Dispersed Camping near the Chiricahua National Monument, Days 2-3

Tuesday, March 10

It rained on and off overnight, I found standing water along with rather soft ground around the campsite where small stones/gravel didn't provide reinforcement.  Not a good day to drive around the area!

The forecasted high of 48°F dictated the occasional use of the catalytic propane heater as well 

Also a good opportunity to see how Starlink usage during a heavily cloudy day.  Generator use, the small 2000 watt one, was required.  It needed the exercise anyways.

Turns out, my campsite is located near some interesting rocks:

Due to the rain, and muddy conditions on the trail, I spent the day at the campsite mostly in the RV staying warm.  I did determine, after two rounds of testing, then my house battery when that 95 amp hour charge can sustain start link for 3 hours and then it will be at 80 amp hours. 80 amp hours means there is about 40% left to the battery before it hits 50% of capacity because it's a flooded lead acid battery.

I also determined to charge it up with the small generator takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get it back to 95 amp hours.  Rainy days are generator days if one wants to you Starlink with my setup. 

Wednesday, March 11

I discovered late yesterday evening that the rear tire appears to have a leak as well on its in their tube. Damn it! 

This morning I use the remaining amount of slime, roughly 8 oz, and inserted it into the rear tire's inner tube.  At first it did not seem to seal at all, but after about 3 mi of riding after filling it to 20 psi it seems to be holding! 

And then I went on a 18 mi round trip ride up and down FR road 42 and the pressure held in the inner tube on the rear tire!  That's the good news, the bad news is there stretches on FR-42 that are quite muddy for now, it's supposed to be sunny for the next couple of days so maybe things will dry out. It's all doable via the TW but I have to go slow on the muddy bits.  I hate mud, more than deep sand.

Part of the test riding involved riding up to the top of Downing Pass which is on FR Road 42C.  The road is twisty and rough so not something for the RV to negotiate. 

Notes for this area:

Canyon walls preclude/delay sunshine in the early morning and afternoon 

No cell signal

Cool in the shade when sunshine is good.  Probably great in summer due to shade and altitude but not great in winter when sunshine not available.

Dispersed Camping near the Chiricahua National Monument

I discovered yesterday that the front tire on Yogi, my TW200, had developed a slow leak. 

So this morning after breaking camp, I drove the 28 miles or so to the town of Safford and the location of Maverick powersports.  Mostly a OHV dealer but they did offer motorcycle tire repair as well. 

Luckily I had been traveling the last couple of years or so with spare inner tubes for both the front and rear tires on the TW200.  I unloaded the motorcycle there, handed it over the inner tube and left for a grocery run while they worked on it. 

Groceries purchased, I return to Maverick Motorsports and in a few minutes had possesion again of Yagi for the princely sum of $68.  Not bad at all, I am really past the point of wrestling with tires and changing inner tubes on the road! 

I also purchased a bottle of slime that's supposedly might prevent future flats due to punctures on the front tire: 

Then there was a 90 minute drive down to the Chiricahua National Monument area where I found some dispersed camping sites along FR 42 aka Pinery Canyon Road.  I went quite a ways past and uphill of the site I ended up on, having to turn around twice on narrow mountain roads when things get a little sketchy for the RV.  I really should have parked the RV somewhere, and use the motorcycle for reconnaissance but nope. 

All of the campsites that I spotted are very shady and we are at pretty high altitude for Arizona, the site being at 5491 ft.   To give you an idea, how well dunes it's at 3400 ft so a bit of an altitude gain. 

I am camping in the Coronado National Forest, and for a change of pace in Arizona, it actually has trees!  In fact it's shadier than I like since I had to keep moving the solar panels around there in order to catch the sun. Perhaps I will change my mind about this once the warming trend returns after tomorrow's forecasted cold snap.

I'd say about 80% of the sites I spotted we're already occupied when I showed up. 

Warm Days at Hot Well Dunes

Wednesday, March 04

 I am not doing much of anything, not even doing a lot of soaking in the hot tubs for which this r inecreation area is known. 

I've never seen the area so full of campers.   

The skoolie/rainbow family group I mentioned in the previous post is still here, they somehow managed to talk their way into being allowed to stay I guess. Disappointing but not surprising.  More of their ilk have appeared as well, crowding more into the area near the hot tubs. 

Here's yesterday's sunrise:

I spent the day hanging out at the campsite, venturing out after 4:00 p.m. for a brief ride into the dunes with Yagi, for the golden hour lighting. 

Sunset was pretty good too:

Thursday, March 05

Another lazy day at the campsite. The good news is the rainbow family bunch are gone.

I rode out after 5PM to check on current population, still at least 3/4 full I think.  

Here's Yagi on the back side of the high dunes, with a view of Javeline Peak as the Golden Hour was in progress:

Returning past the campsite areas, I motored about trying to cate the small pond that forms due to the drainage of the hot tubs upstream.  Had some difficulty finding it and Yagi's front wheel was feeling "heavy".

Finally found the dried up pond, no water, just barely dry mud surface which of course I didn't ride anywhere near of!

Trying to find my way back, I got slightly mis-orientated, shall we say.  Ended up in some deep, sandy and curvy whoop-de-dos which weren't much fun on two wheels.  Deep sand is quite challenging and Yagi's heavy front wheel didn't help.

I ended up dropping her twice, the second time the repeated impacts on her right hand hand guard twisted it.  This meant the throttle grip didn't turn easily and of course didn't return to idle by itself.  It was pressure from the hand guard you see.

Still, my conscious twisting of the throttle back and forth, I got back to camp with no issues.  Once I was off the motorcycle, I noticed the flag pole was broken off, probably during the fall.  doh 

Friday, March 06

I spent some of the morning untwisting the right hand guard to allow the brake lever free movement along with the throttle grip.  

That squared away, I rode over to the scene of the fall and there was the rest of the flagpole and flag.  I stuck the fallen remnant onto the saddlebag, you'll note it's much shorter.

Got back to camp and reattached one of the two flagpole segments back onto the flag pole:

Not as tall as before to be sure.  To be clear it was probably too tall before, since it was a pole that I repurposed from the standby tent that I carry in the RV.  I think this current setup will work just fine. 

It's supposed to be cooling down today, and the breeze does bring a slight chill to one when in the shade, but out in the sun it feels just fine! 

Oh, and the heavy feel of the front wheel on Yagi, it turned out that there was no measurable air pressure in it!  I thought I had aired it down to 5 PSI to deal with the loose sand around here but I guess I went too low.  Aired it up to 5 PSI and all is good for now.

Back at Hot Well Dunes Rec Area

Here's yesterday's sunset in the BANWR, pretty good:

Today, I left at 8:20 a.m. and by 1:00 p.m. I had dumped tanks, filled up the freshwater tank in Willcox, AZ and set up a campsite in the Hot Well Dunes recreation area.

The place is almost full, I think there were only  two more designated camping sites remaining.  Not that designated sites are adhered to by some of the other rigs I saw close to the around the hot tubs about a half mile down the road.

As the golden hour developed, I rode Yagi to the overlook area at the edge of the dunes with Javelina Peak in the background:

3.5x digital zoom shot, can you spot Yagi?

Riding back to the campsite, I saw a BLM ranger truck coming my way so I parked on the side of the road to let him through. As I waved at the ranger as he passed me by, I was surprised to see two other ranger vehicles following close behind.  Interesting.

The rangers headed to the sketchy looking skoolie rig I had seen parked near the hot tub area on the way to taking the above pictures. I watched the rangers walk up to the people who owned the skoolie and they talked for a while. 

The rec area's site host came up to me as I was watching and we talked for a bit. It was him that had called in the rangers. About 3 hours prior, the site host had to talk to the people belonging to the skoolie.

They were apparently not behaving themselves, bringing their dogs into the hot tubs, and basically telling the site host they didn't have to listen to him and that they could do whatever they wanted to.  The site host ended up shutting down the pumps for the hot tubs way ahead of schedule, and he was there now to clean up each hot tub due to dogs having been in them. 

People like this is why we can't have nice things. Also, I would think it's not good to put an animal inside a hot tub?

Anyways, the host assured me that the skoolie people would be going in the morning, they were apparently part of the rainbow family of the light group.  I had to look them up, basically new age hippies the way I understood it. 

So besides that mild unpleasantness, all is well otherwise here. I'll be here a few days as I work my way back to Colorado. 

Altitude:3409 ft

High temperature: 89°F.