Saturday to Kingman

We finally decided to leave our beautiful spot in the Kaibab National Forest on Saturday:

Gracie leaving Kaibab National Forest on Saturday morning

I was bringing the Jeep along behind -- we decided to hook up the vehicles after we'd gotten out of the campsite area so we'd have the freedom to back Gracie up if we needed to do so.

We drove to Kingman, AZ. Unfortunately, there were very high winds on Saturday -- if we had looked carefully at the forecast, we may have delayed our leaving of Kaibab National Forest until Monday. We made the drive to Kingman safely and got checked into Zuni Village RV Park, a Passport America park (we get a 50% discount since Carl is a lifetime member of Passport America). We wanted to meet up with our SKP Christian Fellowship friend, Gayle, in Kingman, and originally planned to just spend one night, but, with the winds continuing through Sunday, we elected to stay in Kingman for two nights.

We met up with Gayle on Saturday afternoon at Federico's for Mexican food -- we SO enjoyed visiting with her! We didn't even realize how much time had passed, but we had arrived at about 1pm and it was 6pm (!!!) when we left! Thankfully, the restaurant was not crowded so they didn't have a problem with us using the table all afternoon, and it is a "order at the counter and they bring the food to you" so the waiter/waitress wasn't wishing for us to leave. Plus, it was fascinating to watch the vehicles going by -- Historic Route 66 passes through Kingman, and the restaurant was just off the famous roadway. We probably saw a total of 150 motorcycles pass by -- in groups of 10-12, and maybe the same ones multiple times; we also saw a number of "interesting" cars. It was an entertaining place to vehicle-watch!

A couple of additional things about Grand Canyon and Kaibab National Forest:

On Friday evening, a car came into the National Forest area where we were camping and stopped in a site that has been occupied a few times during the days we were there. Eventually, a single lady got out and got a chair out. We contemplated going over to talk with her, but soon she got up to walk up to the information board, and when she returned, we called to her and she came over to chat with us. She is from Durango, CO, and had come to the Grand Canyon to do some hiking. She had stayed a couple of nights in the Bright Angel Lodge doing hikes from the South Rim. She mentioned that she had previously hiked from the North Rim down the North Kaibab Trail (13.7 miles, 5740' elevation change) and up Bright Angel (9.5 miles, 4340' elevation change) in one day, staying overnight at the Bright Angel Lodge, and then the return trip on the next day or maybe she said a day or two later (North Rim is closed at this time of year, it opens 5/15 this year). That's 23+ miles! We asked her what she had hiked on Friday (she had mentioned it was her birthday and she was celebrating by hiking). She shared that she had hiked 27 miles on Friday -- down the Hermit Trail, and across on another trail (maybe Tonto?) and up, I think South Kaibab. We were shocked - "you hiked 27 miles today?" "Well, yes, hiked and ran..." Hmmm..... definitely different fitness level from us! She did admit that she would probably be sore... we'd almost certainly be dead!

Secondly, I got to wondering about the people who work at Phantom Ranch, the lodging / restaurant / gift shop at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Do they live fulltime down there? Do they hike down and work a series of days and then hike back up? Do they ride a mule down, or come in via the river?

As we were driving from Williams, AZ (we stopped at one place to find a "Williams" teeshirt with no success!) to Kingman, AZ, I searched for jobs at Phantom Ranch and found a few interesting articles:

• The challenges of needing to do maintenance when the nearest "hardware" store is in Flagstaff, a 9+ mile hike and 80+ mile drive away: https://www.xanterra.com/stories/parks/working-and-living-on-the-edge-grand-canyons-unusual-occupations/
• An interpretive ranger who hikes down to Phantom Ranch on day 1, works days 2-7, hikes back up on day 8, and then has 6 days off -- she has a home on the South Rim and a room at the Ranger Station at Phantom Ranch each of which she shares with another interpretive ranger who handles the "other shift" (one is down while the other is up and they meet on the trail on their hiking days): https://www.williamsnews.com/news/2015/mar/24/life-below-the-rim-an-interpretive-rangers-life-a/
• This article tells about several folks that you might see at Phantom Ranch -- the 4th one profiled would be "Rim to Rim to Rim folks" -- who run from, say, South Rim to North Rim to South Rim -- in one day -- like the young lady who was car-camping near us on Friday night, except she indicated that she just did Rim to Rim: https://kjzz.org/content/641799/below-rim-life-inside-grand-canyon 
• A guy who has been volunteering at the bottom for 31 years (the article is from 2018) -- averaging 36 hours of volunteer time per week. https://psmag.com/magazine/letter-from-phantom-ranch-meet-the-man-who-lives-at-the-bottom-of-the-grand-canyon
  

Anybody ready to sign up????