Mikes house, AZ, Painted Desert, AZ, San Juan mts. CO, Longs Peak, CO, St. Louis MO, Chicago, IL, Brookfield WI

Thursday I came down with the flu. I was really surprised; I never really get sick to begin with. 2 months living in my car in all kinds of weather, from -30 degrees to 80 degrees, and nothing happened. 1 week with a bunch of college kids, drinking and not sleeping much, and I get the flu. That night I barely slept at all.

The next morning I felt a lot better. I went to the store and picked up some medicine, and just getting up and doing something made me feel better. Mike and Dustin, Mike’s 3^rd roommate, showed me around the ASU campus. The only thing I really have to compare it to is UWM, and they are nothing alike. ASU has palm trees lining the main walk, sculptures along the sidewalks and buildings, even hidden garden spots that students can go and read or whatever. I was really impressed, a lot of older, well-kept buildings, but also lots of new, modern areas. After we walked around we all got some food. Dustin met a friend at the restaurant and took off. Mike had a whiffle ball game for a club he’s in. I was going to stay and watch but they didn’t play first. I went home and took a nap. When I woke up Brenden, Waleed, another friend of everyone, and I started drinking. We met up with mike after his game at the bars. Mike went home early that night so I just hung out with Brenden, and Waleed. Waleed works at the bar that Brenden and I destroyed the owner in pong. So we went back to the bar and chatted with the owner some more and had a good time.

Not much happened Saturday, I lost my voice, not sure if it was part of the flu or the bar or both? Mikes parents flew in for the week, and they took mike and I out for P.F. Chang’s. I think that was the first time I’ve been there. The food was great; Mikes Family always tries a bit of each person dish, so I got a taste of each. It was nice to meet his parents, and get to know them a little bit. I just felt bad, my voice was shot so I didn’t get to go into much detail about anything and I don’t know if they were even able to hear me. When mike and I made it back to the house I took a nap. Mike woke me up to play some beer pong with the roommates. We decided to go out to the bars, mike wanted to show me the Scottsdale bars. Im glad I got to see the bars, but I will never set foot in a Scottsdale bar again. It is a very different place, lots of guys dancing with guys. If it were any other place I would think they were all gay bars, but I guess that’s just the way they are there. It was just weird.

Sunday I went to the store and just made a bunch of food for the road. Mike had his parents over for dinner. He needed some help cleaning up and getting dinner together.

Monday morning I headed out. I drove to Petrified Forest National Park, AZ. I didn’t know to expect here. When I got there I watched a short video and started hiking around. Petrified wood is just really old wood that has turned to stone. I never really thought of it to be that interesting, but this place was like nothing else. The entire ground was covered in small pieces that shine in the sun. Then there are a few 200 foot trees that glow in all different colors. And the ground its self wasn’t sand or dirt, it was this soft silt material. The landscape there is called the Painted Desert, lots of small rolling hills all different colors. It turned out to be a really cool place.  I drove the rest of the day to Durango, CO, the base of the San Juan Mountains.

The next morning I was able to pick up some medicine for my head. The flu I had turned into a sinus infection and my head was pounding with the elevation. I asked around to find the best spots to hike. I decided on a spot in the mountains that is a creek bed. My plan was to do 2 hikes, the creek bed and then an overlook area. I should have done the overlook first. The creek bed was not very exciting. Just walking through pine trees, they were too tall to see the mountains around me but not tall enough to be cool. After that hike I was completely warn out. I drove over the where I was going to do the second hike. The view was amazing, beautiful day; see for miles, lots of mountain peaks. I really wish I was able to hike there. After that I started driving to Boulder, CO. on the way I passed through a few cool small towns. I stopped in one small town because they had a hot spring. It felt great after the hike and with my head all clogged up. The hot spring was surrounded by 2000 foot mountains, at one point the sun went down so I left. I drove another mile or so and I realized there were still 3 hours of sun left, the mountains were just so close and steep. The rest of the drive was one of the best I’ve done. You just weave around the mountain crests; there were some frozen lakes way up there too. I finally made it to matts house at about 9:30. We talked about the trip a little bit and I got ready for hiking tomorrow.

Wednesday right when I got up I drove over the Longs Peak. I started hiking at about 8:30am. The first part of the hike is through the woods. You don’t really see too much just a lot of switch backs. In winter you can tell people who know the trails have made shortcuts along the trails. These are much steeper but cut off a good amount of time. After the first 2.5 miles you get above the tree line and start to get some great views. At that point you’re on a very wide, no so steep rocky area. I walked across this to another sign. If I took a little different path I could have gotten a lot further. I hiked over to Chasm Lake. Really cool view with a frozen waterfall, but to hike over there I had to put snow shoes on and the trail was getting rough. Finally the wind took over the trail and made it to sheer and steep for me to hike on. I ended up rock climbing over part of the mountain. After this I was exhausted. It felt like I had to fight for every breath, between the 10 degree air, the flu still lingering around, and my lungs were not happy. I would have to take a break every 30 feet or so the whole way up. The wide up there was killing me too, twice it knocked me over. I took some pictures and decided to head back down. Even on the way down the wind wouldn’t stop. There was once the wind funneled through a small area and it sounded like someone cracked a whip, which is a very strange thing to hear when nothing is near you. When I finally made it down my head completely out of it. I thought I lost my camera; I thought it so strongly I went and placed notes on everyone’s car. When I made it back to matts house I was laying down about to take a nap, and I remembered my camera was in a different pocket the whole time. It was a great hike; I just wish I was able to get further. That night we went to Stevie’s house and watched a movie.

Thursday morning I left to start heading home. I decided to stay the night in St. Louis, and then spend the weekend with Adam in Chicago. After about 40 miles east of Denver the land is flat with nothing at all to see for the next 10 hours or so. I got to St. Louis at about 12:30 am. I drove around downtown to find a place to park and sleep. The town didn’t seem very friendly/safe. There were a lot of people just kind of hanging out on the streets at 1:00 in the morning. I decided to drive a ways away and sleep in a hotel parking lot. The next morning I went to the arch and walked around the city museum. The city museum was a really crazy place; it’s like if someone tried to build a Wanaka house in their garage. Lots of crazy tunnels and caves. After that I drove to meet up with Adam at his apartment. We went out the met his friends at a bar then me and Adam went a few more after that. Like every time I hang out at Adam, had a fair share of beverages and good times. Saturday we all went out for pizza and had some really good beers at the pizza place/brewery. We were out around Ed Yanasak’s place, so we called him up and he met us at the bar for a little bit. I haven’t seen him is a long time, so it was nice to hang out with him.

                Today I made the roughest drive of the trip. I drove home. It is nice to be home, but I would defiantly take the road any day. So that’s the end of the trip. I’ve learned a lot, met some great people and had the most fun of my life. All I know is I will be seeing the east coast next winter. I hope you will follow along then.

15 states Wisconsin, Minnesota, south Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, new mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin

13,000 miles

About 800 gallons of gas

84 days 11 weeks

30 nights in my car

42 nights at peoples houses

6 nights in a tent

5 nights in a hotel

1 random guys couch

Hanging out at Mikes house

Friday night we didn’t do much just hung around mikes place, had a few beverages in the hot tub.

Saturday I had to get organized with a lot of things. Truck was a mess; all my clothes were dirty, I had to pick up some food. Saturday night we went to a golf bar crawl. It was mikes friend’s birthday, so we all dressed up in golf attire and go to a bunch of different bars. We all got a sheet with the names of the bars we were going to. At each bar you have to order an assigned drink. You drink the drink and get the points that go along with it. The most point wins, and there are ways to loses points. It was a really fun night but after the second bar everyone got separated. Once again the actor from Transformer 3 worked out and I ended up getting VIP at a bar with a complementary bottle of grey goose. I really don’t know that one worked? I meet back up with mike back at his place.

Sunday I started going through all my pics and categorizing them. I also was able to give my car some much needed attention. I needed an oil change, 2 new tires, and new pads and rotors in the front. I bought all the things I needed and had some small shop do it all for me. I was going to try to do it myself but I really don’t have a good place to work at, or all the tools needed.

Monday I finally uploaded my pics on Facebook. This took most of the day.

Tuesday mike and I got up early to go golfing. Me meet up with his friend Ian and started at about 7:00am. We got in 18 holes by about 11, and then I went with Ian to class. He has a beer class and today they were meeting at a bar for a talk with the owner of Sierra Nevada brewing. He is a really interesting guy. When he started his company he had nothing. He decided to go back to school for welding and carpentry, just to build his brewery from the ground up. Even for his first tubs for brewing he started with stainless sheet metal, cut V s in the bottom half, rolled the metal, folded up all the V s, drilled 4000 holes to connect it all, then welded it to be water tight. After that Ian and I went over to Four Peaks Brewery for some food and the sample the beer. We ended up talking to the brew master and he showed us some of the behind the scenes stuff.  That night mike had class so his 2 roommates Makayla and Brenden and I went out to the bars. Brenden and I ended up play beer pong against the bar owner. Or should I say we showed him how to play. We beat them once then they gave us this funny plastic WWF tag team belt. We decided to just sign it and leave it for the bar. They wanted a rematch; I don’t know why they always come back for more. We won again then they went over the loud speaker and said anyone who beats us gets a free bar tab. We destroyed 2 more teams, and then we had to head home. We stopped at a cheap sushi place on the way. 

 so many layers of dirt, dust, and grit

 bar golf pregame

 all i needed for a day of golf

 Ken Grossman the owner of sierra nevada

 four peaks brewery

 beer pong champs

undefeated

the Grand Canyon

Monday morning I ran to the store to pick up a few last minute things, then over to the back country office. I received my back country pass and planed my camping area for each night. I drove to the shuttle area and packed up everything I was taking down. On the shuttle ride over to the south Kaibab trail head, I met two guys from Germany. One has lived in Atlanta for the last year and his brother who still lives in Germany. They are travelling some of the same routes I have been on. They just drove from San Diego and there next stop is Moab, UT. I hiked down the first 2 miles with these guys. They had to turn back up at that point and head out. At the mile 3 rest stop I met a guy from japan he was about my age, just graduated college, he is on a huge trip around the U.S. he is about to start his career and until he retires he will never have more than 10 days off at a time. So he decided to fly out to San Francisco, rent a car down to San Diego, drive over to the Grand Canyon, drive down to Phoenix, hope on a train to some cave in TX, train up to Detroit, then over to New York for the end of his trip. He is starting a jab in the car industry, that’s why he wanted to stop at Detroit. It was really cool to meet him and see how he just took off to a different country and planed this whole trip. Hiking down the canyon was a lot of fun, but it was also one the most physically challenging tasks I have ever done. I packed to much stuff to begin with and I could feel it every step of the way. The views you see the entire way down are unbelievable. Nothing can describe the vastness of the place. As you go further down the place seems very eerie. You hike down the canyon then walk across a plateau then down the inner canyon. Here people can rent cabins, or dorms, they have a lodge with lots of goods. So I’m in the middle of nowhere miles and hours from anything and I walk right up and order a beer. It was really surprising to me because I didn’t even know it was down here until I arrived. The place is called phantom ranch, everything here was brought down by mule. They have running water, hot showers, and electricity. I couldn’t believe it. When I got to my camp site I set up and made some food. I met some neighbors and he all headed over to the lodge for a beer.

The next morning I hiked half the clear creek trail and back. I heard you get the best views in the first half and to do the whole trail and back is too much for one day. This trial hikes up to the plateau then along the Colorado River. Right away you get a great view of the river and the South Kaibab trail I hiked the day before. For most of the hike down there is one main view point you can see from everywhere, Zoroaster temple, this trail hikes right to that spot. It is a huge C shaped canyon with a step pointed right in the center on the top. After that the plateau gets very wide and you no longer see the river. This part of the hike is neat. It’s very much a desert with lizards and cactuses. There are a few water runoff areas that carve their way down to the river, no water in them anymore. The half-way point is when you are able to see the Colorado River again. I headed back to camp. My calf muscles have never been so sore or weak. The hike down was rough then I made it worse the second day, but all worth it. That night I went to the lodge, grabbed a beer, and looked around the place. They had a lot of history about the ranch and really old pictures.

The third day I took it easy. I walked around down by where the Bright Angle river meets the Colorado River. The river its self is pretty cool. It’s mostly green with swirls of brown sediment throughout it. They had some history posted about the Indians that lived here and how they were able to make that work. That day was very windy in the canyon. I walked a ways to find a small cove to cook in. I didn’t think I would be able keep the stove lit in the open. When I came back my tent pole was broken. This would have been a disaster but I just walked over and rented a dorm for the night. I packed everything up and moved in the dorm cabin. There was sand over everything in the tent which I didn’t think I was that big of a deal but it must have gotten into my camera and that was shot. I was mad I couldn’t take more pictures for the hike out but at least I got the way down and the second hike. The dorm was really nice; the first thing I did was take a nice hot shower. I met a lot of great people there too. One father son who were from south Jersey who planned on camping the whole trip but got into the dorms at the last minute. So they hiked everything down for camping too. I got the number of one guy who lives in Seattle and dose a lot of fishing out there. I hope to be able to fly out there during the salmon run and tag along with him. There was another older guy who hiked down with his wife and her friend, his wife got a knee replacement 8 months earlier and was “breaking it in”. in the lodge that night I met a couple with hake hiked the canyon for years. They husband has done a week or two every winter for the last 36 years. He knew everything about the place, all the old trails off the map and even old mining trails. That couple lives on the east side on Milwaukee. That night a few foreigners came in and polished off a bottle of Jack Daniels. They had a rough wake up the next morning, and a rougher time hiking out that day.

Thursday morning I packed up and hiked out on the Bright Angle trail. The first half of the 9 mile trail took me 2 hours. But that is only 1/3 of the elevation. The second half took 3 hours 15 minutes. It was a hard hike but its such a beautiful place you get lost in the views. When you finally get to the top it almost puts you in tears. Its so grueling and such a rough trek its takes everything out of you. When I finally got back to the car I drove down to Phoenix to meet up with my friend Mike. I was going to stay at the Painted Desert but with my camera out of order I plan on getting that replaced and making that a separate day trip.

 

 one of the first views of Zoroaster temple

 some narrow trails that get a little scary

 first view of the Colorado River

 the Black Bridge the 550 foot cables had to be hiked down on the shoulders of men

 camping right on the Bright Angle river

 the mules. you can take a mule ride trip all the way down and up

 a view of the cabins and lodge from above

 great views on the Clear Creek trail

Zoroaster temple

where the Bright Angle meets the Colorado