Grand Canyon to Zion – Day 11: Cruising on the AZT

May 28th 2016: Crystal Spring – Jacob Lake, 11 miles and a hitch

I sleep like shit. My hip hurts. My ass freezes off. And my irrational fear of mountain lions keeps me awake. I’ve been sleeping like a baby during most nights of this trip. No so much last night. When we wake up the inside of the tent is covered in ice. No wonder I’m freezing my ass off. It must have been well below zero.

It’s still freezing when we have breakfast, even when the sun is out already. Frikkin cold on the Kaibab Plateau! Luckily the sun warms me when we get going, although the meadow is still glowing and glittering with ice crystals. It’s beautiful. We see lots of deer and birds. Ah transition zones! Meadows – forests – springs. So much life!

We cruise again and have a last view of the east rim. Bye Grand Canyon.

How easy the walking is when there’s a trail, in and out of meadows and forests. Somehow though (I know we are just terrible) we both get bored and when after 11 miles the trail goes right next to the road 67 we put up our thumbs.

A truck pulls over. A hunter. I have a rather, well how do I say this, not so good relationship with hunters (now don’t judge me, it’s just the hunters at home break the law of when to shoot what animal all the time and it pisses me off.) His car is stuffed with realtree gear, he trows everything in the back and we squeeze in next to him. He tells us how he got one of the thirty “tags” to shoot a buffalo. One tag costs about $1100, no matter whether you shoot one or not. He shot one yesterday. Poor buffalo. He tells us how smart the animals are. That they know exactly where the border to the National Park is, where they aren’t hunted. Yeah, cool buffalos, hide behind the border so they don’t get you.

He drops us off at the gas station in Jacob Lake and we go get ice cream and have dessert before making our tortilla lunch. We set up our tent in the forest behind the gas station and check our food for the next days. HQ says he hast too much and trows stuff out. We spend some more time in the store drinking the drinks of civilization, charging our phones with civilization and then head back into the woods where life is all right and peaceful and well!