The next morning it was a quick ride down the back side or the ridge and across 20 miles of rough terrain criss-crossed by more trails leading off to whatever else is out here. Without a clear plan in mind I set back off onto the pavement and ended up in Sedona again. One can't spend much time in Sedona without seeing the Pink Jeeps and their imitators, the town is infested with them, Jeep Wranglers with knobby tires, crash bars, and expanded cargo areas to accommodate a half dozen passengers under an awning. The idea is that the tour operators will transport their passengers in these rugged vehicles to exotic places that they would never be able to reach in their more mundane automobiles. I saw one on my way into town, brimming with passengers, and decided that following it would be a great way to find some secret location that only tour operators know about. With some trepidation (would I be able to keep up with a professional driver in a fully equipped Jeep on whatever crazy terrain they were about to tackle?) I fell in behind it and off I went wherever they were leading me. After nearly 4 miles of excruciatingly mild dirt road both the Pink Jeep and I (and the old Acura that we passed on the way) arrived at our destination: A circular rock formation known as the Merry-go-Round on the side of a closed road leading up to the Interstate.

One highlight of the trip up Schnebly Hill Road was a family in what appeared to be an expedition-ready Land Rover who informed be of the "Overland Expo" coming up in May outside Flagstaff. Basically it's a convention for people who travel around adventuring in 4x4 vehicles or on off-road motorcycles that is held outdoors in a meadow somewhere between Flagstaff and the Mogollon Rim (no hotels nearby so bring a tent, but that shouldn't be a problem with the crowd they're catering to). Despite what people I meet out here seem to think I am far from the only person who does this sort of thing. Ewan McGregor famously rode around-the-world from London to New York (via Siberia) on a BMW R1150GS and followed it up with a ride from the top of Scotland to the bottom of Africa on a BMW R1200RS (with books and TV miniseries about both). Glen Heggerstad was famously abducted by Columbian guerrillas while trying to ride from the US to the tip of South America and after being released continued to ride around the world on a BMW F650GS. Tiffany Coates has been riding an old BMW R80GS around the world for years, so far accumulating over 200,000 miles on the odometer. The list goes on and on, there are many thousands of people having these sorts of adventures, I'm just convinced that the world is so large that it's rare for 2 of them to end up in the same place at the same time.

As for me, the sun was setting again and the campground in Oak Creek Canyon that I used last time was full (and boondocking is prohibited in the Sedona area) so I had to make a run to a less scenic venue far to the south of town. I considered setting up a tent owing to a skunk sighting on my way into the campground but in the end decided that setting up my sleeping bag atop the un-scalable heights of a picnic table would be sufficient. I didn't wake up with a skunk sitting on my chest so clearly the picnic-table as impenetrable-fortress theory is perfectly sound.

Tags: Red Roamer, Colorado Plateau