[R-G] Additional Note on Sycamore Trek -- and also North Carolina

[Hunter Gray]

Naturally, I've read these very well intentioned comments with considerable interest, and appreciation.

You are right, Beba, I have always said that I have to do it myself. I'm not even sure that it's cricket to take a cell phone along -- and it probably wouldn't even be able to connect from 'way down there in the Canyon's inner gorge. And Sam is right: cats aren't noted for in-unison solidarity. The only time our three here would work together would be if a strange dog came barking at the door. And then they'd be a Union, for that moment in history.

When, more than a half century ago, I went down into the Canyon [and then all the way through it], I descended at what was mostly, after several "stair-step" levels intermixed with steep slopes, a sharply steep and sometimes almost straight-down track. Took the better part of a day. There is another entrance possibility. That would involve going to one of the head tributaries at the very beginning of what quickly becomes Sycamore Canyon. To do that, we'd go west of Flag toward Williams but, well before we got to that town, we'd turn off south to what's vaguely called Garland Prairie. In that setting, several small canyons begin which, going southward, forthwith grow much larger and deeper, joining together, and very soon, especially after Volunteer Canyon enters the picture from the east, becoming the Great Canyon in all of its glory and challenge. And all of that rolls southward for many, many challenging miles until it finally enters the Verde Valley.

In any case, we never give up.

And we are very proud of North Carolina tonight. Beba, of course, was born at Raleigh. I worked several hours away within our multi-county Northeastern Black Belt Project, often getting home only infrequently. When we began in the Black Belt, it was well nigh impossible for Blacks and Indians to even try to register to vote in that region -- let alone actually vote. Thanks to what became thousands of people in that wild but well organized crusade, and despite every kind of opposition, all of that and much more of the old order changed, and changed damn fast. Nice to feel we all had a small part in the welcome victory tonight.

See Black Belt Thunder
http://hunterbear.org/NORTH%20CAROLINA_OUR%20SUCCESSFUL%20BLACK%20BELT%20MOVEMENT.htm

And again: We never give up. And Sycamore Canyon remains a primary goal.

All best,

H.

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'

Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm
[The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm

SEE MY COMBINED COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PIECES -- WITH MUCH NEW STUFF
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm

With "fire season" looming, see http://hunterbear.org/forest_fires_in_the_west.htm
And see Forces and Faces Along the Activist Trail: 
http://hunterbear.org/forces_and_faces_along_the_trail.htm