Quote of the Week, Perhaps a Bit Longer

"The biological community is a vast and complicated system for sharing and distributing the energy of the sun among a diversity of life forms." ~Martson Bates

1/9/09

10-25-2008: No Camping in Sight!

There is so much I want to write about, but I don't want to do it now - "I want to do right, but not right now." My brain is all muddled and frustrated at the moment and I don't want my writings to be clouded with all the negativity I'm feeling at the moment. Why am I so frustrated? Let me tell you, when we left Flagstaff, we decided to ride down Lake Mary Road. We made this decision because our map showed that it was a recreation area with a lot of forest service land and forest service roads all around it. The map also showed several established campgrounds along it. There are also several lakes not far off Lake Mary Road which was very appealing to us as well. Come to find out, there is no camping on any of the forest service lands out here. Everywhere we go there are these signs that say "Campfires and camping prohibited." There is no explanation to why this is, but the signs are everywhere. I can understand the campfire thing, it's a dry area, but camping I don't get. Especially right off of the forest service roads, why do they have all these forest service roads cutting up the area if you can't camp off of them? Where are the roads going to? I understand too if it is a sensitive area and they don't want people camping there, but usually there are signs to that affect. The signs here just make me mad, it's like they're saying forest service is God and you can't sleep here. It's public land!!! To top it all off all the established campgrounds were closed for the season. What the heck are we supposed to do? It's the end of October one of the most beautiful times of year in Arizona and there is absolutely no place to camp. Something is seriously screwy with the "system."

*We ended up camping on this little pull out off of a dirt road, the only place in the area that didn't have a sign that declared camping prohibited. It was an okay spot, not great, there was a wedding going on at a lodge above the hill from us, a ton of cars flew by us kicking up dirt and we could hear rockin' music until about 3:00 in the morning. Hahahaha...what a night.

No comments: