the seat of our pants here. We have really no plan, we’re just winging it as we go, and sleeping wherever we can find a flat spot. Lol! Pretty much like what I’ve been doing for the last two months, only difference is I have a car. Last couple nights we stealth camped behind some bushes/trees at some random trailheads. Tonight I slept in a plywood teepee on the side of the road. Lol! There were 3 of these wooden tepees at this free campground we found in the middle of nowhere. They are a lot more spacious inside than they look. Lol!

Of all the states I’ve driven through (which are a lot), Arizona has hands down the most amount of random things you’ll find on the side of roads/highways. Like a free campground with 3 huge wooden tepees. 😀