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Day 6
The aim for today was simple, gather supplies and get to the Supai trailhead before sunset. Taking in some of Route 66 along the way.
Once we were stocked up with supplies in Ash Fork we finally joined the last remaining section of the world famous Rout 66!
Route 66 originally ran from Chicago to Los Angeles, passing through 8 states and the towns that it ran through flourished with the consistent traffic and business. Eventually almost the entire route was either widened and turned into freeway or bypassed completely. Either way leaving many of the towns to struggle or disappear. The last remaining 150 miles or so that have not been renamed runs from Ash Fork back West to Flagstaff passing a couple of towns along the way.
Our first stop was Seligman. Only a few minutes away from a freeway, Seligman has managed to survive being cut off by making its self a Route 66 tourist hotspot. Classic dinners, gas stations and bars line the streets and classic American cars sit there begging to get another change to drive 'The Mother Road'. It is easy to see why this town inspired the Disney movie 'Cars'. We stopped here for a couple of hours and enjoyed lunch there before continuing on towards Peach Springs (the town in Cars was Radiator Springs). I wished we were in some classic American muscle car rather than our Nissan, the well paved, straight and quiet roads were a drivers dream.
Just before Peach springs was the inconspicuous turning onto Indian Highway 18, the 62 Mile road leading to the Halloupai trailhead (the start of our hike to Supai).
With only one turning and nothing to see for 62 miles the hour or so drive felt like we were driving to the middle of nowhere, in some ways we were!
We arrived at the trailhead shortly before sunset but with a thunderstorm looming ominously on the other side of the canyon. We got talking to an American family who had arrived just before us and were equally as excited to finally make it to this beautiful, remote spot. Our excitement was halted when we learned that one group had returned from Supai that day but had lost a member of their party who had gone on ahead! The woman had now been missing for 5 hours and only had enough water for 4 so her friends were understandable worried. Using binoculars and camera zooms were scanned the distant landscape but no one could be seen. Eventually a weary figure was spotted on the switchbacks about 6 hours late. It turned out that she had missed the first turning, when she realised her mistake she turned around and headed back but then changed her mind again and spent the next few hours bouncing back and forth covering the wrong bit of canyon floor. Her friends took water down to her and helped her complete the walk, she looked a little shaken but was un harmed and only a little dehydrated.
While all of that was going on the storm had gotten much closer but seemed to stop at the far canyon edge. The Nights sky looked incredible with sunset to our right, thunderstorm to our left and the first stars slowly appearing in the clear sky behind us. The air was literally electric, my hair was standing tall as if someone was holding a statically charged balloon to my head. Eventually we chickened out and retired to our safe rubber tired car. We watched a film on the laptop while eating our tins of cold ravioli before reclining our seats to sleeping mode!
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