Grand Canyon - North Rim - Locust Point

Grand Canyon North Rim - Locust Point

Miles round trip: 40

Riders: 10

Day 1

After our exciting morning with the mountain lion we headed back to the house to do the final packing of the "Subie" for the trip to the Grand Canyon. We head out at noon and plan on being up at Jacob Lake in 3-4 hours. We stop in Flagstaff for lunch because Brooke had a hankering for some Arby's. After that we headed up 89 into Navajo country. We turn off 89 and go past The Vermillion Cliffs just outside The Grand Canyon.

We are supposed to meet Toby and Katrina at the Kaibab Lodge located about 30 miles south of Jacob Lake and then head out to Locust Point together. We are unable to reach them since cell service in the area is lacking. We stop and hang out, decide to have have some dinner at the Lodge and wait. While waiting to be seated we head back outside to the car and was frightened at what we saw. Picture this................a big 4 door lifted Ford Powerstroke truck with a "manly bow hunter" inside with some Real Tree camouflage on..........music blasting............ singing along to .....................Cher............................... and screaming "are you strong enough, are you strong enough"? WTF..............? He sees us see him and he just turns his head and continues to sing along. I'm sure if his other hunter friends were to see this, they would try to draw tags for him. After chuckling to ourselves we head back in and have some hamburgers and drinks. It's 6pm and we say "screw it" and head out solo into the back country to find our camp spot while there is some daylight left.

We get to Locust Point and nobody is there. Someone is in the spot where all the magical stories happened that everyone tells us about years before. With little to choose from, we have to take the better of the 2 spots left. We set up camp and wait. And wait. And wait. We head out for a stroll after putting up the "Thunder Dome- we head to the campsite that now holds 2 campers from Marble Canyon, Cher and Michelle (not to be confused with Cher the singer and the song "strong enough"). We introduce ourselves and start chatting it up to make the time pass quicker as we wait for Toby, Katrina and the others.

About 45 minutes later we see the fire road light up as if it were daytime. It was Dan in his Powerstroke with KC lights ablaze with Gear Box in tow. I flag him down, they stop, Dan, Ty, Matt and Mike proceed to exit the vehicle and overtake the campsite held hostage by the 2 ladies. We BS for a while, then we hear an exhaust with VW notes exiting the back. It's Toby and Kat, they ended up going into the North Rim and biking out to Sublime Point and had some showers and grub. Meanwhile, Dan keeps hinting to Cher and Michelle to let us stay at the campsite where "folklore is created", but they ain't buyin".

We depart and head down to our stake of wilderness. They approve, but Dan can't back his monstrosity up into the spot with out clearing a big dead tree limb that resides 15 feet in the air. The plan is to throw a rope around it and have Dan, Matt, Ty and I pull as hard as we can until we bust it off. It works, but we still need to bust off about 4 feet more for good measure. Dan tosses the rope up again, Dan and I pull on it, and I give it the "ol' college try" and send myself crashing to the ground with the remainder of the limb as well. That's what I bring to the table, power! Everyone gets a good chuckle, Gear Box parked, time 11pm, they unload and BS some more and tell us about the 2 days they spent in Utah before coming down to meet us. We head to bed so we can get up to ride in the AM.

At about 5:30 in the morning we were awakened by a gunshot that was close. Hunting is still going and we are not inside the Park boundaries. We wake up and hear a car roll into our digs about 8am. Is it Micki? We get up and stroll out to the front and we see the HyHi. She made it, along with Josh. Micki came up secretly to surprise the rest of the bunch. She hasn't ridden solo since her fateful day in Flagstaff. Since the ride is mellow, this will be a good gauge to see how her progress with PT is coming. We have some of that good oatmeal with protein powder and berries, I of course put in some peanut butter and honey to give me some extra calories for the ride. We chat it up and get our bikes ready to go and wait. And wait. And wait. This is strange for 2 reasons, 1) Dan is always the one to be up and ready to go and lighting the fire under us to get going, and 2) nobody else seems to be in that big of a hurry either, but something has to happen or we're going to get lazy and want to take a nap.(that would be Brooke) Toby begins to unload his bike from the car and notices that the sidewall on his rear tubeless tire was blown out.........that was the gunshot we heard earlier! WTF! Here is a pic of the damage below. TOAST!! I happen to have another used spare Tubeless tire for him to borrow and he accepts. Luckily the rear is a 26" and not a 29", cause he's got one of those "wacky 69er bikes." I instruct Toby on how to change out his rear tire and seat the replacement on and inflate to 45psi so it makes a good bead. I tell him to make sure he lets out some air to the correct psi ( about 32-35 for tubeless) before riding. He complies. We get a late start and head out about 11:30.

We get a group photo and head out on the Southern trail that leads to Timp Point and then on to Two Springs Ridge. This is a more mellow ride so we all can get used to the elevation (9700') and take in the scenery. We get to Timp Point and hear a hissing sound. We look down and it's Toby's front tire. Oh crap! The day before he picked something up in the FRONT tire while riding out to Sublime Point. He just left it in there and forgot about it til' now!........................ Fail! This is us all fixing the tire, Toby hadn't changed his sealant in a while and it was dried up and unable to seal the hole.

While us "guys" are taking care of the "mechanical", the ladies are doing what they do best. . With a little help from everyone we were able to seat the bead of the tire on the rim after I injected some fresh sealant I carry with me. It takes a bit with a hand pump but is very doable. Again, I had to bring the POWER and put in the "pumping action" just like Schwartzenegger into overdrive and seat the damn thing. After we did that, we were getting ready to flip the bike over and noticed that the rear tire had a large bubble in it and the tread was separating.....remember the part where I said to " let some air out", it didn't happen. Needless to say, Toby was headed back to camp, there is no fix for a 2nd blown tire out on the trail. We head out, Toby dismayed. Micki had some discomfort but was a trooper and carried on. Another mile or so and she turned back, she didn't want to push it to hard and was wise to do so. We get to Two Spring and have some snacks and take a breather.

By the time we made it back to camp it was about 2:30 and the heat of the day(85). We have some lunch and chow down. We spend the rest of the day talking, taking naps and lounging around camp. That was nice to just sit and relax. Dinner time came at about 6pm and everyone broke out the goods. Dan went all out, as he always does, and had horsdeovres, crackers and made drinks for just about everyone. Ty and I even drank the drinks no one else wanted. Bellies full and half way to "plowed-ville" for some, and for Josh, well, he just wanted to eat everyone else's food and drinks. You would of thought he was Dan's little brother or somethin',  the way he was helpin' himself to stuff around camp. Just help yourself Josh! Geeeez!! Poor kid was starving.................... or had a tape worm, something! With fire burning and things kind of at a stand still, Ty decides to jump the bonfire at camp............................... on the Pivot "Firebird", how trivial.

 Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, Ty made several successful ventures launching into the black sky with a fiery blaze below. Then it got outta control, he had some more "liquid courage" and it got rediculous! Let's launch off of Dan's Gearbox ramp in the back........um......... hell yeah!   Matt drags a burning log out of the fire and puts it in front of the ramp. "This is sooo not good enough", Dan says, "let's add some gasoline and make it more exciting."  With small cup in hand, he siphons some petrol out of the tank and lays in waiting for Ty to come roaring out of the trailer.   Only at the precise moment may Dan toss the excellerant onto the burning log for the ultimate fiery jump.

On the right is the aftermath of touching the fiery pot of "Satans Stew." Aaaahhh, the smell of burnt hair. There are several videos of Ty jumping the fire and off of the Gearbox, but the most best-est one is of him dancing with a lighted Frisbee on the back of said Gearbox and workin' it.   I will try to extort money from Ty with a threat of posting it on Youtube. You really gotta see it, if he does not comply with my demands, it will be posted ASAP.

After the "singeing" of Ty's hair on the last flight, we settled down to play some night Frisbee. These are special discs with LED's in them so they glow when tossed.  Dan had 2, we had 3, and there were 8 players. If you've never done it, it might seem kinda lame, but it really is a blast. The glowing discs getting hurled at you by the players attempting to locate you by calling you're name, then see if they can throw it accurately. Marco Polo of sorts. The game takes place for a couple of hours, players come and go, Frisbees burn out, and some need a break. Some players retire for the evening and some are hardcore and stick it out till the end.

After the weak retreat, only Dan, Matt, Micki, Mike and I remain with 2 discs left. We started to make things interesting. Dan says " I'm going to call out a word, and then you finish it, and you get the Frisbee". Ok, we all say....He yells....."Cock!!!!! " I say " sucker", I get the Frisbee....and it goes down hill from there. In the later stages we start out with an alphabet order (A-Z) of "cuss words" only to be followed by the same for "sex toys" from A-Z and then lastly, a fine selection of "sexually transmitted diseases" from A-Z. If you think that that isn't possible................then you my friend are dead wrong. It was hilarious, the stuff that was coming out of our mouths, oh my, like sailors, if you know what I mean. Our Captain was Micki and we were aboard the SS Pottymouth.  Minds bent from thinking and stomachs hurting from the amount of laughing, we call it a night and head for the campfire around 12pm. Good times, we all sit and chuckle about the things that were said, and  what could've been a far better words than the ones given. But hell, that was some funny shit. We all looked around at each other in total amazement if you will. Watching the fire die down and the morning coming sooner, we head for bed and wait for the the sun to rise.

Day 2 : Destination Parrisawampitts Point and South Big Saddle Point

This time everyone is up and about in the usual fashion. Bright eyed-bushy tailed, fed and gear ready to roll. Micki decides to not ride because her arm is a little sore and doesn't want to push it. She chooses to run instead. We broke from camp at about 10am which is still late, but better than the previous day. Today was a rather quick pace. This time the trail was winding right along the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Notice perfect hand placement for photo op. Genius! Parrisawampitts Point

You wanted to look, but you really couldn't. If you took your eyes off of the trail, that could be the end of your ride with sudden turns and loose corners. This trail was more up and down traversing than the day before, more like Prescott trails. We ended up and at "Big Saddle" and took a breather. But not for long, we all wanted to leave camp around 12:30-1pm so we could have plenty of relaxing time at home. We made it back to camp in a flashy, we said good bye to Micki and Josh, as they had the longer drive back to Scottsdale. The rest of us finished packing and left at about 1pm. We all gathered back up at Jacob Lake for some milkshakes and burgers. Mmmmmm, that hits the spot. Back at home, we were greeted by the girls, they were happy to see us return from another adventure. Their noses sniffing every little scent, telling them stories of where we had been and what we had done. Another good time mountain biking with great friends and good times shared by all.