A Short Update & Misc Stuff...

It's been in the upper 90s for the past few days but the daily high temps seem to be sliding downward soon.  I will be staying in Quartzite until monday of next week, then I will be heading a few miles west to check out the camping at Ehrenberg. Ehrenberg is BLM land where you can camp without the 14 day limit so a lot of nomads overwinter here.  This will give me the opportunity to meet new people, share ideas, and make new friends.

I packed up today to make a trip into town for supplies.  I thought I might have to drive to Phoenix to find a store with a good choice of organic products but I went to Blythe CA instead and located a store named Albertsons right off the interstate.  It was great!  Lots of organic products of all kinds, and really good prices too.  So I'm happy... 😊

Police night visit...

The other night I was lying on the couch watching a video when two people in a 4 wheel ATV pulled into the camping area next to me.  They moved very slowly and had several large spotlights they were using to scan the area, including the van.

They pulled up near to the front of the van  shining lights in the windshield area, which is where my registration permit is supposed to be, and it was, so I got up and popped out the side doors to ask if there was s a problem.  

As soon as I stepped out a female police officer was right beside the front bumper of the van and another male officer coming up beside her.  She told me that I hadn't done anything wrong, (that I knew, at least not intentionally) but they were looking for a red astrovan with solar panels on top and wanted to know if I had seen it come by.

The way my van is situated I have a pretty good view of any passers by, but no astrovan.  They asked if I would call them if I saw it and I said I would.  I asked if I was supposed to call 911 or another number, the make officer said 911, and the female officer said all I had to do was mention the red astrovan and they would understand.  

I don't know what that person(s) did, but it must have been serious.  The officers spent several hours scouring all of the camping areas around me before they made there way back towards town.

The sound of my guitar and the birds...

The other morning I was inspired to get my old guitar out of its case and play.  I really enjoyed it.  I just picked and strummed with no particular song or melody in mind, I was just having fun.  But while I was playing I kept hearing birds singing nearby.  I hear birds occasionally, but not very often and when I move or make a noise they seem to disappear, so this was a bit unusual.

Pretty soon there were many singing birds in the trees nearby and they were very vocal.  I kept on playing, and they kept on singing.  After about 30 to 45 minutes my fingers were getting sore, haven't played for a while, so I stopped and within a few minutes the birds moved away and things were quiet again.  This wasn't my imagination, they seemed to be reacting to the sounds of the guitar.  I thought that was pretty interesting, I wonder what they heard.

Coyote...

I awoke this morning before dawn to the howl of a coyote nearby, really close.  It was too dark to make it out, but it was pretty cool to hear the details of the  howls being  so close by.  It's really beautiful.

Goodyear blimp...

As I pulled back into camp after my shopping excursion this afternoon, I noticed a blimp on the eastern horizon and it appeared to be heading my way.  So I grabbed the camera and snapped some shots as it passed by.  Goodyear, AZ is located just outside of Phoenix, and it's heavily populated with various Goodyear businesses and industries, so I imagine the blimp might be a fairly common sight.

My California jaunt...

Well it’s been another full week in Quartzite and it’s beginning to feel like home…

But…  the weather was holding up north so I thought I would maybe venture into California just to let Anastasia stretch her legs and to explore a bit.  So I headed north up to the tip of Nevada just outside of Las Vegas then west into California.  

I had located a camping spot called The Heart of the Mojave  that I could easily make in a day.  My fuel level was pretty good when I got to the border, and I was driving on a main interstate, so I thought there would be plenty of stations along the way to refuel, but I was wrong.  As I made my way towards camp, the fuel gauge was getting a little below my comfort level so I started looking for a station.  I hadn’t seen one for over an hour, and the sign I was approaching was telling me this was the last exit for any services for another hour or so.  I exited and started looking around and I finally spotted a little place with big yellow letters saying GAS.  Yay!

This place was on the old Route 66, and it was a tourist trap basically.  There were all kinds of people wandering around inside and out with their fanny packs and backpacks, speaking different languages, and one slightly flustered american woman trying to herd them in the proper direction.  I pulled up to one of the pumps, they were all pretty much vacant to my surprise, until I saw the price, $4.99 a gallon for regular.  And, the pumps were not setup for credit cards, so you had to go inside and pay first.  Well, I bit the bullet and bought enough to make me feel comfortable with the fuel level.  I have to learn to take pictures of these places and people.  The lady behind the counter who took me, I mean took my payment for the fuel, looked and sounded like an old gypsy woman.  She was barking prices at other customers, happy as could be, took my money, no shame, no guilt, just a gleam in her eye…

I got back on the road and made it to the campsite right as the sun was setting.  It was just off the expressway, and a few minutes down a two lane road.  When I turned off the road the camping areas were on the left.  It was kind of small, but nice.  I quickly found a level spot to park and settled in for the night.

The next morning I got a good look at the place, but I didn’t want to stay.  Don’t get me wrong, this was a really good spot to stop for the night, but not the kind of place I would want to setup for a week or so.  Nice views, the possibility of seeing some big horn sheep, sandy terrain, good weather, and the road that runs by it was pretty quiet so that wasn’t a problem, but it just didn’t feel very secluded and there was a lot of broken glass everywhere.  I usually try to pick up trash and glass when I find it, but this would have taken a week.  So, I started searching for another place to go, with the criteria that I also needed to be near a reasonably priced gas station.

I downloaded an app called Gas Buddy that helped me to find a place to fuel up about 30 miles away in a town called Twentynine Palms and there were several potential camping areas nearby, so I packed up and headed out.   The two lane road was fairly busy and most of the shoulders were soft sand so I didn’t stop to take photos.  But along the way the mountains opened up into this huge valley, mostly flat and barren land, but you could tell it was some sort of facility or manufacturing area.  I ended up driving right through the middle of it and the sign I saw at one point said something to the effect that it was a desert environment research facility.  On one side of the road the landscape was dusted, coated, spray_ed(?), with a black powder-like material, and on the other side it too was coated but with a white material that looked like snow.   There were also several places that had long deep trenches with beautiful blue water in them, and I did manage to snap a shot from the van, but no idea why they were there or what purpose they served.

This little two lane road has some of the best views.  The shoulders of the road were soft but at some point I started running into emergency phones on the side of the road and they usually had a solid shoulder to pull off so I managed to get a lot of good shots.I tried to see if I could find out anything about it once I reached Twentynine Palms, but didn’t find any info online.

Twentynine Palms…

This was a nice little town, but I figured out pretty quickly that it was a military town and I stood out like a sore thumb.  I stopped to fuel up and see what areas I could find in the area to camp.  Both on the way into town and leaving town, the land was basically desert but with a hodge podge of old dilapidated buildings, sheds, mobile homes, and they seem to be scattered across the landscape with no real rhyme or reason.

And here’s another short video that I took on the way back to Quartzite after leaving Twentynine Palms kind of a video summary of what I mentioned above.  

The one thing I didn’t mention in the video was that when I looked into the available dispersed camping areas around me there was this persistent attitude that I noticed in the user comments section on several of the reviews.  It seems that nomads, people who live in their vehicles, aren’t well accepted in that area.  Some commented about ‘low-level’ or ‘low-life’ RVers, and others used phrases like ‘druggies living in cars’.  The prejudices of society has no state boundaries, it just changes with the landscape it seems.


Well I made it back to Quartzite, but I enjoyed my exploration...

Coconino National Forest…

Coconino National Forest…

I found this camping spot with one of the apps I use and it really was nice.  It was only about 15 miles outside of Flagstaff and right on the expressway so I had an excellent cell signal.  I never heard the traffic and I only had a short jaunt back to Flagstaff for supplies.  It was nice!

This was a very peaceful place at about 7000 foot elevation and the weather was great.  Usually highs in the low to mid 70s, and lows in the high 40s to low 50s.  Sunny, not too windy, and lots of trees which I needed at the time.  I have an affinity for trees, they comfort me…

 

The Hoku knife I made back in the Bread Rock Recreational area still needed one more thing to be finished, and that was some pine tar pitch to glue the flint to the handle.  I finally found enough pitch on one downed pine tree to mix some up, so I was able to get that done while I was there.  I explored a lot, trying to identify the plant life, and other than some cows that were let into the area to graze on the last couple of days I was there, I didn’t see much wildlife.  I did see squirrels, but I could never catch them in a photo.  So the photo below is from a Google search.  Their tails are so large with feathery plumes of white, very beautiful.

I was there for 5 days or so, and I had planned on staying longer since it was so close to town and supplies, but the temperatures at night were falling into the 30s ahead of schedule, so I opted to pack up and find a warmer place.  I was basically heading back south towards Quartzite, AZ, but I kept an eye out for other sites on the way, I do like to explore other places. 

I found some BLM land outside of Quartzite that I looked into called Saddle Mountain.  It was okay, but there was a manufacturing plant a few miles away that was intruding into my landscape view and I couldn’t find a place where it wasn’t looming on the horizon, so I didn’t stay.

I have now been back in Quartzite AZ for the past week.  This was a good test of my resources and to experience extended life in an unfamiliar environment, but I needed to get supplies so I spent most of Friday looking for food. 

Like I said in the video, that's been a bit of a problem, locating organic foods in my area.  I drove north to Parker, AZ. because Google Maps said  there was a store up there that had organic food and supplies, and it was only about 45 minutes away.  The store was small, but chocked full and a really nice place, but I went down every isle and was only able to find a few things on my list. 

Thinking now I am probably going to have to make a longer trip to Phoenix, and the only other major store in the area was a Walmart, I opted to check out the Walmart.  To my surprise, I actually found everything else I needed at Wally World, who'd a thunk it...

When I got back to Quartzite I stopped and topped off my propane tank, I've been using the cook stove for months now, even used it some before I left E-town, and it cost me less than five bucks to top it off.  Very pleased.  I used about 10-15 gallons of water in the past week so I filled the water jugs back up and put a few more gallons in the solar shower bag all for only a couple of dollars. Again, very pleased. 

My food supply was also okay, I was just getting low on things like bread, cheese, eggs, lunch meat, and coconut milk, but the food I had held up really well.  I ate good meals and my supplies lasted well.

I tried to time my trip back down to Quartzite with the changes in the daily high temperatures.  According to the weather services it was beginning to cool down about this time to where you have 80s during the day and 50s at night.  So far, except for a couple of days, that’s where it’s been.  Sunny, clear skies, no precip, and cool nights.  I had a low of 42 the night before I made the video, and that’s good sleeping weather.

I’ve been walking and exploring a lot and also taking a lot of pictures, mostly of plants, landscapes, and anything I found interesting.  I will say that I am learning more about the eco-system, mostly through experience, like these tiny little cacti that grow all over this place. 

As you can see they are really pretty small and difficult to see because of their color, they fade right into the background, but if you step on one or even just brush one, you’ll know it.  The thorns are needle sharp and tough.  They will get your ankles too.  I have pulled many of them out of the sole of my shoe, some of them made it all the way through. 

Oh, and my tip of the day.  Never slip into another pair of shorts while you still have your shoes on, especially if there are tiny hidden thorns stuck to the sides of your shoes.  They miraculoussly relocate to all sorts of sticky positions in your shorts.  Just sayin’…

Here’s an interesting plant called a creosote bush, I loved the striping on the limbs, and they have a faint scent of creosote.  They hold their green leaves very well without rain, and they have these small yellow blossoms that mature into little white seed puffs.  It’s a good medicinal plant too.  The leaves can be used as an antiseptic as well as made into tea for other medicinal purposes.  It is very hardy and can go for up to 2 years without water.

And here’s an old downed tree trunk I found while exploring one day, I could just sit and stare at all the intricacies for hours, amazing…

Last but not least here is a wonderful specimen of the Saguaro cactus I found on one of my hikes.  I also learned something I didn’t know, that the first ‘arm’ of a Saguaro cactus does not appear until they are at least 60 years old.  So, this one has had a pretty good long life thus far.

So that’s where I’m at right now, but I plan on moving to Ehrenburg in a few weeks to check it out, there’s some BLM land there where you can stay as long as you want, so it might be where I stay for most of the winter.  So, I may not be posting very often until I get back on the road traveling in the Spring…

October 10, Quartzite, AZ...

End of September travels...

Well...  I left the Cabello Lake campground in NM pretty earl y in the morning.  I think I was there for about 3 days and two nights.  The night before I left there was a thunder storm that hit a little farther north, near Truth or Consequences and I got to watch the storm clouds build through the afternoon and enjoyed the lightning show that night.  I took several picture s of the storm and clouds, but the two pics below are m y absolute favorites, I had to share them...

So I pulled out of the campground and and headed north to check out a couple of dispersed camping sites but mostly just to see what was there.  I stopped off at the Bosque Apache National Wildlife Refuge area out of curiosity and the sunlight was really emphasizing the colors of the foliage in the fields.  I didn't take the whole tour but from what little I saw it was worth the stop...

I found a library about 35 miles north and updated my blog then I checked out several of the camping sites that I had in mind but nothing seemed to suit, and I didn't want to go too far north so I did a turnabout and headed back south and toward Arizona again.  I had made the decision already that I didn't care for NM that much, beautiful country , good people, but where I was any way , there were so man y military installations and operations that I just wasn't comfortable there.  Example, I was traveling one highway a little off the beaten path and ran up on a sign that said the road ma y be closed from time to time during missile testing...  No, not m y kind of place...

Funny thing happened when I got down close to the Mexico border.  I picked up interstate 10 headed west at Las Cruces NM and just a few miles up the road there were these huge flashing yellow lights with big signs telling drivers to slow down, the border patrol was just ahead, be prepared to stop.

M y immediate thought was that I had taken a wrong turn and accidentally headed for the Mexican border.  Okay I thought, should I turn around?  I was desperately trying to get my Google Maps to come up and find out where I was but it was too late, they were stopping all vehicles and turning around at that point would have probably caused me a lot of trouble.  So I waited in line as this large Mexican uniformed officer spent time talking to man y of the drivers ahead of me before he let them go.

Here I am in a big white maxi van, perfect for hauling immigrants across the border, so I'm expecting a major search at this point, but when I pulled up to the officer with m y window down, he barely acknowledged my existence only motioning me on past...  Whew...

I traveled most of the day and I was getting kind of tired so I started looking for a place to stay for the night.  After a few more unfruitful searches I ran up on this place called Indian Bread Rocks campground outside of Bowie AZ.  It's a primitive area with a limited number of sites and it was pretty close to the expressway so I figured I would have cell signal but it would still be secluded enough to get away from the cit y.

There was only one other camper parked up by the restroom when I got there.  I drove further on down the road but the road got really rough, 4X4 territory , so I managed to turn around and get back out, backing into a small area on the other side of the camping area from the restrooms.  I had a great view, there was a spreading mesquite tree right out my side door which blocked me from the neighbor and I got setup.

This place was pretty quiet most of the time and I enjoyed my stay .  I did a bit of wood carving and flint knapping the first morning I was there, making a simple Hopi knife, everything came from the surrounding area except the flint, which I keep a supply of for various projects.

I think I was there for a couple of day s before deciding to head out.  As I was leaving I took a closer look at what I thought was an orchard but I couldn't seem to identify the trees.  They had fruit hanging in clusters on the trees so I pulled off the side of the road and walked over to see what they were.  I still didn't recognize them, they had funny shaped fruits, clustered like grapes and probably the size of medium strawberries.  The picture is a little fuzzy and the light wasn't good, but you can see the clusters of fruit on the tree, and the next pic just shows one of the orchards, there were many orchards with trees at different ages and stages of development.  What keyed me in to what the fruits were was a street in-between two orchards and it was labeled 'Pistachio Road'...  I have never seen a pistachio tree before, nor what the fruits look like, so I Googled them just to make sure and yep, that's what they were.

Next I headed kind of north west, heading basically in the direction of Flagstaff AZ.  Google maps... yep, I have a relationship with this woman, and most of the time it's challenging, she told me to take this highway that was shorter.  Not that I was in a rush, but I did want to drive different roads back toward Flagstaff, just for the heck of it.

So I took the bait.  Oh man...  this is a beautiful stretch of highway, bu t the steep inclines and the winding two lane roads right next to the mountain bluffs, it was an adventure for sure.  I stopped at one overlook to snap a few photos...

This one you can see that there are no guardrails, no fences, I just walked out as far as I dared to take the photos, but there was nothing but a straight drop below me and it did make me a bit uncomfortable...

Below are just a couple more I snapped while I was there, the sun wasn't in a good position, but the views are just spectacular...

And the one below if you look carefully you can see the highway and vehicles winding their way through the mountains...

As I made my way into the Flagstaff area, I was looking for a camping sites to spend the night.  I wanted to be out of town enough to avoid the weekend warrior crowds, and I came up on this dispersed camping area in the Coconino National Forest.  There wasn't any other campers around, but there was a public firing range about 4 miles further down the road,  so I veered off on a dirt side road and found this nice quiet area to camp.  I couldn't go an y farther back because the roads at that point were only passable with a 4X4.

As I got out and wandered around the area I found lots of fresh moose tracks and skat (moose poo).  In fact the photos of the hoof prints below were taken 10 feet from the van, and the skat I found was about 15 yards behind me.  I also found two sun-bleached animal carcasses in the field behind me, so I included a picture of one of them, aren't you happy, but the only moose I actually saw was one that was crossing the road ahead of me while I was driving, making my way back to the highway.  I couldn't get my camera out quick enough before he disappeared, so no pic...

That night I heard the usual coyote howls in the distance, and not much else, but in the morning I awoke to the strangely soothing sound of moose mating calls.  It kind of sounded like whales on the ocean, and I have to admit, that was pretty cool.  I stayed there a couple of nights and managed to get a lot done on the van.  The weather for the most part was cooler than southern AZ, I think I was at about 6000 feet elevation, so the winds blew strong and gusty most of the time when the sun was up with 70's during the day and 40's at night.  Good sleeping weather..

I'm now in another part of the Coconino forest south of Flagstaff, I'll update the blog the next chance I get...