Dispersed Camping in Flagstaff

This past weekend, I decided to take a camping trip up North in Flagstaff.

The drive up to Flagstaff was rather interesting, considering the person I went with got a speeding ticket going 92 mph. Apparently anything over 85 in the state of Arizona is considered a criminal defense and results in a stay at the local jail.

Luckily…she didn’t get hauled away and the cop was nice enough to knock it down to a civil ticket which just resulted in a fine.

After that whole thing, the tricky part became trying to find a campground with open spots. We didn’t get to Sedona until around 6 and a lot of people were already camping. Not good…

So what did we end up doing? We decided to give dispersed camping a try. Basically we just drove down a random forest road outside of Flagstaff city limits and looked for an open campsite in the woods. We managed to find one about a mile in off the main road that had a fire ring and everything already there.

So we set up camp there, about a mile from any other campsites. At first I was little nervous about the whole idea since there are a lot of things in the woods. Bears and Elk to name a few.

So it finally got dark the first night and we decided to hop in the tent and call it a night. All I can say is damn, the ground sure is hard. My back will never be the same after sleeping in that tent for two nights.

And if that wasn’t enough, both mornings around 4 AM the Elk decided to just start making random grunting noises throughout the woods. A few times, I actually heard the elk walking near our tent.

So the second night, instead of slamming Blue Moon’s all night, we decided to get some liquor and get really drunk. We figured that would make the awkward forest sounds, cold-ass weather, and hard ground a tad more bearable. Here is where Sailor Jerry comes into the story.

If you don’t know him, Sailor Jerry is a man that will take away everything from you and and leave you with nothing more than an awkward morning and a migraine headache. It just so happens to be 92 proof rum and that extra proof really catches up with you.

Sunday morning was an ass kicking and I was hurting big time. My head was pounding and I felt like the world was spinning in different directions. It is time to take a break from the booze once again.

So yeah, camping was definitely a nice experience, except for the dozen hot dogs, s’mores, and beers I ended up drinking. It really reminds us how many things we take for granted in our normal daily rituals like taking a shower and sleeping in a bed.

I may have gotten the best sleep ever last night, thanks to my nice bed