Phantom Milk Shake

Day 54 • April 24, 2012 • ??? to Jacob Lake, AZ •  25 miles

As we were preparing to begin our 3000 foot climb to Jacob Lake, Matej rolled up and stopped to chat.  He’d already completed our ride from yesterday and was on his way to riding well past our destination for today.  He had a month or so remaining on his trip and was still planning to make New York with many stops along the way.  We have over three months allotted for about the same trip.  He was travelling light and moving pretty fast when he rode away, I’m guessing he’ll make it.

For our part, we crawled up to Jacobs Lake and weren’t too interested in going any further, even downhill.  We made it in time to seek out the inn that serves the milk shakes we’d heard so much about, only to learn they were out of ice cream.  We were incredulous.  In fact they were out of a lot of things—it was very early in the season and the north rim of the Grand Canyon was still closed for winter.  We knew the north rim was closed, one step ahead of a couple on motorcycles who rode a long way expecting to see it, but no milk shakes?  A bummer and an omen.  We found a nice spot off of a forest service road and set up camp with Rob who joined us with his car.