The Arizona Trail on Unicycle: Day 10: The Unexpected Rest Day
April 9, 2017
We got up and rode (I mean, walked…) the mile from the lake back to the dirt road and started continuing along the bypass. All the loud people from the night before were snoozing, and we were polite and quiet.
The road basically followed small rivers with some gentle up and down terrain. We rode most of of it, and eventually hit a huge damn indicating we were at Lake Rosevelt.
The lake has a visitor center that we had shipped our food resupply packages to. Jamey had called to see if his arrived, but they only had mine. He told them to hold it for a few days till we arrived, and he had a backup food plan from the previous shopping experience that we did a few days prior. According to the website, the visitor center should be open on Sunday.
But, the visitor Center website was wrong. We arrived after a short 14 mile dirt road road (well, the last few might have been paved), and I was disappointed that it was closed. We would have to wait till the morning when it opened at 10AM so I could get my resupply. I was a bit devistated as we could have gotten to continue riding and be ahead of schedule.
We rode to the Rosevelt Lake and setup camp pretty close to the water. Jamey almost. Locked in a huge 5th wheel RV by camping right in front of it. And wouldn’t you know it, the guy pulls up with his truck to tow it away right after he got his tent all set up!
The guy was super cool. He also was towing a boat and just got done fishing. Well, technically fishing, but he has a bow and arrow to shoot the fish. The arrow is on some fishing line attached to the bow and he can then reel on in the fish. Apparently the lake is full of an invasive carp species. They come out close to the surface and can easily be picked off. So, he does some awesome bow fishing mainly to just reduce the invasive species.
But, I said the guy was cool, and he quickly goes in his RV and pulls out two beers and a soda for us. Some Corona Light that tasted great in the hot sun. We helped him attach his 5th wheel trailer to the truck and chatted a bit.
Jamey had read that the nearby marina sold snacks and beer, so we decided to walk over there. It was still early in the afternoon, and we had one beer in us but could easily down another. So we mosey on over and we happen to see “Smiles”, a through hiker we had met a few days prior at the hotel. She had picked up her resupply package from the Marina! And it turned out that they also had Jamey and Rebekka’s package. Excellent! Apparently the visitor center no longer likes to accept packages, but they took mine because I had explicitly listed “Visitor Center” on the address and we called them and told them to hold it. Jamey didn’t put their name on the address (just his) and the marina has the *same* address, and they like to take hiker packages as it means more business for them.
So, Jamey got his package and we hung out at the marina and drink some beer they had on tap. Not a bad rest day! I leaned over the edge and tried to grab some carp; I almost had one, i swear!
After we left the marina Jamey got a 6 pack of some cheap beer for the campsite. I had half of one more but was pretty tired. The nice thing was that we had a bunch of extra food at this point, and Rebekka called it “Christmas” for dinner.
Stats:
Today:13.7 miles
Total: 233.4 miles
Route:
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/935396740/overview
